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:
Feb. 13, 2007
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2003
Damian Neuberger, Glenview, IL (US);
Joseph Chung Tak Wong, Gurnee, IL (US);
Damian Neuberger, Glenview, IL (US);
Joseph Chung Tak Wong, Gurnee, IL (US);
Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, IL (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method for determining a particle size. The process includes the steps of: (i) positioning a particle on a flat surface; (ii) recording a digital image of the particle on the flat surface wherein the digital image is recorded with an image plane parallel to the flat surface and the digital image of the particle includes a digital background of the flat surface; (iii) removing the digital background image of the flat surface to obtain an isolated digital image of the particle; (iv) determining a surface area (A) of the particle from the isolated digital image of the particle; (v) tilting the particle at an angle (θ) with respect to the image plane to expose an edge of the particle; (vi) measuring a measured thickness (T) of the particle; (vii) determining a calculated actual thickness (T) of the particle by the equation T=T/sine θ; (viii) determining a particle volume (V) of the particle by the equation V=A*T; and (ix) determining an equivalent spherical particle size diameter (D) of the particle by the equation D=2*{square root over ((¾)(1/π)(V))}{square root over ((¾)(1/π)(V))}{square root over ((¾)(1/π)(V))}.