阅读说明：本技术 柱温箱 (Column oven ) 是由 石原光 于 2017-09-21 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供了一种柱温箱,具备：大致密闭空间,被由导热材料构成的壁面所包围,用于收容分析柱；加热器,加热由所述导热材料构成的壁面；隔热材料,包围由所述导热材料构成的壁面的外侧。即,本发明通过使收容有分析柱的柱温箱内的空间成为由导热性的壁面包围的大致密闭结构,由加热器加热包围该大致密闭空间的壁面,从而从大致密闭空间的周边方向均匀地加热该大致密闭空间。(The present invention provides a column oven, comprising: a substantially closed space surrounded by a wall surface made of a heat conductive material for accommodating the analytical column; a heater for heating a wall surface made of the heat conductive material; and a heat insulating material surrounding the outside of the wall surface made of the heat conductive material. That is, in the present invention, the space in the column oven in which the analytical column is housed is made into a substantially closed structure surrounded by a heat conductive wall surface, and the wall surface surrounding the substantially closed space is heated by the heater, whereby the substantially closed space is uniformly heated from the peripheral direction of the substantially closed space.)

1. A column oven is characterized by comprising:

a substantially closed space surrounded by a wall surface made of a heat conductive material for accommodating the analytical column;

a heater for heating a wall surface made of the heat conductive material;

and a heat insulating material surrounding the outside of the wall surface made of the heat conductive material.

2. The column oven of claim 1,

the column oven is provided with: an opening/closing cover and a column oven main body having an opening/closing surface opened/closed by the opening/closing cover,

the column oven main body has a recess portion opened on the opening surface side so that the analytical column is fitted into and held in the recess portion from the opening surface side, an inner wall surface of the recess portion is formed of the heat conductive material,

the opening/closing cover includes a heat conductive plate made of the heat conductive material on a surface facing the opening/closing surface of the column oven main body, and when the opening/closing cover closes the opening/closing surface of the column oven main body, the heat conductive plate is in close contact with an edge of the opening made of the heat conductive material of the recess, and the opening is sealed to form the substantially sealed space.

3. The column oven of claim 2,

the analytical column is held by a column holder made of a heat conductive material provided in the recess,

the heat of the heater is directly transferred from the inner wall surface of the recess to the analytical column via the column holder, and the heat of the heater is transferred from the inner wall surface of the recess to the heat conductive plate, thereby heating the analytical column by convection of the heat in the substantially closed space.

4. The column oven according to claim 2 or 3,

the opening/closing cover has an elastic member for biasing the heat conductive plate toward the opening/closing surface.

5. The column oven according to any one of claims 2 to 4,

one end of the opening/closing cover is connected to the column oven main body by a hinge.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a column oven for adjusting the temperature of an analytical column for a liquid chromatograph.

Background

The liquid chromatography analysis was performed by: the mobile phase is transported through the analysis channel, the sample injected into the analysis channel is transported to the analysis column and separated, and the component separated by the analysis column is detected by the detector. An analytical column for separating a sample is generally an analytical column in which a filler is packed in a capillary. Since the separation ability of the analytical column is temperature-dependent, if the temperature of the analytical column varies, the retention time of the sample component varies, and the reproducibility of the analysis result deteriorates. Therefore, the temperature of the analytical column is adjusted by housing the analytical column in a temperature adjusting device called a column oven.

The column oven comprises: the temperature of the analytical column is adjusted by holding the analytical column by a heat-conductive heating block in a space surrounded by a heat insulating material, and by heating the heating block to transfer heat from the heating block to the analytical column (see patent document 1).

Disclosure of Invention

Technical problem to be solved by the invention

However, the column oven is provided with an opening/closing cover. The arrangement of the analytical column in the column oven requires the following operations: the open-close cover of the column oven is opened, the analytical column is held by the heating block in the column oven main body, and the open-close cover is closed after the pipelines connected to the automatic sample injector and the detector are connected to the two ends of the analytical column. In such an operation, since it is particularly troublesome to connect the line to the analytical column provided in the column oven, it has also been proposed to provide a mechanism for facilitating the attachment and detachment of the line to and from the analytical column in the column oven.

