Claims
- 1. In a system for determining or testing whether a cannister or other sealed, hollow body filled with a liquid or gas under pressure is leaky where such system employs creation of a vacuum in a vacuum chamber and any change in pressure within the vacuum is monitored, the improvement which comprises using as the vacuum chamber a test chamber (5) which is separated into two sub-chambers (3, 4) in such a way that a test body (2) is exposed to the first chamber (3) which is at ambient pressure, and another portion of the test body is exposed to the second chamber (4) which is at reduced air pressure, wherein both chambers (4) are separated from one another by means of a seal (6) and the test body (2) extends in a sealing manner through a penetration in the seal, and the test body (2) has a pre-specified, defined leakage.
- 2. The system test body (2) as recited in claim 1 wherein the pre-determined leakage rate is realized by a glass capillary (7) of pre-determined length and pre-specified diameter.
- 3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the leakage rate of the glass capillary (7) is 6.67×10−3 mbar/sec x 1 for ambient atmosphere (ambient air).
- 4. The apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the glass capillary (7) has a diameter in the range no more than about 50 μm.
- 5. In a system for determining or testing whether a cannister, or other sealed, hollow body, filled with a liquid or gas under pressure is leaky where such system employs creation of a vacuum in a vacuum chambers and any change in pressure within the vacuum is monitored, the improvement which comprises placing a test body (20) in the vacuum chamber (30), wherein a defined amount of moistness is supplied to the test body (20) in advance and increase in pressure is measured in the vacuum chamber (30).
- 6. The apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein the test body (20) comprises polyamide of defined size of surface.
- 7. The apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein the test body comprises polyoxymethylene (POM).
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of prior provisional application U.S. S. No. 60/291,876, which was filed on May 18, 2001, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 therefrom.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60291876 |
May 2001 |
US |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10152182 |
May 2002 |
US |
Child |
10755530 |
Jan 2004 |
US |