CHRNS: Syringe Pump System

Syringe Pump

The 70 MPa syringe pump system can be used with various sample cells to enable neutron scattering experiments that require gas or liquid pressures up to 70 MPa. During the unscheduled outage, both the hardware and software of the 70 MPa syringe pump system were upgraded to improve efficiency and enable new research capabilities. The system is SECOPS compliant.

Improvements:

An additional large-volume syringe pump was added to reduce the waiting time needed to boost the gas pressure. The gas manifold was upgraded to manage the three syringe pumps using automatic valves. The software was improved to automate the new capabilities and allow experiments that weren’t previously possible. This unique design also reduces the amount of expensive deuterated gas required for some experiments.

The upgraded system now enables the study of gas/liquid permeability in porous materials and selective gas adsorption/desorption under constant gas flow.  It reduces the number of booster stages required for gases that are commercially available only at relatively low pressures and volumes.

The system has been shipped to ORNL for user experiments under the CHRNS program and has undergone operational testing.