The Bottom Line: Everything Leaks

• Down time or a scrapped batch of product can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour
• The slightest decrease in efficiency of a heat exchanger can increase fuel costs at a power plant by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year
• There are well-documented product liability cases where leaking products have cost manufacturers millions.

• Helium leak detection is widely recognized as the most thorough and sensitive technology
• Test results are clearly quantified
• Learning to use a mass spectrometer requires very little training

• Our user interface provides six unique application guides that ensure your system is properly set up
• Agilent offers the widest variety of configurations:

• Rotary vane or dry scroll pumps - whichever your process demands
• A range of three pump sizes - from 2 to 30 m3/hour
• Three different configurations - to address small R&D applications, high volume production solutions and mobile maintenance tasks

• For many applications the answer is no, because supplemental pumps, like those on a high vacuum chamber, drive the performance.
• Even when supplemental pumps aren’t used there are other tools, like background zeroing, that can negate two decades of signal in seconds that would take a pump many times longer.
• Typically, helium pumping speed increases as pressure decreases. However, this means that some detectors won’t achieve their stated performance, since many leak detection applications are performed at pressures one or two orders of magnitude higher.

• Hydrogen is nearly impossible to use in vacuum applications.
• Establishing new test criteria and receiving end-user acceptance to a change in trace gas can be difficult.
• Instrument sensitivity can be far different with gases other than helium.
• Availability of calibrated standards can be an issue.

• Proper understanding of how the instrument will respond to a leak.
• Making sure that the probe is always capable of detecting a leak.
• Establishing appropriate settings that will alert an operator when near a leak and trigger an alarm when a leak is located.

Major advantages of helium leak detection technology include:

• The ability to quickly pinpoint the location and relative magnitude of the leak ==> less time is spent making repairs.
• Outgassing issues do not affect the method ==> tests can be performed regardless of chamber condition.
• It can be performed quickly, and can be a routine operation at the start of each production run ==> saves time and reduces scrap.

Examples of parts requiring hermetic sealing include:

• Integrated circuits and discrete electronic components
• Detector devices
• Automotive components
• Implantable medical devices
• Lasers and scientific equipment
• Refrigeration components

Finding these leaks can be difficult due to:

• The size and complexity of the system.
• Water vapor in the system can damage the leak detection instrument.