JP2010249730A - Gas chromatograph device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cool quickly a column and an oven, even when an intake port for taking the outside air into the oven is arranged close to an exhaust fan for circulating the air in a space between the oven and a casing. <P>SOLUTION: An exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26 for discharging/sucking the air from/into the oven are provided in parallel vertically on a right half of a rear surface part of the casing 12. The exhaust fan 30 for cooling a peripheral wall of the oven by circulating the air in the space between the casing 12 and the oven is provided on the left of the intake port 26 on the rear surface part of the casing 12. An L-shaped partition plate 37 is provided between the exhaust fan 30 and the intake port 26, and between the intake port 26 and the exhaust port 24, to thereby prevent high-temperature air discharged from the exhaust fan 30 and the exhaust port 26 from flowing into the oven from the intake port 26. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas chromatograph apparatus provided with an intake port and an exhaust port for ventilating an inside of an oven and a cooling fan for cooling the periphery of the oven.

  In a general gas chromatograph apparatus, an oven is arranged inside a casing, and an electric control board is arranged in a space between the casing and the outer wall of the oven. In many cases, the analytical column is housed in an oven and heated so that the temperature gradually increases. Thereby, the components in the sample injected into the column are separated. Normally, the column temperature at the time of sample injection is low, and the components in the sample are separated by gradually raising the temperature, and when the last component is separated, the temperature becomes about 200 ° C. Therefore, in order to start the analysis after the analysis is completed and the next sample is injected into the column, it is necessary to quickly cool the high-temperature column and the oven. For this reason, in the gas chromatograph apparatus, after the analysis is completed, the inside of the oven is forcibly ventilated by a stirring fan installed in the oven.

Further, when the oven becomes high temperature, the characteristics of the electric circuit of the control board change, and the analysis operation by the gas chromatograph device becomes unstable. For this reason, air is circulated through the space between the housing and the oven outer wall by the cooling exhaust fan to cool the oven outer wall and the control board.
In a gas chromatograph apparatus, a sample inlet and a sample outlet for a detection unit are usually arranged in the upper part of an oven. It arrange | positions collectively on the rear surface part of a body (refer patent document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-19867 (Fig. 1)

  However, when the exhaust fan and the intake port are arranged together, the high-temperature air discharged by the cooling fan is sucked into the oven from the intake port, and the cooling efficiency of the column and the oven is lowered.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is that a column and an oven are provided in which an intake port for taking outside air into the oven and an exhaust fan for circulating air in a space between the oven and the housing are arranged together. It is providing the gas chromatograph apparatus which can cool rapidly.

The gas chromatograph apparatus according to the present invention, which has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, is one in which an oven for heating a column is arranged in a housing,
a) an exhaust fan that is disposed on one side of the casing and circulates air through a space between the casing and the oven to cool the peripheral wall of the oven;
b) an intake port and an exhaust port disposed on the same side surface as the side surface of the housing on which the exhaust fan is disposed, for sucking and discharging air into the oven;
c) a partition plate provided between the air inlet and the cooling fan;
It is characterized by providing.

  In the gas chromatograph apparatus of the present invention, since the partition plate is provided between the intake port arranged close to the cooling exhaust fan, the high-temperature air discharged by the exhaust fan is taken in from the intake port. And the column or oven can be cooled quickly. By increasing the cooling rate in this way, the waiting time until the analysis of the next sample can be started after the analysis of a certain sample is completed is shortened. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time until the end of the analysis of all the samples when continuously analyzing a large number of samples under the same conditions (that is, without changing the column).

The rear view of the gas chromatograph apparatus concerning one example of the present invention. Schematic which shows typically the internal structure of the gas chromatograph apparatus of a present Example. The figure which shows the time change of the temperature in oven.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a gas chromatograph apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a rear view of the gas chromatograph apparatus of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a schematic view schematically showing the internal structure of the gas chromatograph apparatus of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, for convenience of explanation, each element is drawn with a positional relationship different from the actual one.

  In the gas chromatograph apparatus according to the present embodiment, the rectangular box-shaped oven 10 is surrounded by a wall made of a heat insulating material and disposed inside the housing 12. A moderate space is provided between the oven 10 and the housing 12. A column 14 is removably accommodated in the oven 10. One end of the column is connected to the sample inlet 16 and the other end is connected to the detector 18.

  In the oven 10, a heater 20 for heating and a fan 22 for stirring are installed. A rectangular exhaust port 24 and an intake port 26 are formed side by side on the right half (left half as viewed from the front) of the rear surface of the housing 12. The exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26 are respectively provided with doors 24a and 26a (shown only in FIG. 2) that can be opened and closed by a common drive mechanism. Further, the exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26 communicate with the inside of the oven 10 through an exhaust duct and an intake duct (not shown). When the fan 22 is driven to rotate, the air in the oven 10 is agitated, the air in the oven 10 is discharged from the exhaust port 24, and external air flows into the oven 10 from the intake port 26.

  A circular opening 28 is formed on the left side of the intake port 26 in the rear surface of the housing 12, and an exhaust fan 30 for cooling is disposed in the opening 28. The exhaust fan 30 is rotationally driven by a fan motor 32. In FIG. 2, the fan motor 32 is drawn in the space below the oven 10, but the fan motor 32 is actually arranged in the space between the rear wall of the oven 10 and the housing 12, and the rotation axis of the fan motor 32 is shown. The exhaust fan 30 is rotationally driven at one end, and the stirring fan 22 is rotationally driven at the other end.

