Method and device for determining penetration of gaseous substance through a membrane
First Claim
1. Method for determining the penetration rate of a gaseous substance into a closed package made of a package material, characterised in that the method comprises:
- flushing the package with an inert gas for a sufficiently period to ensure that the interior of the package contains only small amounts of the gaseous substance, and then seal off the package against the ambient atmosphere, exposing the closed package to ambient atmosphere containing a known quantity of the gaseous substance for a first specified time period, when reaching the end of the first time period, determine a first concentration of the gaseous substance within the package at the end of the first time period, allowing the package to be exposed to the ambient gas for a second time period, when reaching the end of the second time period, determine a second concentration of the gaseous substance within the package at the end of the second time period, and employ the two measured concentrations of the gaseous substance in Eqn. (5) to predict the penetration rate of the gaseous substance into the closed package as a function of time.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to a method and device for measuring the penetration of gases through a package material. More specific, it relates to a method for predicting the transmission rate of the gaseous substance through the walls of a package as a function of time from a limited number of measured concentrations of the gaseous substance within the package. Even more specific, it relates to a method and device for testing the oxygen transmission rates into packages employed for instance for food or pharmaceutical products under realistic storing conditions.
14 Citations
7 Claims
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1. Method for determining the penetration rate of a gaseous substance into a closed package made of a package material,
characterised in that the method comprises: -
flushing the package with an inert gas for a sufficiently period to ensure that the interior of the package contains only small amounts of the gaseous substance, and then seal off the package against the ambient atmosphere, exposing the closed package to ambient atmosphere containing a known quantity of the gaseous substance for a first specified time period, when reaching the end of the first time period, determine a first concentration of the gaseous substance within the package at the end of the first time period, allowing the package to be exposed to the ambient gas for a second time period, when reaching the end of the second time period, determine a second concentration of the gaseous substance within the package at the end of the second time period, and employ the two measured concentrations of the gaseous substance in Eqn. (5) to predict the penetration rate of the gaseous substance into the closed package as a function of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. Device for determining spot tests of the penetration rate of a gaseous substance into a closed package, where the package that is being tested is initially flushed with inert gas, sealed, and then exposed to the ambient atmosphere for a certain time period,
characterised in that it comprises: -
an injector which is capable of withdrawing a gas samples from the interior of the package, a gas analyser that is in communication with the injector and which determines the concentration of the gaseous substance, and means for displaying the resultant gas concentration. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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Specification