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US 4,788,851 AGranted
Pressure vessel incorporating a sensor for detecting liquid in a gas chamber
AssigneeOlaer Industries
InventorFrancois Brault
Life of this patent
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AssigneeOlaer Industries
InventorFrancois Brault
Estimating the term…
A pressure vessel comprises an enclosure in which are a liquid orifice and a gas orifice spaced from the liquid orifice. A separator divides the enclosure into two variable volume chambers. One of these is a liquid chamber communicating with the liquid orifice and the other is a gas chamber communicating with the gas orifice. The separator has a transverse wall spaced from the gas and liquid orifices and movable inside the enclosure. There is an orifice in the enclosure communicating with the gas chamber through which there is passed into the gas chamber a sensor which is responsive at one end to the presence of a liquid. In a neutral position of this transverse wall the responsive end of the sensor is nearer the transverse wall than it is to the orifice in the enclosure through which it passes into the gas chamber. The sensor preferably comprises an optical probe.
Pressure vessel comprising an enclosure, a liquid orifice in said enclosure, a gas orifice in said enclosure, spaced from said liquid orifice, a separator dividing said enclosure into a variable volume liquid chamber communicating with said liquid orifice and a variable volume gas chamber communicating with said gas orifice, a transverse wall of said separator spaced from said gas and liquid orifices and movable within said enclosure, an optical sensor means extending through said envelope at a predetermined location into said gas chamber and having an end responsive to the presence of liquid in said gas chamber, said responsive end being nearer to said transverse wall than to said predetermined location, said optical sensor means being of flexible construction and elastically deformable in response to the movements of said transverse wall without damage to said wall.
Pressure vessel comprising an enclosure, a liquid orifice in said enclosure, a gas orifice in said enclosure, spaced from said liquid orifice, a separator dividing said enclosure into a variable volume liquid chamber communicating with said liquid orifice and a variable volume gas chamber communicating with said gas orifice, a transverse wall of said separator spaced from said gas and liquid orifices and movable within said enclosure, an optical sensor means extending through said envelope at a predetermined location into said gas chamber and having an end responsive to the presence of liquid in said gas chamber, said optical sensor means being of flexible construction and elastically deformable in response to the movements of said transverse wall without damage to said wall, said optical sensor means comprising a continuous optical conduit of relatively small diameter extending between said responsive end and a remote end adapted to be connected to a signal processing device, said optical conduit being formed by at least one optical fiber, and said responsive end being nearer to said transverse wall than to said predetermined location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.