Cyclone personal sampler for aerosols
AssigneeRegents of the University of Minnesota
InventorBenjamin Y. H. Liu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cyclone type personal aerosol sampler has a two-stage operation with a standard cyclone sampler providing a cutoff of particles in the range of 10 microns to a secondary cyclone sampler. The secondary cyclone sampler has the ability to inertially separate out particles below about 0.8 microns from larger particles. The secondary sampler has a readily removable cup for collecting the larger particles, and an easily replaceable filter for collecting the smaller particles for analysis.
Claims10
A personal particle sampler of size to be worn on a shirt pocket or the like for providing information relating to concentration of particles that are below a primary cutoff size comprising a housing, an inlet for atmospheric air, a vortex forming chamber in said housing for forming a vortex of air entering the housing through the inlet, said chamber including a removable section comprising a cup slidably mounted in a bore in the housing and having an enclosed wall and an end spaced from the inlet, an outlet in an end of said chamber adjacent the inlet for outlet flow from the vortex formed, the vortex action depositing particles above a secondary cutoff size in the cup, and filter means to filter the flow from the outlet to collect particles on the filter means.
A personal particle sampler for providing information relating to concentration of particles that are below a primary cutoff size comprising a housing of size to be worn by a person, a bore formed in the housing comprising a vortex forming chamber open at one remote end of the chamber, a vortex finder sleeve formed in the housing at an inlet end of the bore forming the chamber, an inlet opening on a side of said chamber aligned with the vortex finder sleeve to form a cyclonic action around the vortex finder sleeve as air flows from the inlet into the chamber, an outlet formed in the center of the vortex finder sleeve for outlet flow from the vortex formed, a cup removably slidably mounted in the bore and having an enclosed cylindrical wall section that forms a liner in the chamber surrounding the vortex finder sleeve, and said cup having a remote end that extends out of the bore of the housing, said inlet opening extending through a wall forming said cylindrical wall section of said cup so that the vortex is formed entirely within said cup, said cup remote end being closed to collect the particles separated by cyclonic action, the cyclonic action depositing particles above a secondary cutoff size in the cup, and means to removably retain the cup in the bore.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.