Method and device for determining penetration of gaseous substance through a membrane
First Claim
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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, andemploy the two measured concentrations of the gaseous substance in the equation
to predict the penetration rate of the gaseous substance into the closed package as a function of time.
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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.
18 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:
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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 the equation
to predict the penetration rate of the gaseous substance into the closed package as a function of time. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 5, 6, 7)
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4. Method for determining the penetration rate of a oxygen into a closed package, characterised in that the method comprises:
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inserting means for withdrawing a gas sample from the package in such a manner that the interior of the package is not exposed to ambient gas (outside the package), flushing the package with pure nitrogen for a sufficiently period to ensure that the interior of the package contains only little oxygen, exposing the closed package to ambient for a first specified time period, when reaching the end of the first time period, inserting a specified amount of pure nitrogen gas into the package and allowing the inserted nitrogen to mix homogeneously with the gas inside the package, when the gas inside the package is homogeneously mixed, withdraw a gas sample with exactly the same volume as the inserted nitrogen, and analyse the gas sample from the interior in order to determine the concentration of the oxygen in the sample after the first time period, allowing the package to be exposed to the ambient air for a second time period, when reaching the end of the second time period, withdraw another sample of the gas from the inside of the package and analyse it in order to determine the oxygen concentration in the sample after the second time period, and insert the two measured oxygen concentrations in equation
and/or equation
to predict the oxygen transmission rate into the package.
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Specification