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:
Sep. 09, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 26, 2001
Other;
Abstract
An automatic humidity step control thermal analysis apparatus has a detector for detecting and measuring a physical property of a sample and for generating a physical property signal corresponding to the physical property of the sample. The sample is housed in a sample chamber which is capable of controlling the temperature and humidity of the sample. A water chamber generates water vapor at a preselected temperature and is capable of controlling the temperature of water in the water chamber in a stepwise manner. A heat insulating pipe directs water vapor from the water chamber to the sample chamber and includes a heater for preventing dew condensation. A signal stability determination circuit receives a physical property signal from the detector and generates a trigger signal when a rate of change of the physical property signal drops below a preselected reference value. A control device controls the temperature of water in the water chamber in a stepwise manner in accordance with the trigger signal generated by the signal stability determination circuit to thereby adjust the humidity of the sample chamber in a stepwise manner.