Effect of Drag Stages Surface Roughness on the Compression Ratio of a TMDP

The rotor of a turbomolecular drag pump is generally made of an aluminum alloy. Its surface finish is affected by various processes that the rotor itself undergoes during the manufacturing phase. The impact of different surface finishes on the pumping performances of a turbomolecular pump has been mainly investigated by Sawada et al [1]. The present work aims to broaden the previous bibliographic study to the drag stages of a turbomolecular pump by testing the impact of different surface finishes on the compression ratio of the pump. Experimental tests have been made focusing on two processes: the corundum sandblasting and the glass microspheres shot-peening. Both the processes flatten and/or physically remove EDM melted spheres; in particular, blasted surfaces obtained by glass shot-peening are generally smoother than surfaces obtained by corundum sandblasting. In order to characterize the surface texture left by such processes, preliminary surface roughness measurements have been made on the drag rotor disks of several pumps. The experimental tests conducted on both sandblasted and shot-peened rotors confirms previous results obtained on the turbo stages by Sawada et al. [1], showing that the average roughness of the surface has an impact on the compression ratio of the pump; in particular, an increment in the surface roughness causes a corresponding increment in the compression ratio of the pump and vice versa. For the tested pumps, the higher surface roughness gives a factor of increment of about 2 on the measured hydrogen maximum compression ratio of the pump.