  A controller 34 that controls the electrical system of the gas chromatograph apparatus is disposed in the space between the lower surface of the oven 10 and the housing 12. The control device 34 is mainly configured by a microcomputer including a CPU, RAM, ROM and the like.

  In this embodiment, the rear surface portion of the housing 12 has an L-shape having a first partition portion 35 located between the opening 28 and the intake port 26 and a second partition portion 36 located between the exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26. A partition plate 37 is provided. The height dimension of the partition plate 37 in the front-rear direction is set to 6 to 10 cm, for example.

  In the gas chromatograph apparatus of this embodiment, the agitation fan 22 and the exhaust fan 30 are always rotated by the fan motor 32 both during analysis (at the time of temperature increase) and at the end of the analysis (at the time of cooling). During the analysis, the doors 24a and 26a of the exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26 are closed, and the air in the oven 10 is circulated by the air blowing action of the stirring fan 22, so that the temperature in the oven 10 is kept uniform. On the other hand, at the end of the analysis, the doors 24a and 26a of the exhaust port 24 and the intake port 26 are opened. At the same time, the intake fan 25 (shown only in FIG. 2) provided at the intake port 26 also starts rotating. As a result, outside air having a relatively low temperature is taken into the oven 10 from the intake port 26, air in the oven 10 is circulated by the blowing action of the stirring fan 22, and high temperature air is discharged from the exhaust port 24. . Thereby, the cooling in the oven 10 is promoted. Note that air is taken into the space between the outer wall of the oven 10 and the housing 12 from the outside air intake port 39 by the air blowing action of the exhaust fan 30 during the analysis and at the end of the analysis, and flows through the space. After that, it is discharged from the opening 28.

  At this time, since the partition plate 37 is provided between the intake port 26 and the opening 28, and between the intake port 26 and the exhaust port 24, the high-temperature air discharged from the opening 28 by the exhaust fan 30 and agitation The hot air discharged from the exhaust port 24 by the fan 22 is prevented from being taken in from the intake port 26.

FIG. 3 shows the result of experimentally determining the time required to cool the oven temperature from 450 ° C. to 50 ° C. in order to investigate the effect of the partition plate 37 in the gas chromatograph apparatus of the present embodiment. The experiment was performed using a gas chromatograph apparatus provided with a partition plate 37 having a height dimension of 6 cm and 10 cm and a conventional gas chromatograph apparatus without a partition plate under the following conditions. In FIG. 3, the curve A indicates the cooling time when the height of the partition plate 37 is 6 cm, and the curve B indicates the cooling time when the height of the partition plate 37 is 10 cm. Curve C shows the cooling time of a conventional gas chromatograph apparatus without a partition plate.
・ Rotation speed of fan motor 32: 1200 rpm (at 50Hz), 1450 rpm (at 60Hz)
-Size of exhaust port 24 and intake port 26: 100 mm x 100 mm
・ Specifications of intake fan 25 Maximum air flow: 2.55m ³ / min
Maximum static pressure: 211Pa
Rotation speed: 6300r / min

As shown in FIG. 3, when the partition plate 37 is not provided, the cooling time is about 4 minutes and 5 seconds, whereas when the 6 cm partition plate 37 is present, 3 minutes 54 seconds and when the 10 cm partition plate 37 is present. The cooling time was shortened to 3 minutes 24 seconds.
Thus, in this embodiment, since the partition plate 37 is attached, the cooling time for the high-temperature column and the oven can be shortened. For this reason, the time from the end of the analysis to the replacement of the column can be shortened, and the analysis time for continuously analyzing a large number of analysis objects can be shortened.

In addition, this invention is not limited to an above-described Example, For example, the following modifications are possible.
The partition plate may be at least between the cooling fan and the intake port, and the partition between the intake port and the exhaust port may be omitted.
The larger the height of the partition plate, the higher the effect of preventing high-temperature air discharged by the exhaust fan from being taken in from the intake port. The installation location will be restricted. Accordingly, the height of the partition plate is set to an appropriate size in consideration of the air volume of the exhaust fan, the air volume taken in from the intake port, the size of the housing, and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Oven 12 ... Case 14 ... Column 20 ... Heater 22 ... Stirring fan 24 ... Exhaust port 25 ... Intake fan 26 ... Intake port 30 ... Exhaust fan 32 ... Fan motor 35 ... First partition 36 ... Second partition 37 ... Partition plate

Claims (2)

In the gas chromatograph apparatus in which an oven for heating the column is arranged in the housing,
a) an exhaust fan that is disposed on one side of the casing and circulates air through a space between the casing and the oven to cool the peripheral wall of the oven;
b) an intake port and an exhaust port disposed on the same side surface as the side surface of the housing on which the exhaust fan is disposed, for sucking and discharging air into the oven;
c) A gas chromatograph apparatus comprising: a partition plate provided between the intake port and the cooling fan. The gas chromatograph apparatus according to claim 1,
The gas chromatograph apparatus, wherein the partition plate includes a first partition portion positioned between the intake port and the cooling fan, and a second partition portion positioned between the intake port and the exhaust port.

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