Infusion Pump

General Composites Discussions Equipment Talk
#1

I’m looking for an infusion pump somewhere in the neighborhood of $500- $600. I am in the process of converting from primarily hand layup to infusion. There are lots of options of old Leybold pumps on ebay, does anyone have an option on those or better options?

All foreseeable parts are smaller than a car hood, but can be fairly thick (upwards of 15 plies with and without core).

This would be for a small but expanding composites operation and we like to use high quality equipment.

Thanks for any help.

(PS if you can justify a more expensive pump or brand I might be able to talk my boss into expanding my budget for the conversion)

#2

http://www.compositescentral.com/showthread.php?t=8610

http://www.compositescentral.com/showthread.php?t=8585

Two options that are high end pumps like Leybold. For this kind of money you aren’t going to find anything coming close to this quility.

#3

yea i saw those, but shipping from europe plus the euro-USD conversion is killer and at nearly $1200 with shipping is double my budget.

#4

Eur-USD conversion rates are killer at the moment.

Anyhow, in your case I would probably get the following:

-harbour freight vacuum pump
-exhaust filter for the pump
-spare oil
-lossless vacuum regulator (looks like a pressure regulator)
-resin catch pot

This will eat your budget probably. Life expectancy of these pumps is not too great, but as your project starts generating money, you can Always upgrade or just replace.

#5

Thanks for the advice. I ended up finding a surplus Alcatel with a two year warranty. Now just have to get the catch pot/degasssing chamber. I am planning on using one even though I will be using MTI hose rather than spiral wrap.

I already have this (http://www.acpsales.com/Auto-Vac-System.html) system and while it’s on the decline it still can pull nearly 20" so I may use it to “stage” for the primary pump and do initial leak checking. I think i can re-purpose most of the controls for the whole system. Lots of valves and tubing but it should make for a long-lived setup.

Edit: I should clarify that my job is a R&D/Exploritory technology type job so the potential to go from 1 or 2 prototype parts per week straight to limited production runs is pretty high