Leak rate units and calibrated leaks

Leak rates can be defined in various ways and units. While the helium leak detection world is mainly using mbar · l/s (or the SI-unit Pa · m³/s) to define leak rates, bigger leaks are often be defined in cm³/min or mL/min.

Leak rates can be defined in various ways and units. While the helium leak detection world is mainly using mbar · l/s (or the SI-unit Pa · m³/s) to define leak rates, bigger leaks are often be defined in cm³/min or mL/min.

Leak flow measurements and their conversion

Another way to define the reject level for your product is to define the maximum allowable defect size that can be tolerated in your test part. The idea behind this method is that any defect which is smaller than the defined “maximum defect size” will be blocked by the media inside your part and will not allow critical media to get inside of your part. This approach is widely used in the pharmaceutical area where reject levels are defined in relation to virus or bacteria sizes. Also in different US automotive standards, the definition of maximum defect sizes became more and more popular in recent years. ATC (which is part of Pfeiffer since 2017) played an important role in many of those verification processes with test measurements in our certified laboratories. Thereby we helped to define maximum allowable leakage rates for various industries and applications.

In general calibrated leaks are used to:



Pfeiffer benefits from our ISO 17025 certified calibration laboratory.