Pumps & Vacuums
Protect your pumps from chemical attack, thermal breakdown, and costly downtime.
Pumps and vacuum systems that handle reactive gases—like halogens, strong acids, or oxidizers—require lubricants that can withstand harsh and demanding conditions. Conventional lubricants can break down under these harsh conditions, leading to system contamination, mechanical failure, and safety risks. That’s why engineers turn to Halocarbon.
Our HaloVac® and InfinX® lubricants are engineered for chemically aggressive environments—where safety, purity, and performance matter most.
Why Halocarbon?
In pumps and vacuums, lubricants serve a dual function – as the working fluid and the lubricant. Lubrication is crucial for reducing wear on internal components such as vanes, rotors, gears, or diaphragms, maintaining tight tolerances, and preventing dry running.
Halocarbon Oils are compatible with a broad range of aggressive chemicals and are inert under high temperatures and pressures. Halocarbon PCTFE and PFPE oils are engineered to be non-flammable, having no flash point. These properties make them an excellent choice for pump assembly and maintenance in harsh environments, such as in chemical processing, aerospace systems, or in reactive gas delivery.
Halocarbon Greases are chemically inert, nonflammable, and resistant to strong acids. These properties make them ideally suited to grease connections and joints connecting to pumps and vacuums.
Pump Lubrication
Halocarbon Pump Oils
| Oil Product | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
56 cSt PCTFE oil
|
• General purpose pump oil suitable for broad temperature applications
• Formerly: Halocarbon 56 oil |
|
|
56 cSt PCTFE oil formulated with a rust-inhibitor
|
• Rust-inhibited pump oil suitable for oxidative environments
• Formerly: Halocarbon 56 oil |
Halocarbon Pump Greases
| Grease Product | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
PCTFE grease w/ silica thickener (NLGI 3)
|
• General purpose fluorinated lubricant
• Formerly: Halocarbon 25-5s |
|
|
PFPE grease w/ PTFE-thickener (NLGI 2) |
• General purpose fluorinated lubricant
• Compare to: Krytox GPL 205 |
Vacuum Lubrication
Vacuum Pump Oils
| PCTFE Oils | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
52 cSt ultra-pure PCTFE oil
|
• General purpose vacuum pump oil designed for laboratory pumps |
|
|
86 cSt ultra-pure PCTFE oil |
• Medium pressure vacuum pump oil |
|
|
107 cST ultra-pure PCTFE oil |
• Medium pressure vacuum pump oil
|
|
|
190 cST ultra-pure PCTFE oil
|
• Low pressure vacuum pump oil |
| PCTFE Oils | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
51 cSt PFPE oil
|
• High-vacuum oil (low pressures)
• Compare to Krytox VPF 1525 |
|
|
92 cSt PFPE oil
|
• Ullra High-vacuum oil (ultra low pressures)
• Compare to Krytox VPF 1531 |
Vacuum Greases
| PUMP & VACUUM OILS | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
PCTFE vacuum line grease w/ silica thickener (NLGI 3)
|
• Vacuum line grease designed for use in laboratory vacuum manifolds, valves, ground glass joints, and Schlenk lines
• Resistant to strong acids (including fuming red nitric acid) |
|
|
PFPE-based ultra-low vacuum grease formulated with a 780 cSt PFPE base oil and a PTFE thickener
|
• PFPE grease designed for broad range of high-vacuum applications
• Compare to: Krytox LVP |
|
|
High-temperature, low-vacuum grease
|
• PFPE grease designed for broad temperature vacuum applications
|
|
|
High-temperature, low-vacuum grease formulated with a rust-inhibitor |
• PFPE grease designed for broad temperature vacuum applications
|
Performance you can count on
Halocarbon vacuum pump oils are designed for use as nonflammable and nonreactive lubricants in continuous vacuum operations. Halocarbon offers two classes of vacuum pump oils, designed for different vacuum operations and process conditions. These oils are designed for use in mechanical vacuum pumps across a broad range of applications ranging from plasma etching and chemical vapor deposition in semiconductor fabrication to reactive gas handling and electron microscopy. These oils significantly reduce the exposure and safety risks that are associated with the routine operation, maintenance and waste disposal common in these applications. Below is a list of the key performance attributes that make Halocarbon vacuum oils the ideal lubricant for your vacuum pump applications:
Key Performance Characteristics
- Chemically inert
- Non-toxic
- No sludge-formation
- Nonflammable (no flash or fire point)
- High thermal stability
- Exceptional resistance to Lewis-Acids
- Low vapor pressure
- Low surface tension
- Compatible with most metals and plastics
- Compatible with most elastomers
- Excellent sealing and lubricating properties
Suitable for
- continuous operations
- oxygen service
- chlorine service
- nitrous oxide service
Resistant to:
- fluorine (F2)
- chlorine (Cl2)
- hydrofluoric acid (HF)
- silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4)*
- arsenic trifluoride (AsF3)*
- boron trifluoride (BF3)*
- aluminum trichloride (AlCl3)*
Comparing PCTFE and PFPE Chemistries
HaloVac vacuum pump fluids are manufactured using both PCTFE and PFPE technologies, providing a broad portfolio of inert fluorinated lubricants to meet your vacuum service requirements. These fluorinated oil technologies are far superior to hydrocarbon or silicone systems. However, while both technologies provide chemical-inertness, nonflammability, and broad chemical stability, they differ on two key attributes – Lewis acid resistance and volatility at low vapor pressures. If your vacuum service is seeking low- or ultra-low vacuums (extremely low-pressure applications), PFPE-based HaloVac oils are the correct choice for your application. If your operations present the risk of exposing your vacuum pumps to Lewis acids (strong metal-based acids and catalysts), PCTFE-based HaloVac oils are highly recommended for reliability and safety.
Our team of technical experts can help determine which HaloVac oil is right for you.
Understanding PCTFE Lewis Acid Resistance
Halocarbon PCTFE technology creates a chemical composition that is less complex and more cost-effective than oils produced using conventional PFPE-based technology. The inherent simplicity of PCTFE chemistry produces oils that do not contain any oxygen atoms in their chemical structure. This makes these oils more robust to attack by Lewis acids than their PFPE counterparts. In addition, PCTFE HaloVac® oils have been demonstrated to out-perform PFPE-based oils in stability tests conducted under routine operating conditions for vacuum pumps.
In all cases, PCTFE-based HaloVac oils:
- underwent no weight loss
- did not experience a reduction in viscosity
- had no change in pH, and no increase in acidity
- encapsulated volatile organic compound
- emitted no discernable fumes or acidic odors
Halocarbon PFPE VPF oils are manufactured using K-fluid PFPE technology. Due to their higher molecular weight, they have lower vapor pressures and can sustain a deeper vacuum. They also have broader material compatibility. Both chemistries have their place in a variety of challenging vacuum pump applications beyond the capability of standard hydrocarbon-based oils.