In order to provide such a mechanism in the column oven, a certain degree of space needs to be present in the column oven. However, the space inside the column oven that is opened and closed by the opening and closing cover is not originally a sufficiently sealed space. If the space in the column oven is enlarged in this manner, the temperature of the space in the column oven becomes less likely to follow the temperature of the heating block, and it becomes difficult to uniformly and accurately control the temperature of the analytical column.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to uniformly and accurately control the temperature of an analytical column even if the internal structure of a column oven is improved and the internal space is enlarged.

Means for solving the technical problem

The column oven of the present invention comprises: a substantially closed space surrounded by a wall surface made of a heat conductive material for accommodating the analytical column; a heater for heating a wall surface made of the heat conductive material; and a heat insulating material surrounding the outside of the wall surface made of the heat conductive material. That is, in the present invention, the space in the column oven in which the analytical column is housed is made into a substantially closed structure surrounded by a heat conductive wall surface, and the wall surface surrounding the substantially closed space is heated by the heater, whereby the heating is performed uniformly from the peripheral direction of the substantially closed space.

In a preferred embodiment, the column oven includes: an opening and closing cover; and a column oven main body having an opening/closing surface opened/closed by the opening/closing cover. In this case, the column oven body has a recess that is open on the opening surface side so that the analysis column is fitted into and held in the recess from the opening surface side, an inner wall surface of the recess is made of the heat conductive material, the opening/closing cover includes a heat conductive plate made of the heat conductive material on a surface facing the opening/closing surface of the column oven body, and when the opening/closing cover closes the opening/closing surface of the column oven body, the heat conductive plate is in close contact with an edge of the opening made of the heat conductive material of the recess, and the opening is sealed to form the substantially closed space.

In a further preferred embodiment, the structure is: the analytical column is held by a column holder made of a heat conductive material provided in the recess, heat of the heater is directly transferred from an inner wall surface of the recess to the analytical column via the column holder, and heat of the heater is transferred from the inner wall surface of the recess to the heat conductive plate, so that the analytical column is heated by heat convection in the substantially closed space.

In this case, the opening/closing cover preferably has an elastic member for biasing the heat conductive plate toward the opening/closing surface. As a result, the heat-conducting plate can be pressed against the edge of the opening of the recess of the column oven main body, and the substantially closed space formed by the recess and the heat-conducting plate can be improved in airtightness, so that the responsiveness to temperature control in the substantially closed space is improved.

One end of the opening/closing cover may be coupled to the column oven main body by a hinge. Thus, the opening/closing cover does not come off from the column oven main body, and the opening/closing cover is easy to handle when the analytical column is attached to and detached from the column oven.

Effects of the invention

In the column oven of the present invention, the space in the column oven in which the analytical column is housed is made into a substantially closed structure surrounded by a heat-conductive wall surface, and the wall surface surrounding the substantially closed space is heated by the heater, so that the heat from the heater is uniformly transferred to the entire substantially closed space, and therefore, the responsiveness of temperature control of the space in which the analytical column is housed is improved. This enables accurate and uniform control of the temperature of the analytical column.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which an opening/closing cover of a column oven according to an embodiment is opened.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing an internal structure of the column oven of this embodiment in a state where the opening/closing lid is closed.

Detailed Description

An embodiment of the column oven of the present invention will be described below with reference to fig. 1 and 2.

As shown in fig. 1, the column oven 2 includes a column oven main body 4 and an opening/closing cover 6. The proximal end portion of the opening/closing cover 6 is connected to one end portion of the column oven main body 4 by a hinge 8, and can open and close the opening/closing surface 4a of the column oven main body 4.

The column oven main body 4 includes a recess 10 having an opening on the opening/closing surface 4 a. The recess 10 is used for fitting an analytical column 12 filled with a filler in a capillary. A column holder 14 for holding an analytical column 12 is provided in the recess 10. The wall surface of the recess 10 is formed of a heat conductive block 16 made of a metal material having good heat conductivity such as aluminum. The column frame 14 is also made of a metal material having good thermal conductivity such as aluminum. The heat-conductive block 16 is exposed at the edge of the recess 10 of the opening/closing surface 4a of the column oven body 4.

