Handheld Sampler Probe with Skirt for Volatile Substance Collection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for sampling volatile substances from surfaces, such as human skin, face challenges including contamination, variability in spatial relationships, and lack of precision, leading to inaccurate and unreliable results.
Innovation Solution
A hand-held sampler utilizing a hydrodynamic gas flow with a probe and skirt design that directs a pressurized gas stream onto the surface, while minimizing contamination by purging external gases beneath the skirt, allowing for precise sampling and collection of volatiles using a recovery tube connected to a collector or analyzer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a strip of absorbent material is used to contact the surface for sampling, then the sampling area is increased, but the spatial relationship variability and contamination risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The probe incorporates nested tubes where the supply tube and recovery tube are positioned concentrically with precise fixed spacing. The recovery tube inlet is positioned within 1mm of the surface while the supply tube outlet is 1-5mm from the surface, creating a controlled sampling geometry that eliminates spatial relationship variability while maintaining a defined sampling area.
Solution Approach 2:
The probe incorporates a flexible membrane that can conform to the surface being sampled, ensuring consistent contact and spacing while adapting to surface irregularities. This maintains precise spatial relationships even when sampling from curved or uneven surfaces like skin.
2Measurement precision
If the sampler is positioned close to the surface for precise sampling, then the sampling precision is improved, but the risk of contamination from atmospheric contact increases
Solution Approach 1:
The probe uses a stream of pressurized gas as an intermediary to transport volatilizable substances from the surface to the recovery tube. The gas flow path is contained within the probe structure, creating a protected transport channel that prevents atmospheric contaminants from mixing with the sample while maintaining close proximity to the sampling surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The probe creates a controlled gas environment within its structure, using the pressurized gas stream to establish a protective atmosphere that prevents contamination during sample collection and transport. The gas flow direction is controlled to move from the surface toward the recovery tube inlet, shielding the sample path from external contaminants.
3Measurement precision
If a probe with fixed geometry is used, then the spatial relationship consistency is improved, but the adaptability to different surface conditions decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The probe incorporates a flexible membrane component that can dynamically adapt its shape to conform to different surface geometries while maintaining the fixed spatial relationship between the supply tube outlet and recovery tube inlet. This allows the rigid internal geometry to be preserved while the external form adapts to various surface conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible membrane shell of the probe can deform to match the contours of different surfaces, allowing consistent sampling geometry to be maintained across varied surface conditions. The membrane provides mechanical adaptation while the internal tube geometry remains fixed, ensuring reproducible spatial relationships.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The sampler effectively minimizes contamination and variability, enabling accurate and reproducible sampling of volatile substances from small, specific areas, such as skin, and allows for the assessment of treatment efficacy by tracking changes in substance concentrations over time.
Implementation Method 1
a sampler employing a hydrodynamic gas flow to volatilise substances from a surface and convey such substances to a collector or analyser
Implementation Method 2
employing a hydrodynamic gas flow to volatilise substances from a surface
Implementation Method 3
the skirt is of varied depth around its periphery, extending beneath and surrounding both the supply tube outlet and recovery tube inlet, and has a tip enabling contact to be made with said adjacent surface whilst permitting a fraction of the gas to flow outwardly beneath the skirt
Data Source
AI summary
A volatilizable substance can be sampled from a surface using a hand-held sampler employing a probe that comprises a supply tube in fluid communication with a pressurized gas supply and an outlet proximate to a target surface, a recovery tube having an inlet proximate to the target surface and being in fluid communication with a collector or analyzer and a skirt of varied depth. The probe is brought into contact with the surface, preferably in at least three points, gas flows out through the supply tube onto the surface, the volatilizable substance is volatilized, uptaken in to the gas and a fraction of the gas flows back through the recovery tube to the collector or analyzer, the remainder flowing under the skirt to prevent ingress of contaminants.