Automated system for spectro-photometric analysis of liquids
AssigneeBurroughs Wellcome Co.
InventorsGuy W. Inman, Jr., Charles H. Powell, Jr., Guy W. Martin, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for providing a spectrophotometric analysis of a plurality of fluid samples, the system including a spectrophotometer having a low pressure flow cell and an automatic injector device which stores the fluid samples without exposure to the atmosphere and injects the samples successively at low pressure into the flow cell where they can be scanned to produce scanned data for processing. The system prevents the scanning of each fluid sample until the injection thereof has been completed, the processing of scanned data for each fluid sample being performed substantially simultaneously with the injection of the next successive fluid sample into the flow cell.
Claims9
A system for automatically providing a spectrophotometric analysis of a plurality of fluid samples comprising
- a spectrophotometer, including
- a low pressure flow cell for accepting a plurality of successive fluid samples;
- means for scanning fluid samples injected into said flow cell to provide scanned data;
- and
- means for processing said scanned data;
- automatic injection means, including
- means for storing a plurality of fluid samples without exposure to the atmosphere;
- and
- means for injecting said stored fluid samples successively at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric pressure and without exposure to the atmosphere into said low pressure flow cell, said successive samples being retained in said flow cell substantially at atmospheric pressure;
- and
- control means for controlling the operations of said spectrophotometer and said automatic injection means, said control means including
- means for preventing the scanning of a fluid sample which is being injected into said flow cell until said injection has been completed;
- and
- means for causing said injecting means to inject the next successive fluid sample into said flow cell and for causing said processing means to process the scanned data of said previously injected fluid sample substantially simultaneously with the injection of said next successive fluid sample.
A method for automatically providing a spectrophotometric analysis of a plurality of fluid samples comprising the steps of
- providing successive samples of one or more fluids;
- injecting said successively provided fluid samples at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric pressure and without exposure to the atmosphere into a low pressure flow cell of a spectrophotometer;
- retaining said successive samples in a said flow cell substantially at atmospheric pressure for scanning thereof by said spectrophotometer to provide scanned data;
- preventing the scanning of each of said successively injected fluid samples until the injection of said corresponding sample into said flow cell has been completed in each case;
- scanning each said successively injected fluid sample only when the injection thereof has been completed to provide scanned data for processing by said spectrophotometer;
- injecting the next successive fluid sample into said flow cell and processing the scanned data of the previously injected fluid sample substantially previously injected fluid sample substantially simultaneously with the injection of said next successive fluid sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.