Patent ID: 7076398

Claim:
A method of determining vacuum producer system parameters using a vacuum strength measurement device, the vacuum producer system serving a plurality of vacuum devices, the method comprising: (a) determining a target vacuum performance for each of the plurality of vacuum devices; (b) determining how many of the plurality of vacuum devices have a 100% probability of being opened simultaneously; and (c) for an existing system, (c-1) measuring vacuum performance for existing vacuum devices with the vacuum strength measurement device, (c-2) measuring sealed vacuum strength with the vacuum strength measurement device, (c-3) determining a flow ability factor based on the vacuum performance and the sealed vacuum strength, and (c-4) calculating an amount of vacuum strength required to match the target vacuum performance based on the flow ability factor determined in step (c-3); (d) for system design, (d-1) calculating a total flow requirement based on the target vacuum performance determined in step (a) and the number of vacuum devices determined in step (b), and (d-2) determining a relationship between (i) a desired flow ability factor based on the total flow requirement, and (ii) the amount of vacuum strength required to match the target vacuum performance.