MEASURING METHOD AND PORTABLE MEASURE BENCH FOR LIQUID MICRO-FLOWS, AND APPLICATION FOR CHARACTERISING MICRO-PUMPS FOR MEDICAL USE

摘要

The purpose of the invention is to provide reliable and precise values for liquid micro-flows supplied by a pump (30) using a customised follow-up for detecting operational irregularities in a quasi-instantaneous manner and under variable temperature and/or atmospheric pressure conditions. Accordingly, the invention provides (10) coupling two complementary measurement means, i.e. an average measurement and an instantaneous measurement of the flow. In one embodiment, the micro-pump (30) to be tested is arranged in a housing (20) and comprises temperature and pressure control means (22, 24) for making at least two complementary measurements of the flows, i.e. average and instant flows, following a gas micro-bubble (119) in a micro-pipette (120). The bubble is inserted into the liquid by an injection pad (110) provided with a pressure sensor (112) dedicated to the measurement of the counter-pressure of the pump (30). The flow measurements are respectively made by two optical sensors (124a, 124b) and a camera (126) that transmit the data to a data processing unit (129). The pump (30) is connected on a connection pad (100, 102, 104) of a specific sensor (106) for measuring the clogging pressure. The counter-pressure is adjusted at the outlet of the micro-pipette (120) by a variable opening (130) controlled by the processing unit (129).