Flow control in high performance liquid chromatography
AssigneeProxeon Biosystems A/S
InventorOle VORM
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for controlling the flow of liquid in a high performance liquid chromatography apparatus. The method includes operating a pump, measuring the liquid pressure downstream of the pump, measuring the liquid flow rate downstream of the pump, and controlling the operation of the pump. In the method, it is automatically determined whether the pump is controlled to achieve a desired pressure or controlled to achieve a desired flow rate. Fuzzy logic can be applied in the method to determine the switch between the control modes.
Claims20
-20. (canceled)
A method for controlling fluid flow in a liquid chromatography apparatus, said method comprising:
- driving said flow with a pump,
- controlling said fluid flow by either:
- measuring the pressure of said liquid and in response thereto adjusting the output of said pump to achieve a target fluid pressure, or
- measuring the fluid flow of said liquid and in response thereto adjusting the output of said pump to achieve a target fluid pressure, and
- automatically switching or balancing between pressure based fluid flow control and flow rate based fluid flow control,
- said method further comprising involving fuzzy logic algorithms for deciding when to switch or how to balance between said pressure based fluid flow control and flow rate based fluid control.
A liquid chromatography apparatus comprising:
- at least one pump,
- a flow rate sensor downstream of said pump,
- a pressure sensor downstream of said pump, and
- a pump controller coupled to said pump, to said flow rate sensor and to said pressure sensor,
- said pump controller being configured to automatically switch between or balance pressure based pump control and flow rate based pump control.
A computer readable medium including at least computer program code for controlling the operation of a pump and program code for automatically switching between or balancing a pressure control mode and a flow rate control mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.