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The invention relates to air sampling and particularly to sampling badges to be worn by individuals or placed in areas having possible air contaminants.
Various types of badges have been designed for workers to wear to monitor and sample contaminants in the air. Badges are also suspended or placed in indoor and ambient air settings, independent of personnel. Many such badges are made to sample a single constituent even though there may be more than one possible contaminant in the atmosphere inhaled by the worker. Some badges in the past have also been limited to a certain absorbent or adherent for collecting the contaminant, such as charcoal, sorbent media, or treated paper. Uptake rates (sampling rates) have also been limited simply because of the construction of the badge.
There is a need for more versatility in badge air sampling design.
At least two different collection media or compositions can be accommodated in our invention, and different sampling rates—that is, different uptake rates—can be prescribed for each medium.
As is known in the art of air sampling, the “uptake rate” of a diffusion sampler is directly proportional to the diffusion coefficient of the collected contaminant and the area of the diffusion barrier, and inversely proportional to the thickness of the barrier. An important characteristic of the barrier is the number and size of holes in it—a high sampling rate sampler may have a high number of holes in the barrier.
Our sampler may be constructed in the form of a badge having a nonsampling side, at least two sampling sides and a clip for attaching it to the user's clothing or to a device in an indoor environment or outdoor setting. As normally worn, the nonsampling side is closest to the wearer, and the at least two sampling sides are exposed to the atmosphere immediately in front of the wearer. The device includes a frame defining the sides and also defining chambers for at least two sampling units comprising collection media.
By a sampling unit (we may also call it an air contaminant collecting unit), we mean a permeable pouch containing a predetermined amount of sorbent, charcoal or other material, or a portion of treated paper, known to absorb a contaminant. Such sampling units will be described further below.
Each chamber defined by the frame may comprise an impermeable back preferably conforming in shape to a side of a sampling unit, and includes an open front which is covered by a removable barrier that is air-permeable or contains a desired number and size of holes or other means to provide access for the air to pass into the chamber and the sampling unit within it.
Prior to use, the entire body of the badge, or at least the sampling sides, is or are covered, preferably hermetically, by a sleeve, which may be rigid or not, to prevent contamination before use. The sleeve can be replaced after each use to prevent further intake of contaminants after the prescribed or desired time of exposure.
In
The invention will be described with respect to the two-element sampler of
Referring now to the perspective view of
The next step in assembling the badge sampler is shown in
After assembling as shown in
When the wearer's shift or other timed period is complete, accurate results require that sleeve 4 be placed over the barriers 6 and 7, as shown in
Referring now to
In
Chambers on the two sides of the badge may be filled, and barriers placed, in the same way as will be shown more clearly with respect to
In
The exploded view of
Our device is reusable. It is highly versatile in that many different types of sorbents, extractants, and adhering surfaces can be employed, while at the same time the uptake rate of the barriers can be changed and varied almost infinitely. Barriers in a range of very high and very low permeability can be employed while the chambers can contain the same or different materials, pouches, papers, types of charcoal, or the like. All of this variability can take form in different numbers of chambers. This provides for a very large possible combination of capabilities for the sampler.
Some of the sorbent and other materials that can be in the containers include activated carbon, activated charcoal, graphitized carbons, carbon molecular sieves, silica gel, XAD resins (including but not limited to XAD-2 resin), CHROMOSORB resins, TENAX TA, ANASORB 747 beaded carbon, treated carbons and charcoals, treated silica, treated ANASORB 747, treated XAD resins (including but not limited to XAD-2 resin), gels, treated charcoal and any other material known to absorb or adsorb an air contaminant such as porous polymers.
CHROMOSORB is a registered trademark currently owned by IMERYS MINERALS CALIFORNIA, INC. CORPORATION DELAWARE 1732 NORTH FIRST STREET, SUITE 450 SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 95112, it can be purchased from Advanced Minerals Corporation. In general it is a sorbent. More specifically it can be diatomite and polymer based sorbents.
XAD is a registered trademark currently owned by ROHM AND HASS COMPANY, a Delaware corporation, 1732 North First Street, Suite 450 San Jose Calif., 95112. In general they are polymeric and carbonaceous sorbents.
TENAX TA is a registered trademark currently owned by BUCHEM B.V. CORPORATION NETHERLANDS Minden 60 7327 AW Apeldoorn NETHERLANDS. In general TENAX is a sorbent. Specifically, it can be a porous polymer based on 2,6-diphenyl-p-phenyleneoxide.
ANASORB is a registered trademark of SKC, Inc. CORPORATION PENNSYLVANIA 863 Valley View Road Eighty Four PENNSYLVANIA 15330 and can be purchased directly from SKC. ANASORB is generally used in connection with sorbents used with air samplers. ANASORB 747 is typically a synthetic carbon with low ash content sorbent.
Types of mesh suitable for the pouches are stainless steel, nylon, Teflon mesh, or any other mesh suitable for the sorbent.
Typical permeability of the barrier could be from 0.5 to 130 milliliters per minute. Other rates are also possible.
The barrier can have any number of holes. Preferably the barrier will have between 1-1000 holes. Most preferably a barrier will have 5 holes to 111 holes per barrier (diffuser plate). On a three sided sampler with the most preferred barriers (5-111 holes), one of skill in the art will recognize the never seen before benefit of having the ability to alter sampling rate of the sampler. Under this scenario the sampler can have between 15 to 333 holes per badge. Differing amount of holes can also be used to obtain different rates.
Various changes could be made in the above construction and method without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims below. It is intended that all matter contained in the above description, as shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not as a limitation.
This Application is a Continuation Application of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/051,793, filed on Feb. 24, 2016, and entitled Versatile Passive Air Sampler, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/119,900, filed on Feb. 24, 2015, and entitled Versatile Passive Air Sampler, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20200393341 A1 | Dec 2020 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62119900 | Feb 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15051793 | Feb 2016 | US |
Child | 16914626 | US |