US 4,224,828 AGranted

Non-spill gas-liquid contact unit

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army

InventorWalter A. Steinke

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Abstract

A non-spill gas-liquid contact unit for use in a portable detector device r testing the atmosphere for the presence of hazardous substances. The gas-liquid contact unit includes a tubular chamber for absorber liquid, surmounted by a tubular air chamber removably attached thereto by a fluid tight joint, and a breather tube for drawing environmental air through the absorber liquid. The air chamber possesses an axial gas inlet tube projecting from its lower end for admitting gas from the absorber chamber, and an axial gas outlet tube whose one end projects into the upper end of the air chamber and the other end can be connected to a vacuum pump. The air chamber with its inlet and outlet tubes functions as a lock so that, when the unit is accidentally tilted from the normally vertical position to a horizontal or an inverted position while it is under vacuum, the liquid cannot spill out of the unit and thus nullify the analysis and corrode the vacuum pump.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A non-spill gas-liquid contact unit suitable for use in a portable detector device for testing the atmosphere for the presence of toxic or hazardous substances, comprising in combination:

an absorber chamber containing a predetermined volume of absorber liquid and having an open end;
an air chamber surmounting said absorber chamber and having an upper end and a lower end;
a fluid tight joint means for removably joining said air chamber to said absorber chamber open end;
a gas intake tube, centrally located in said absorber chamber and connected to a sidewall opening of said absorber chamber or said air chamber, for drawing gas from the environmental atmosphere into said absorber liquid;
a tube-like inlet means in said air chamber lower end, which projects centrally into said absorber chamber open end, for passage of said gas from said absorber chamber into said air chamber;
and
a tube-like outlet means in said air chamber upper end, which projects centrally into said air chamber, for passage of gas out of said air chamber,
wherein the capacity of said absorber chamber is sufficiently large so that when the contact unit is tilted horizontally or inverted the absorber liquid level does not reach the open end of said air chamber inlet means or of said gas intake tube, or if exceeded such that liquid spills into said air chamber, the capacity of the air chamber is sufficiently large so that the liquid level does not reach said air chamber outlet means, while said outlet means is connected to a vacuum.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.