US 12,210,003 B2
Liquid chromatographic apparatus and air bubble removal method of liquid chromatographic apparatus
Midori Tobita, Tokyo (JP); Yuichiro Hashimoto, Tokyo (JP); and Nobuhiro Tsukada, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 17/911,763
Filed by HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Mar. 5, 2021, PCT No. PCT/JP2021/008751
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 15, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/187172, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 23, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-049500 (JP), filed on Mar. 19, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0123459 A1, Apr. 20, 2023
Int. Cl. G01N 30/32 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 30/32 (2013.01) [G01N 2030/326 (2013.01); G01N 2030/328 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A liquid chromatographic apparatus comprising:
a liquid feeding pump to feed a solvent;
an injector to inject a sample into the solvent fed from the liquid feeding pump;
a separation column to receive the solvent and the sample through the injector and separate the sample to components;
a detector to detect the components supplied from the separation column;
a pressure sensor to measure a pressure in a solvent flow channel of the liquid feeding pump; and
a controller to control operation of the liquid feeding pump,
wherein the controller: controls purge operation that is operation of removing air bubbles in the solvent flow channel by the liquid feeding pump; judges whether or not a pressure change amount in the solvent flow channel measured by the pressure sensor is a specified change amount or larger in the purge operation; and completes the air bubble removal operation when the pressure change amount is the specified change amount or larger, and
wherein the liquid feeding pump has a purge valve having a plurality of ports and switching to a position of feeding the solvent to the injector, a discarding position, or a closed position, and the controller switches the purge valve to the closed position when a number of times that the pressure change amount in the solvent flow channel is not less than specified times an average pressure change amount within a specified time is less than a specified consecutive number of times and switches the purge valve to the discarding position when the pressure in the solvent flow channel exceeds a set pressure.