Current Status and Development Prospects of Vacuum Valve Standards

1、 Development of Vacuum Valves Abroad

The countries with advanced vacuum valve technology in the world mainly include Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, etc. From the early 20th century to the present, the varieties and specifications of vacuum valves in these countries have developed rapidly. Major vacuum equipment manufacturers in the world, such as Baldrick&Zeiss, Leopold Hellas, Western European Nuclear Center, and German Institute of Electronic Synchrotron, are professional manufacturers of vacuum valves that can develop various types of vacuum valves according to international standards.

Currently, among various vacuum systems abroad, vacuum plug valves are widely used due to their maximum conductivity, simple structure, and reliable performance. Due to the complex structure, short lifespan, and poor performance reliability of all metal sealed gate valves, their application range is limited. Therefore, unless all metal valves are used to ensure the performance requirements of the entire vacuum system, usually fluorine rubber sealed plug-in valves are used. For example, vacuum coating machines, ion implantation machines, various surface physics testing instruments, and large accelerators all use fluororubber sealed plug-in valves as the main valves. In addition, another characteristic of vacuum valves used abroad is that the main driving forms are manual, pneumatic, and electric, with the pneumatic form being the most widely used.

2、 Development of Vacuum Valves in China

The well-known domestic vacuum valve manufacturers are Ningbo Instrument Valve Factory, which has a history of over 60 years in vacuum valve manufacturing. The vacuum valves produced include vacuum plug valves, vacuum baffle valves, vacuum ball valves, vacuum butterfly valves, vacuum inflation valves, vacuum differential pressure valves, vacuum solenoid valves, vacuum diaphragm valves, vacuum fine adjustment valves, etc. There are over 30 varieties and 400+models, which can fully meet the needs of various enterprise customers, The technological level has reached a level comparable to that of foreign countries, and has been widely applied in fields such as electronics, semiconductors, integrated circuits, vacuum measurement, leak detection, ion beams, electron beams, lasers, controllable thermonuclear reactions, and aerospace. These valves have advanced performance, stable and reliable operation, ensuring the normal operation of these devices, marking the high technical level of vacuum valves in China.

3、 Development prospects

In the future, the development of vacuum valves should pay attention to the following issues.

1. Attention should be paid to the issue of updating and upgrading vacuum valves. If early vacuum valves were found to have complex structures and inconvenient operations, which would cause inconvenience to the operation of vacuum devices, we hope to replace them with vacuum valves of similar specifications. Early manual vacuum valves can be replaced with electric or pneumatic vacuum valves to achieve automated operation of the vacuum system.

2. Energy conservation requires strengthening the research and development of energy-saving valves. Develop a new energy-saving vacuum valve using a combination of new sealing materials and electromagnetic driving principles.

3. The research and development of a large hand and electric dual purpose high ultra-high vacuum plug valve for enhancing the vacuum performance. Currently, there are several types of valves produced in China, including CC type (manual), CCD type (electric), CCQ type, etc. However, valves with diameters above DN500 are weak links. Electric valves are important components for achieving automatic control of vacuum systems. Optoelectronic technology should be used to improve the current structure of motor travel limit switches to ensure the reliability of valve opening and closing.

4. The research and development of ultra-high vacuum valves should be strengthened. Starting from the transmission principle, sealing material, structural form, etc. of the valve, and drawing on the advantages of similar foreign ultra-high vacuum valves, new products should be developed. For example, there are not many domestic products for ultra-high vacuum fine adjustment valves, which cannot meet the needs of air flow regulation in ultra-high vacuum devices. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the processing technology and increase the service life of these valves.

5. Standardization and generalization should strengthen the standardization and generalization of vacuum valves. On the basis of absorbing advanced technology from similar valves abroad, we need to improve valve design to ensure that various types of vacuum valves in China can reach the advanced level of similar valves abroad in terms of performance, structure, and appearance. In addition to meeting the needs of vacuum equipment in China, we strive to market our vacuum valves in the international market.