Method for qualifying the cylinder valve on gas cylinders

Abstract

Provided is a safe method for qualifying the cylinder valves on gas cylinders, which method can also clean the cylinder valve when necessary. Compressed gas residing in a gas cylinder is discharged through the flow path of a cylinder valve with the cylinder valve on the gas cylinder in an open position. During this process ultrasound vibrations from the generator are applied to the cylinder valve and the number of particles in the outflowing gas is counted by a detector. The cleanliness of the cylinder valve is evaluated based on the detected value of the number of particles provided by the detector. When the detected value exceeds a standard value, the application of ultrasound vibrations, counting of the number of particles, and evaluation of the cleanliness are repeated until the detected value reaches or falls below the standard value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.