Apparatus and method for positioning the point of droplet formation in the jetting fluid of an electrostatic sorting device.

摘要

A novel method for positioning the point of droplet formation in the jetting fluid of an electrostatic sorting device is disclosed. The formation of the uniform droplets is carried out via the application of vibrational energy imparted by a transducer to a jetting laminar flow stream. Previously sensed particles contained within the core portion of the laminar stream are subsequently sorted from the stream as part of a subsequently formed droplet. The disclosed method uses the dependency of the droplet formation point on the amplitude of the waveform applied to the transducer and the modulation of this amplitude to control the droplet formation point distance. The position of the droplet formation point is detected via the use of a light source and photodetector focused on the jetting stream at the position at which the droplet formation point is to be located, and a method for automatically maintaining the breakpoint at that position is described.