On-site analyzer
AssigneeGlobal Technovations, Inc.
InventorsJohn Coates, Neil Rosenbaum, Yosef Abuneaj
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus (10) for analyzing lubricant oils and functional fluids includes an optical emission spectrometer (OES) (26) having a substantially continuously valued wavelength versus intensity output (140). The OES (26) analyzes light captured from a spark emission stand (58) through which the fluid sample is flowed. An expert system (160-172) operates according to a set of Rules that corrects background influence from the electrodes, and generates diagnostic text (174) for an operator based on the information about the fluid sample provided by the OES (26) and other measurement devices. The apparatus (10) is reduce in size, weight and cost.
Claims20
A method of normalizing an intensity of and regularizing a sample spectrum of a fluid sample generated by a spectrometer having a pair of electrodes, the method comprising the steps of normalizing the intensity by:
- selecting a background spectral feature from a plurality of spectral features of a background spectrum that is indicative at least in part of the composition of the electrodes wherein the background spectral feature has an intensity variation characteristic;
- and
- transforming the sample spectrum with respect to intensity in accordance with an intensity of said selected background spectral feature as indicated in the sample spectrum;
- the method comprising regularizing the intensity by:
- (A) defining a background spectrum having a plurality of spectral features indicative at least in part of the composition of the electrodes;
- (B) selecting at least a first background spectral feature from said plurality of spectral features wherein the first background spectral feature has a predetermined wavelength value associated therewith;
- (C) determining a measured wavelength value of the at least first background spectral feature in the sample spectrum;
- and
- (D) translating the sample spectrum with respect to wavelength in accordance with said predetermined wavelength value, said measured wavelength value, and a predetermined translation strategy.
A method of normalizing an intensity of a sample spectrum of a fluid sample by a spectrometer having a pair of electrodes, the method comprising the steps of:
- (A) selecting a background spectral feature from a plurality of spectral features of a background spectrum that is indicative at least in part of the composition of the electrodes wherein the background spectral feature has an intensity variation characteristic;
- and
- (B) transforming the sample spectrum with respect to intensity in accordance with an intensity of said selected background spectral feature as indicated in the Sample spectrum;
- the method further comprising the step of regularizing the sample spectrum.
A method of normalizing an intensity of a sample spectrum of a fluid sample by a spectrometer having a pair of electrodes, the method comprising the steps of:
- (A) selecting a background spectral feature from a plurality of spectral features of a background spectrum that is indicative at least in part of the composition of the electrodes wherein the background spectral feature has an intensity variation characteristic;
- and
- (B) transforming the sample spectrum with respect to intensity in accordance with an intensity of said selected background spectral feature as indicated in the sample spectrum;
- wherein the fluid sample contains constituents, and wherein step (A) is performed by the substeps of:
- identifying an emission line associated with at least one constituent;
- selecting a first set of spectral features from the plurality of spectral features of the background spectrum;
- obtaining a predetermined number of spectra of the fluid sample using the pair of electrodes;
- determining a first intensity variation of said identified emission line over said predetermined number of spectra;
- determining, for each spectral feature in said first set, a respective second intensity variation over said predetermined number of spectra;
- selecting spectral features from said first set that have a respective second intensity variation that is less than said first intensity variation to thereby form a second set of spectral features;
- selecting one of the spectral features from said second set based on predetermined criteria.
A method of analyzing a sample spectrum of one of lubricating oil sample and a functional fluid sample having one or more constituent elements wherein the sample spectrum is generated by a spectrometer having a pair of electrodes, the method comprising the steps of:
- (A) translating the sample spectrum with respect to wavelength in accordance with a first background spectral feature having a known wavelength selected from a background spectrum having a plurality of spectral features indicative at least in part of the composition of the electrodes;
- (B) determining an intensity of a second background spectral feature having an intensity variation characteristic;
- (C) determining an intensity of a characteristic emission line associated with at least one of the constituent elements;
- (D) transforming the constituent element intensity into a concentration parameter using (i) the intensity of the second background spectral feature in the sample spectrum, (ii) the intensity of the constituent emission line, and (iii) predetermined data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.