Patents Assigned to Inficon GmbH
  • Patent number: 11199467
    Abstract: A method for distinguishing a test gas escaping from a leak in a test object (21) from an interfering gas in the environment of the test object (21) during sniffing leak detection, having the steps: suctioning gas from the environment of the test object (21) in the region of the outer surface of the test object by means of a sniffing tip, which has a suction opening (14), which is connected, for gas conduction, to a sensor (18), which is designed to determine the test gas partial pressure of the test gas in the suctioned gas flow; varying, with periodic repetition, the flow intensity of the suctioned gas flow; setting a total pressure of the suctioned gas at the sensor (18) of at least 80 percent of the total pressure of the gas in the atmosphere (23) surrounding the test object (21); avoiding fluctuations of the total pressure of the suctioned gas at the sensor (18) of more than 10 percent; measuring the test gas partial pressure of test gas contained in the suctioned gas flow by means of the sensor (18); in
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Daniel Wetzig
  • Patent number: 11143571
    Abstract: The invention relates to a film chamber 10 which has a film chamber wall for testing the sealing tightness of a gas-filled test specimen 38, which film chamber wall defines a chamber volume 32 for holding the test specimen 38 and has a first vacuum connection 28 for evacuating the chamber volume 32 by means of a first vacuum pump 30 connected to the first vacuum connection 28, wherein at least a portion of the film chamber wall has a flexible film 12, 14, characterized in that the film 12, 14 has two layers 20, 22 arranged adjacent to each other which surround an evacuable film interspace 26.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Daniel Wetzig
  • Patent number: 11022515
    Abstract: A sniffer leak detector is provided herein, including a sniffer probe and a vacuum pump which are connected to each other by a gas flow path, a gas analyzer arranged along the gas flow path and analyzes the gas taken in by the vacuum pump through the sniffer probe. The sniffer leak detector further includes a distance sensor that detects the distance between the sniffer probe and the test object, and a control is linked to the distance sensor. The control is designed to vary the carrier gas flow transported along the gas flow path, depending on the measured distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Silvio Decker
  • Patent number: 11009030
    Abstract: Disclosed is a mass-spectrometry leak detector including a multi-stage turbomolecular pump, a mass spectrometer connected to the suction side of the turbomolecular pump, a preliminary vacuum pump connected to the pressure side of the turbomolecular pump, and a booster pump stage. The suction side of the booster pump stage has a connection for a test object and the pressure side is connected to the pressure side of the turbomolecular pump and to the suction side of the preliminary vacuum pump by means of a gas line path. The stages of the turbomolecular pump and the booster pump stage are arranged on a common shaft and have a common drive and the gas line path is interrupted, by means of a separation, between the pressure side of the booster pump stage and the suction side of the pump stage of the turbomolecular pump connected to the mass spectrometer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Werner Grosse Bley, Thomas Böhm, Hjalmar Bruhns
  • Patent number: 10935453
    Abstract: A method for detecting a leak in a test object, including inserting the test object into a test chamber; filling the test object with a test gas; and adjusting a pressure in the test chamber and a pressure in the test object such that the test chamber pressure is lower than the test object pressure. The test chamber contains air and the test object is filled exclusively with a gas containing no molecules with oxygen atoms. In order to detect a leak in the test object, an oxygen proportion of the air in the test chamber is measured with an oxygen sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Daniel Wetzig
  • Patent number: 10900862
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the gross leak measurement of an at least partially incompressible test object (18) in a film chamber (12) that comprises at least one flexible wall region and is connected, in a gas-conducting manner, to a pressure sensor (30), a vacuum pump (26) and, by way of a calibration valve (34), to a calibration chamber (36) enclosing a calibration volume (37), comprising the steps of evacuating the film chamber (12), measuring the pressure curve within the film chamber (12) after the evacuation is completed, connecting, in a gas-conducting manner, the calibration volume (37) to the inner volume of the film chamber (12) during the measurement of the pressure curve, the pressure being measured before the gas-conducting connection is established, and with the gas-conducting connection established, to the film chamber (12), and the pressure in the calibration chamber (36) prior to the connection to the film chamber (12) being higher or lower than the pressure in the film chamber (12
