The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 24, 1992
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1991
Benjamin S Crowe, Centerville, DE (US);
Steven R Sauerbrunn, Wilmington, DE (US);
TA Instruments, Inc., New Castle, DE (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to analytical methods for determining the composition of a material that undergoes a transition as a function of a driving variable. As applied to thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), a first preferred embodiment comprises (1) decreasing the heating rate when deviations from a baseline signal are detected; (2) establishing a minimum heating rate; (3) forcing the heating rate to a predetermined maximum whenever the rate of change of the weight change with respect to the temperature falls below a predetermined value; and (4) adjusting the heating rate according to the rate of change of the weight of the sample to track a predetermined rate of change of the weight of the sample. A second preferred embodiment comprises (1) selecting either a high-productivity or a high-resolution mode; (2) in both modes, controllingn the rate of temperature increase according to a function containing an exponential term, wherein the argument of the exponential term includes the percent weight change per unit time of the sample; (3) in the high-productivity mode, choosing the function so that when the percentage weight change per minute of the sample is small, the heating rate approaches the maximum allowed heating rate, and when the percentage weight change per minute is very large, the heating rate approaches zero; (4) in the high-resolution mode, choosing the function such that the heating rate is held at almost zero during a transition.