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:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 13, 2000
Sadao Maeda, Okazaki, JP;
Other;
Abstract
An apparatus including a tube which is elastically deformable and which is connected to a compressed-air passage to introduce a compressed air therefrom, a pressure lowering device which is provided at a position corresponding to an intermediate portion of the tube, and which externally presses, and thereby elastically deforms, the intermediate portion of the tube to decrease a cross-sectional area of the intermediate portion, and thereby decrease an amount of the compressed air that flows through a downstream-side portion of the tube that is located on a downstream side of the intermediate portion in a flow direction in which the compressed air flows in the tube, so that a pressure of the compressed air in the downstream-side portion is lower than a pressure of the compressed air in an upstream-side portion of the tube, the tube having an air-leak opening which is provided in the downstream-side portion thereof and which allows a portion of the compressed air in the downstream-side portion to leak into the atmosphere, and a particle-number counter which sucks, in a state in which the portion of the compressed air in the downstream-side portion of the tube is allowed to leak into the atmosphere via the air-leak opening, the compressed air in the downstream-side portion and counts a number of particles present in the sucked compressed air.