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Silvio Decker, Norbert Rolff
  • Patent number: 10852212
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for leakage detection on at least one flexible test piece in a film chamber, including inserting the at least one test piece into a film chamber, lowering the pressure in the film chamber outside the at least one test piece, and detecting a leakage in the at least one test piece by observing the spatial change of the film of the film chamber. The outer contour of the at least one test piece is transferred to at least one section of the film by the lowering of the pressure in the film chamber. The contour of the film is recorded with an image recording system, and the recorded images of the contour are compared with reference images of said contour in the event of a tight test piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Daniel Wetzig, Silvio Decker, Jochen Puchalla-König
  • Patent number: 10845266
    Abstract: A method for leak detection of a test specimen includes providing an evacuable film test chamber which is operatively coupled to a pressure measuring device, and at least one processor operatively coupled to the pressure measuring device; measuring a pressure within the evacuable film test chamber by the pressure measuring device at predetermined times during a measurement period of time; calculating by the processor, a first or higher order derivative of a pressure change with respect to time at a first predetermined time, and a first or higher order derivative of a pressure change with respect to time at least at a second predetermined time during the measurement period of time, to provide at least a pair of derivative values; and categorizing by the processor a leaky or tight state of the specimen under test by a pattern recognition process based on the pair of derivative values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Inficon GMBH
    Inventors: Silvio Decker, Daniel Wetzig, Hjalmar Bruhns, Stefan Mebus
  • Patent number: 10844877
    Abstract: A device for evacuating a film chamber using a pump system that comprises at least two vacuum pumps, designed to evacuate the film chamber alternately. A suction capacity of the first vacuum pump is greater than that of the second vacuum pump and the final pressure achievable by the first vacuum pump is less than that of the second vacuum pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Silvio Decker, Michael Dauenhauer, Daniel Wetzig, Hjalmar Bruhns
  • Patent number: 10837857
    Abstract: The invention relates to a gas leakage search device including a test gas spray device for spraying a test object with a test gas, a vacuum assembly for evacuating the test object, wherein the vacuum assembly has a vacuum pump and a gas detector downstream of the test object for measuring the test gas proportion, and an analysis unit which evaluates the measurement signal of the gas detector. The invention is characterized in that a data communication connection is established between the spray device and the analysis unit; the spray device is designed to detect at least one point in time of the spraying process and to transmit same to the analysis unit, and the analysis unit is designed to output the corresponding measured test gas proportion at the transmitted point in time of the spraying process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2020
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Hjalmar Bruhns, Ernst Franke, Ralf Kilian, Jörn Liebich, Norbert Moser, Jochen Puchalla-König, Norbert Rolff, Randolf Rolff, Daniel Wetzig
  • Patent number: 10732067
    Abstract: A method for detecting fluctuations in the amount of test gas detected by a sniffer probe of a leak detector in the gas flow from around a test piece pressurized with an oxygen-free test gas containing at least an amount of CO2, wherein an amount of oxygen in the ambient air is measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Daniel Wetzig, Ludolf Gerdau
  • Patent number: 10670489
    Abstract: A method for calibrating a test chamber, which encloses an interior volume (20), is designed as a film chamber (12) comprising at least one flexible wall region (14, 16), and is connected in a gas-conducting way to a pressure sensor (30), to a vacuum pump (26), and via a calibration valve (34) to a calibration chamber (36) enclosing a calibration volume (37), comprising the following steps: evacuating the film chamber (12); measuring the pressure difference inside of the film chamber (12); after the evacuation has been completed, connecting the calibration volume (37) in a gas-conducting manner to the interior volume (20) of the film chamber (12) while measuring the pressure change, wherein the pressure in the calibration chamber (36) is greater than the pressure in the film chamber (12) before the connection to the film chamber (12). A corresponding device is likewise disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Silvio Decker
