Process gas chromatographic apparatus

Claim 2

A process gas chromatographic apparatus including a detector providing a signal with peaks corresponding to components of a gas sample, comprising in combination: sensitivity-variable selector means responsive to said detector signal and including at least one adjustable sensitivityvariable means for passing and weighting a corresponding detector signal peak and related to an individual component to be determined so that the concentration of said component is given as a proportion to the total amount of the whole of the components in a sample to be analyzed; peak sensor means responsive to said detector signal for sensing and signaling the occurrence of said peaks; programming timer means programmable by said peak sensor means when a standard sample having known components is applied to the apparatus for memorizing the time relation of the sensed peaks corresponding to one set of said standard sample components and for generating correspondingly time-related signals when a sample having unknown component proportions is subsequently applied to said apparatus; a control circuit means for controlling the selection of said sensitivity-variable means in response to preselected time relations between signals from said peak sensor means and said programming timer means; and integrator-recorder means responsive to the signal peak from said sensitivity-variable selector means for producing the integrated value of said signal in a digital form representative of the percentage of the desired component relative to the whole of the components in the sample analyzed.

Claim 3

A process gas chromatographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said programming timer means comprises a magnetic memory timer.

Claim 4

A process gas chromatographic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the programming of said programming timer means is conducted by the signal from said peak sensor means.

Claim 5

The apparatus of claim 1 in which said control circuit means is connected to said peak sensor means and includes means responsive to said programming timer means and coupled to said integrator-recorder means for preventing recordation in the absence of said correspondingly time-related signal from said integrator-recorder means and despite presence of a signal from said peak sensor means, whereby noise pulses interspersed among desired component peaks are ignored by said integrator-recorder means.

Claim 6

The apparatus of claim 1 in which said sensitivity-variable means comprises a plurality of signal amplitude varying means insertable in the path of the detector signal to compensate for differing apparatus sensitivities to corresponding sample components and including selector means interposed between said sensitivity-variable means and said detector and actuable by connection to said control circuit means for switching successive detector signal peaks to successive and corresponding ones of said amplitude varying means in timed relation to successive and corresponding ones of control signals from said control circuit means, said control circuit means including means blocking switching of said selector means in the absence of a time related signal from said programming timer means and despite presence of a signal from said peak sensor means.

Claim 7

The apparatus of claim 1 in which said integrator-recorder means includes a voltage to frequency converter responsive to signal amplitudes from said sensitivity-variable means and a digital scaler for counting pulses produced by said voltage to frequency converter whereby the output of said scaler is the integrated value in digital form of a weighted and selected one of the detector signal peaks.

Claim 8

A process gas chromatographic apparatus having means for obtaining a gas sample from a stream and a detector providing a signal including a series of peaks respectively related to a series of components in the sample, the combination comprising: peak sensor means responsive to said detector signal for sensing and signaling the occurrence of said peaks; programming timer means programmable by said peak sensor means when a standard sample having known components is applied to the apparatus for memorizing the time relationship of the sensed peaks corresponding to one set of said standard sample components and for generating correspondingly time related signals when a sample having unknown component proportions is subsequently applied to said apparatus; control circuit means responsive to signals from said programming timer means for producing a first control signal and responsive to presence of a peak sensor means signal when a programming timer means signal is absent for providing a second control signal; sensitivity-variable means comprising a plurality of signal amplitude varying means presetable to compensate for differing apparatus sensitivities to corresponding sample components in response to variations imposed thereby on corresponding detector signal peaks for components of known percentage amounts in a standard sample, each varying means corresponding to a different component; selector means connected between the input side of said sensitivity-variable means and the output of said detector and actuable by connection to said control circuit means for switching successive detector signal peaks to successive and corresponding ones of said amplitude varying means in timed relation to successive and corresponding ones of the first control signals; integrator-recorder means connected to the output side of the said plurality of amplitude varying means for receiving weighted detector signal peaks therefrom, said integrator-recorder means including means for producing integrated digital representations of ones of said weighted detector signal peaks and means for recording said digital representations, said recorded represenTations being digitally proportional to the percentage amount of desired ones of said components in said sample; means applying said second control signal to said integrator-recorder means for preventing recordation thereby in the absence of a programming timer means signal and despite the presence of a detector signal peak; whereby noise pulses interspersed among the component peaks in the detector signal are ignored by said integrator-recorder means.

Claim 9

A process gas chromatographic apparatus having means for obtaining a gas sample from a stream and a detector providing a signal including a series of peaks respectively related to a series of components in the sample, the combination comprising: peak sensor means responsive to said detector signal for sensing and signaling the occurrence of said peaks; programming timer means programmable by said peak sensor means when a standard sample having known components is applied to the apparatus for memorizing the time relationship of the sensed peaks corresponding to one set of said standard sample components and for generating correspondingly time related signals when a sample having unknown component proportions is subsequently applied to said apparatus; control circuit means responsive to signals from said programming timer means for producing a first control signal and responsive to presence of a peak sensor means signal when a programming timer means signal is absent for providing a second control signal; sensitivity-variable means comprising a plurality of signal amplitude varying means presetable to compensate for differing apparatus sensitivities to corresponding sample components in response to variations imposed thereby on corresponding detector signal peaks for components of known percentage amounts in a standard sample, each varying means corresponding to a different component; selector means connected between the input side of said sensitivity-variable means and the output of said detector and actuable by connection to said control circuit means for switching successive detector signal peaks to successive and corresponding ones of said amplitude varying means in timed relation to successive and corresponding ones of the first control signals; integrator-recorder means connected to the output side of the said plurality of amplitude varying means for receiving weighted detector signal peaks therefrom, said integrator-recorder means including means for producing integrated digital representations of ones of said weighted detector signal peaks and means for recording said digital representations, said recorded represenTations being digitally proportional to the percentage amount of desired ones of said components in said sample; means applying said second control signal to said integrator-recorder means for preventing recordation thereby in the absence of a programming timer means signal and despite the presence of a detector signal peak; whereby noise pulses interspersed among the component peaks in the detector signal are ignored by said integrator-recorder means.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein the peak sensor means comprises level slicer type means for sensing detecter outputs having an electrical value higher than a certain level.

Claim 11

The apparatus of claim 7 in which said peak sensor means comprises differential means for sensing the start and end of a detector signal peak.

Claim 12

The apparatus of claim 7 in which said programming timer means comprises a moveable magnetic medium for sequentially recording detector peak signals from said standard sample.

Claim 13

The apparatus of claim 7 in which said means for producing integrated digital representations comprises a voltage-frequency converter for converting a D.C. voltage whose amplitude varies in time into a frequency signal having a frequency proportional to the voltage amplitude value of the D.C. voltage and further includes means for counting the oscillations of the frequency signals over the time duration of the D.C. voltage peak for producing a plurality of counts which in number correspond to the integrated value of the voltage peak.