| 摘要 |
Apparatus for metering liquids in controlled proportions and for delivering the resultant mixture to a point of use. The disclosed apparatus is particularly suitable for use in liquid chromatography applications. In one embodiment a plurality of reservoirs each containing a liquid to be mixed are connected through respective hydraulic accumulators to a switching valve arrangement for modulating solvent composition to the inlet of a high pressure pump. A flow and composition controller sequentially activates each of the switching valves such that the non-uniformity associated with the pump draw stroke is effectively averaged over several cycles of switching valve actuation. Such averaging is accomplished by generating and maintaining a fixed relationship between switching valve cycles and pump cycles which ideally is expressed as a non-integer ratio. The accumulators permit the fluid flow to the pump inlet to respond more accurately to the switching valve actuations, particularly at high flow rates and short duration valve actuations.
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