[Urbanium]

Hello,

in the lab where I'm currently working we have an useful but very loud hi-vac pump for drying. There was an initiative to move the pump to other lab which is not in use, but the initiative was eventually ignored.

Since the pump is terribly loud, I wanted to ask does anyone have experiences with simillar issues and how did you fix that? Would it be possible to acoustically isolate the pump somehow while leaving it in the lab and not moving it out?

[Dan]

It sounds like it needs to be serviced. Is it still pulling a decent high vacuum?

[Urbanium]

It was serviced year and a half ago as far as I was told, but currently nobody is planning to send a request for a new service.

We get quite a good vacuum and drying, but it is very loud and it's really difficult to work.

[Dan]

What's "quite good"? I'd send a request for a new service if I were you - If it's that loud it's probably a safety hazard. The problem with trying to insulate the sound is that it is likely to insulate the heat as well. Treat the cause, not the symptom.

[Arkcon]

There was a very loud pump at a lab I used to work, it was connected to the lyophilizer, and got constant use. It was a scroll pump, so it didn't need maintenance (it didn't use oil, that means,) so it was just loud.  They had a safety inspector come in, with a decibel meter, and confirm the noise level was not dangerous to hearing, and that was that.  They tried to fix it some time later, but it never improved.  So you can ask for that, a person measure the lab noise with a validated meter.  But don't be surprised if its just loud and annoying, and not dangerous.