Various industrial manufacturing processes often require the use of gasses and fluids which are controlled by systems made up of valves, regulators, pressure transducers, mass flow controllers and the like. These components are typically connected together by the use of welded tubing and compression fittings and mounted on a vertical panel. These type of connections may be undesirable in some applications because they add additional time and cost for welding operations, unnecessary space between components and make it difficult to replace a component located between other components. Further, these systems are typically custom designed and manufactured which make the manufacturing costs and procurement of replacement parts quite expensive.
New modular fluid systems have been recently introduced into the semiconductor industry in order to overcome these type of problems. Typical components of these systems such as valves, pressure regulators and other typical fluid components have been reconfigured so that their inlet and outlet ports are co-located in a coplanar configuration. Further, the attachment flow component flange has a standard size and shape in order to permit interchangeability of surface mount components. However, these fluid systems have the disadvantage of being very expensive because they are machined from high purity metal stock. These systems further require the use of metal seals, which are very expensive. Thus it is desired to provide an inexpensive modular manifold system for use for example, in the analytical process industry.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, with reference to the accompanying drawing and claims, which form a part of the specification.