A heat conductive plate 18 is provided on the inner surface of the opening/closing cover 6, that is, the surface of the opening/closing cover 6 facing the opening/closing surface 4a of the column oven body 4 when the opening/closing cover 6 is closed. The heat-conducting plate 18 is provided to have a shape corresponding to the concave portion 10 of the column oven body 4 so that the opening of the concave portion 10 is sealed when the opening-closing cover 6 is closed. A heat insulating plate 20 is provided on the back surface of the heat conductive plate 18. The heat conduction plate 18 is made of a metal material having good thermal conductivity such as aluminum, like the heat conduction block 16. The heat insulating board 20 is made of a heat insulating material such as a polyethylene foam (for example, nylon (a product of the water chemical industry)).

As shown in fig. 2, when the opening/closing cover 6 is closed, the heat conductive plate 18 is brought into contact with the peripheral edge of the heat conductive plate 18 provided in the opening/closing cover 6 and the heat conductive block 16 exposed at the edge of the recess 10, whereby the opening of the recess 10 is sealed by the heat conductive plate 18. Thus, the recess 10 in which the analytical column 12 is housed is a substantially closed space surrounded by wall surfaces made of a heat conductive material.

The heater 24 is embedded in the heat conduction block 16. The heat of the heater 24 is directly transferred to the analytical column 12 via the heat conductive block 16 and the column holder 14. In the present embodiment, when the analytical column 12 is fixed to the heat conduction block 16 via the column holder 14, the analytical column 12 is insufficiently heated by only direct heat transfer, as compared with the case where the analytical column 12 is directly brought into contact with the heat conduction block 16. However, in the present embodiment, since the heat-conducting plate 18 and the heat-conducting block 16 are in close contact to form a substantially closed space made of a heat-conducting material, the heat of the heater 24 is also transmitted to the heat-conducting plate 18 via the heat-conducting block 16. Thus, the heat from the heater 24 is transferred to all wall surfaces of the substantially closed space 10 in which the analytical column 12 is housed, and the inside of the substantially closed space 10 is rapidly and uniformly heated by convection of the heat. As a result, the analytical column 12 provided in the substantially closed space can be sufficiently heated to an appropriate temperature by direct heat transfer and heating by thermal convection.

A heat insulating block 22 made of a heat insulating material such as a polyethylene foam (for example, nylon (a product of the water accumulation chemical industry)) is provided outside the heat conductive block 16, and a heat insulating plate 20 is also provided outside (on the upper side in fig. 2) the heat conductive plate 18. This realizes thermal separation between the inside of the substantially closed space 10 and the periphery of the column oven 2, and the influence of the environmental temperature fluctuation is reduced.

Further, the surface portion of the opening/closing cover 6 is thermally separated from the heat conductive plate 18 by the heat insulating plate 20, and thus does not become high in temperature by the heat from the heater 24. Therefore, when the analytical column 12 is replaced after the end of analysis, the user can safely perform the replacement work of the analytical column 12 without touching the high-temperature portion. Further, since the opening/closing lid 6 is configured to be opened and closed by the hinge 8, it is possible to prevent the opening/closing lid 6 from being detached to damage the opening/closing lid 6 or to prevent an operator from being injured or burned when the analytical column 12 is replaced.

The heat insulating plate 20 of the opening/closing cover 6 is held by a holding block 26, and the holding block 26 is attached to the opening/closing cover 6 via an elastic member such as a leaf spring. As shown by the arrow in fig. 2, the elastic member interposed between the opening/closing cover 6 and the holding block 26 is provided to generate an elastic force in a direction of urging the heat conductive plate 18 toward the concave portion 10 side when the opening/closing cover 6 is closed. Therefore, the degree of sealing in the substantially sealed space can be improved, and heating can be performed by appropriately utilizing convection of heat in the substantially sealed space.

Although not shown in fig. 1 and 2, a temperature sensor is attached to any one of the column frame 14, the heat-conducting block 16, or the heat-conducting plate 18. The output of the heater 24 is controlled based on the detection signal of the temperature sensor.

Description of the reference numerals

2 column incubator

4 column incubator main body

4a opening and closing surface

6 opening and closing cover

8 hinge

10 recess

12 analytical column

14 column frame

16 heat conducting block

18 heat conducting plate

20 Heat insulation board

22 Heat insulation block

24 heater

The block is held 26.