Patent ID: 6670613
Filing Date: 2003-12-30
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A system for identifying and analyzing the amounts of individual refrigerants in a mixture of refrigerant components and contaminants comprising:(1) a plurality of test areas or gas cells adapted to contain samples of said mixture; (2) a plurality of infrared light sources adapted to project light through each of said cells; (3) a plurality of light filters placed either before or after said cells containing said samples, each filter adapted to provide a predetermined wavelength range of infrared light corresponding to one of the refrigerant components in said mixture; (4) a plurality of light detectors calibrated to sense the infrared absorbance of the impinging light and adapted to provide a signal corresponding to the percentage by volume of each of the individual refrigerant components of said mixture; (5) means to measure pressure and temperature of samples being analyzed, wherein said pressure is measured relative to atmospheric pressure; and (6) means for determining the presence and amount of a contaminant which is not detected optically, as a function of the measured pressure and temperature of the samples being analyzed.