Patent · US Expired

Optical and pyrolyzate analyzer apparatus

US5147611A · kind A · utility

10Cited by
2References
63Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 24, 1989
Grant dateSep 15, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 24, 2009

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10T436/25875
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A heating and targeting laser beam and microscope apparatus optically senses, heats to generate a effluent fluid and chemically analyzes the thermal extract fluid or fluid pyrolyzates from a microscopic particle within a heterogeneous composite sample. A transparent duct-like chamber having a bottom opening is attached to a microscope. A contact surface of the sample is raised to abut against the bottom opening, which encloses the space around the particle and also brings the particle into the common focal plane of the microscope and the converging laser beam(s). This single step avoids the complex separate focusing and sealing steps required by present day techniques. The apparatus also includes an insulated and conductively heated collection probe and an inert gas supply (to efficiently sweep and collect the small amount of hot fluid and minimize condensation loss, secondary reactions, or complex heating devices), diverging-collimating-converging laser beam lenses (to achieve spot focusing as small as 10 microns) and a cold trap (to collect a series of fluid quantities). A collective analysis of the trapped fluid generated from a single type of particle is accomplished on a resol…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.