  • Patent number: 10514317
    Abstract: A method for a tightness test of a test piece (16) in a test chamber (10) whose wall is at least partly made of a flexible material, wherein said test piece is introduced into said test chamber and said test chamber is then evacuated, is characterized in that the tightness test is performed by measuring the gas density inside said test chamber (10) in the area outside said test piece (16).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Daniel Wetzig, Silvio Decker
  • Patent number: 10488290
    Abstract: A sensor unit including a measuring cell with a section-wise heat-conducting surface, a housing in which the measuring cell for the most part is contained, and an access channel to the measuring cell. The sensor unit includes a cavity that is confined for the most part by an outer surface of the measuring cell and by a wall of the housing facing towards the surface of the measuring cell. The cavity is closed in itself.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GMBH
    Inventors: Hansjakob Hanselmann-Willi, Francesco Scuderi
  • Patent number: 10436708
    Abstract: Described is a method for quantifying the amount of optically interfering gas impurities in a gas detection system comprising a sample gas inlet, a reference gas inlet, a gas modulation valve, and an infrared absorption gas detector used for analysis of methane or natural gas, wherein the gas modulation valve alternatingly connects the sample gas inlet to the gas detector during a sample gas time period and the reference gas inlet to the gas detector during a reference gas time period. The method includes measuring an infrared absorption for at least two different sample gas concentrations in the gas detector achieved via respective different ratios from the sample gas time period and the reference gas time period, and comparing amplitudes of different measurement signals of the at least two different sample gas concentrations with calibration functions to assess an actual gas impurity concentration in the sampled gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Johan Hellgren, Henrik Vennerberg, Fredrik Enquist
  • Patent number: 10401251
    Abstract: The invention relates to a film chamber for receiving a test object to be tested for the presence of a leak, including at least two film layers and at least two frame elements, each of which has a sealing surface so that the two frame elements lie against each other in a gas-tight manner in order to hermetically seal the film chamber. Each of the two film layers has at least one retaining profile in a wall region, and each of the two frame elements has at least one retaining groove in the frame element sealing surface in order to receive a retaining profile such that the two film layers are held between the two frame elements substantially by a formfitting connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Hendrik Van Triest, Michael Dauenhauer
  • Patent number: 10365024
    Abstract: The invention relates to a removal device (10) for removing a fluid from a refrigeration system, comprising a cooling device (11), through which the fluid is to flow and which has a pipeline assembly (12), which has a plurality of pipeline elements (24, 26) connected to each other, a fluid inlet (28) arranged above the pipeline elements, and a fluid outlet (30) arranged below the pipeline elements, the removal device having a compressor (14), which is arranged before the cooling device (11) in the flow direction and through which the fluid can flow and which is connected to the fluid inlet (28), is easier to clean because the pipeline elements are each arranged at an inclination of an angle (alpha) from the horizontal in such a way that all fluid entering through the fluid inlet (28) is moved to the fluid outlet (30) by gravity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventor: Gerd H. Rabe
  • Patent number: 10352848
    Abstract: A gas detection system, comprising a sample gas inlet, a reference gas inlet and a gas modulation valve alternatingly connecting one of the sample gas inlet and the reference gas inlet to a gas sensor, is characterized in that a selective transfer filter is located in the gas flow path connecting the gas modulation valve and the gas sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: INFICON GmbH
    Inventors: Fredrik Enquist, Niclas Edvardsson, Johan Hellgren, Henrik Vennerberg
  • Patent number: D907650
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Inficon GMBH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Joensson, Lutz Gebhardt
  • Patent number: D907651
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Inficon GMBH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Joensson, Lutz Gebhardt