Oxford Glycosystems Limited

Ashok Patel

Antonis C Ioannides

James S Wilson

A system for delivering measured amounts of liquid, such as reagents used in chromatography. Liquid is first moved under gas pressure from a reservoir, such as a reagent bottle, through a valve into a narrow pipe. It reaches a detector which, detecting its presence, closes the valve thus trapping an amount of liquid between the valve and the detector, this amount of liquid then constituting a `unit` or `pulse` of liquid. The movement of the valve is used to connect a gas supply which drives the `unit` or `pulse` out of the pipe to an ultimate destination, such as a chromatographic column. A further `unit` or `pulse` can then be moved into the pipe and this repeated so that delivery to the destination is made in a series of such `units` or `pulse`. By timing the delivery of one `unit` or `pulse`, an amount less than one `unit` or `pulse` can be delivered by passing liquid into the pipe for less than the time taken to deliver one `unit`. This can be used to make up a delivery which is not a unitary multiple of one `unit` or to deliver a small amount of less than one `unit`. No moving parts are involved and delivery of accurately measured amounts is achieved.

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Littlemore, United Kingdom

Ashok Patel