摘要:
A fluid supply apparatus with a plurality of flow lines branching out from one regulator for adjustment of pressure, the flow lines being arranged in parallel, wherein a measure is taken that the operation, that is, opening or closing of one flow passage will have no transient effect on the steady flow of the other flow passages, For this purpose, each flow passage is provided with a time delay-type mass flow controller MFC so that when one closed fluid passage is opened, the mass flow controller on that flow passage reaches a set flow rate Qs in a specific delay time Δt from the starting point. Also provided are a method and an apparatus for the above in which a plurality of gas types can be controlled in flow rate with high precision by one pressure-type flow control system. To that end, a formula for calculating the flow rate of a gas is theoretically derived that flows with a pressure ratio not higher than the critical pressure ratio. From that formula, the flow factor is defined, so that the formula may be applied to a number of gas types using flow factors