3-6 Model 3786 Ultrafine Water-based Condensation Particle Counter
actual value of purge flow rate does not impact the aerosol flow
rate.
Water System
During operation the porous media inside the UWCPC requires a
continuous input of water. Excess water exits the media and is
collected in a reservoir along with water recovered from the vapor in
the sample stream. The UWCPC has several available options on
how the water is sourced and how excess water in the reservoir is
drained.
All source water initially comes from the connected Fill Bottle
located in the bracket on the back of the instrument. After the
instrument is primed, the source of water can continue to come
completely from the source bottle or can be recycled from recovered
water from the reservoir. By using the recycle option, the length of
time that the UWCPC can be operated without refilling the Fill
Bottle is extended from about a day to over eight days. Also, since
the recycled water comes from the reservoir it will only need
draining about once a week instead of once a day for the non-
recycling mode. During the recycling mode approximately 20% of
the water is always taken from the Fill Bottle to ensure that there is
always water present in the reservoir.
Regardless of the source mode the reservoir will eventually fill and
require draining. When the reservoir fills, a level detector senses the
condition which will be indicated with the Liquid status light, and
on the Status Screen on the display. If the full condition persists for
more than ten minutes, the instrument will stop sourcing water to
avoid flooding the instrument sample flow path. The instrument
will remain in this shutdown condition until the reservoir is
drained. There are three drain modes: Manual, Automatic, and
Continuous, which are provided to handle removal of excess water
from the reservoir.
The recycle mode along with the drain modes can be selected
through the Drain/Prime button on the front panel of the WCPC as
described in the Drain Modes section.
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