Gas equilibrium coil for providing, in real-time, a gas calibrating solution

Inventors

Mulhern, Edward J.

Assignees

Nova Biomedical Corp

Abstract

A gas-solution equilibrium device for a liquid sample gas analyzer includes a temperature-controlled, thermally-conductive mandrel, a coil of gas-permeable tubing wrapped around the mandrel, the gas-permeable tubing having an inlet and an outlet, and a housing having an internal space containing the temperature-controlled, thermally-conductive mandrel, the coil of gas-permeable tubing and a volume of gas where the gas-permeable tubing has a predefined linear length and a predefined wall thickness, the combination of which together is capable of equilibrating a liquid passing through the coil at a predefined flow rate with oxygen in the atmosphere to provide a gas calibration solution in real time at the outlet of the tubing for the liquid gas analyzer.

Core Innovation

A gas-solution equilibrium device for use in a liquid sample gas analyzer equilibrates a liquid passing through a coil of gas-permeable tubing with a gas environment in real time to provide a gas calibration solution at the outlet of the tubing. The device includes a temperature-controlled, thermally-conductive mandrel and a coil of gas-permeable tubing wrapped around the mandrel, with the tubing having an inlet and an outlet. A housing includes an internal space containing the mandrel, the coil of gas-permeable tubing, and a volume of gas.

The coil of gas-permeable tubing has a predefined linear length and the gas-permeable tubing has a predefined wall thickness. The combination of the predefined linear length and predefined wall thickness is capable of equilibrating a liquid passing through the coil at a predefined flow rate with the gas within the internal space to provide the gas calibration solution in real time at the outlet for the liquid gas analyzer.

The arrangement uses a long thin-walled gas-permeable tubing coil wrapped around a temperature-controlled thermally conductive mandrel inside a housing defining a gas atmosphere, with attention to tubing diffusion and coil geometry to ensure complete equilibration before the liquid exits. Temperature control is implemented to set the mandrel temperature, while tubing material selection is based on oxygen and/or carbon dioxide permeability and tubing wall thickness is selected to resist vacuum collapse from a peristaltic pump while maintaining sufficient gas diffusion.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes two independent claims (clm-00001 and clm-00022) that define a gas-solution equilibrium device/coil for real-time generation of gas calibration solution for gas analyzers. The main inventive features across the independent claims include a temperature-controlled thermally-conductive mandrel, a wrapped coil of gas-permeable tubing with inlet and outlet, a controlled gas environment, and predefined structural/geometry parameters enabling real-time equilibration and predefined gas concentration at the exit.

Across the independent claims, real-time gas calibration is achieved by combining a temperature-controlled, thermally-conductive mandrel with a wrapped coil of gas-permeable tubing (inlet and outlet) in a controlled gas environment, where predefined structural parameters enable equilibration for a liquid gas analyzer, and temperature and gas means define a predefined gas concentration of the exiting gas calibrating solution for a gas-liquid analyzer.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications