Vacuum Gate Valve Shutter Isolation for Foreign Matter Adhesion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vacuum gate valves face issues with foreign matter adhesion during the opening and closing operations, particularly due to contact between shutters or bellows and the exhaust passage, leading to potential contamination and clogging.
Innovation Solution
A vacuum gate valve design featuring a movable shutter and shuttering movement room that separates from the exhaust passage barrel, combined with a gating-member retreat accommodation and multiple seals to prevent foreign matter adhesion, allowing the shutter to contact seals at different positions to shut the entrance aperture effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a cylindrical shutter is provided in the exhaust passage to shut the gating-member retreat aperture, then the retreat room can be protected from foreign matters, but the shutter contacts the exhaust passage during operation which invites adhesion of foreign matters
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the shutter from the exhaust passage environment by providing a separate shutter passage that is communicatively connected to the retreat aperture. The shutter moves within this isolated passage rather than within the exhaust passage itself, thereby preventing contact with exhaust-borne foreign matters while still performing the sealing function.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention segments the sealing function into two separate locations: a first seal in the exhaust passage and a second seal in the shutter passage. This segmentation allows the shutter to seal the retreat aperture without needing to contact the exhaust passage directly, isolating the shutter from foreign matter contamination.
2Reliability
If a stretchable bellows is provided to shut the retreat aperture, then the aperture can be sealed during gating-member movement, but the bellows contacts the exhaust passage inviting adhesion of foreign matters
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the bellows with a rigid shutter structure that operates in a separate, isolated shutter passage. This extraction eliminates the flexible bellows structure that would otherwise need to contact the exhaust passage, substituting it with a simpler rigid component that seals without contaminating the exhaust stream.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the shutter is separated from the exhaust passage barrel during gating-member movement, then foreign matter adhesion is reduced, but the device complexity increases due to additional passages and seals
Solution Approach 1:
The shutter serves multiple functions: it seals the retreat aperture from the exhaust passage, it prevents foreign matter adhesion, and it maintains vacuum isolation. By consolidating these functions into a single component operating in a dedicated passage, the invention reduces overall system complexity despite the added sealing requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
To reduce invasion and adhesion of foreign matters into and onto the gating-member retreat room in the transition from the gate-open state to the gate-close state including retreat and on-shutting-movement of the gating-member. The shutter, being moved in the shuttering movement room, shuts the entrance aperture by making the shutter sealing contact with the stationary seal by such movement of the shutter itself when the gating-member is accommodated in the gating-member retreat room, and, also being moved in the shuttering movement room, shuts the entrance aperture by making the shutter sealing contact with the second gate seal by such movement of the shutter itself when the gating-member, being moved in the shuttering movement room, shuts the exhaust port by making the first gate seal contact with the stationary seal by such movement of the gating-member itself.