Calibration tool for laser particle counters
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorSteven E Carpenter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A calibration system for a particle counter comprising a chamber, an air inlet pathway and a supply source of a liquid carrier. The air inlet pathway provides a gaseous substance into the chamber, and the liquid carrier passes through an array of thermal inkjet heads with a plurality of orifices to form a plurality of liquid particles before the liquid particles are entrained by a flow of the gaseous substance. A controller regulates the size, amount, and rate of liquid particles that exit the array.
Claims21
A calibration system for a particle counter, comprising:
- a chamber;
- an air inlet pathway, the inlet pathway providing a gaseous substance to the chamber;
- a supply source of a liquid carrier operatively connected to the chamber;
- an array of thermal inkjet heads substantially within the chamber for receiving and transmitting the liquid carrier from the supply source, each thermal inkjet head including an plate with a plurality of orifices;
- an outlet pathway operatively connected to the chamber;
- and
- a controller operatively connected to the array of thermal inkjet heads and the supply source,
- wherein the liquid carrier is introduced into the gaseous substance as a plurality of liquid particles after exiting the array, and wherein the controller regulates the size of the particles and rate at which the particles exit the array and are entrained by a flow of the gaseous substance.
A particle counter calibration system, comprising:
- a calibration chamber including:
- an air intake portion for transferring a stream of a gaseous substance;
- and
- an array of inkjet heads including a plurality of orifices of different sizes;
- a supply of a liquid carrier operatively connected to the chamber;
- a control unit operatively connected to the array of inkjet heads and the supply of liquid carrier;
- wherein the liquid carrier forms a plurality of liquid particles when flowing through the array before being entrained by the stream of a gaseous substance, and wherein the size of the liquid particles and the rate at which particles exit the array are regulated by the control unit.
A system for calibrating a particle counter, comprising:
- an inlet passageway for receiving a gaseous material;
- a chamber operatively connected to the air inlet passageway and including an array of inkjet heads having orifices of different sizes;
- a reservoir for supplying a liquid material to the chamber;
- a particle counter operatively connected to the chamber;
- and
- means for controlling the number of liquid particles that exit the array,
- wherein the liquid material passes through the controlling means to form a plurality of liquid particles and is entrained in a flow of the gaseous material, and wherein the controlling means regulates the size of the particles and rate at which the liquid particles are entrained in the flow of the gaseous material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.