Rotary evaporator
AssigneeIKA-Werke GmbH & Co. KG
InventorsHubert Pinhack, Martin Spath
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rotary evaporator (1) having a cooler (6), wherein temperature sensors (15, 17) are disposed in the inlet (14) and outlet (16) of the coolant into or out of the cooler (6), and a volume flow rate of the coolant through the cooler (6) is determined. The initiation or termination of condensation in the cooler (6) is derived from an increase or decrease in the difference of the temperatures (X) at the temperature sensors (15, 17). The volume of the condensed distillate (10) is determined from the difference in temperatures (X), and a distillation volume control is performed. By regulating the heating power of the heater (11) and/or the pressure in the system, the loading of the cooler (6) is controlled as a function of the difference in temperatures (X).
Claims16
A method for evaporating a material to be distilled, comprising:
- inserting the material to be distilled (3) by at least partial evaporation into a distilling flask (4), the distilling flask being supported rotationally around an axis (2), heating the distilling flask (4) with the material to be distilled (3) via a heater (11), and rotating the distilling flask (4) during the heating process around the axis (2) by a drive (12),
- guiding vapor (13) forming due to the heating process via a vapor tube (5) encompassing the axis (2) into a cooler (6), the cooler (6) comprising a cooling spiral (8) connected to a cooling circuit to form a flow path (7) for a coolant and with said coolant flowing through it, and condensing the vapor (13) at the cooling spiral (8) and collecting distillate in a distillate flask (9),
- determining a difference between temperatures of the coolant continuously or in repeated intervals between two positions (14, 16) in the flow path (7) of the coolant, spaced apart from each other by a section (18) of the flow path (7) of the coolant,
- determining a flow rate, using a flow meter (19), of the coolant from said section (18) continuously or in repeated intervals, wherein a control signal is deduced for the rotary evaporator (1) from a temporal progression of the determined temperature difference and a temporal progression of a determined flow rate, and
- determining an amount distilled and collected in the distillate flask (9) from the temporal progression of the determined temperature difference and the temporal progression of the determined flow rate and the control signal initiates an output of a value determined for the distilled amount.
A rotary evaporator comprising:
- a distilling flask (4) for receiving a material to be distilled (3) and supported rotationally around an axis (2),
- a vapor tube (5) encompassing the axis (2), having a cooler (6) comprising:
- a cooling spiral (8) that forms a flow path (7) connected to a cooling circuit and receiving a coolant, and having a distillate flask (9) to collect distillate (10), with the vapor tube (5) connecting the distilling flask (4) to the cooler (6) and the distillate flask (9), the distilling flask (4) is heatable by a heater (11), the distilling flask (4) being rotational during the heating process around the axis (2) by a drive (12), and the vapor (13) being guided through the vapor tube (5), condensed at the cooling spiral (8) and collected in the distillate flask (9),
- a first temperature sensor (15) is located at a first position (14) in the flow path (7) of the coolant and a second temperature sensor (17) is located at a second position (16) in the flow path (7) of the coolant, with the first position (14) being spaced apart from the second position (16) by a section (18) of the flow path (7) of the coolant,
- a flow sensor, comprising a flow meter (19) being provided to determine the flow rate of the coolant through the section (18),
- means for determining or detecting a temporal progression of a temperature difference between the first (15) and the second (17) temperature sensors and a temporal progression of the flow rate and
- means for calculating the distillate (10) collected in the distillate flask (9) in a certain period from the temporal progression of the temperature difference determined and from the temporal progression of the flow rate of the coolant through the section (18) of the flow path (7) of the coolant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.