ROTARY EVAPORATOR HAVING A FILTER

Abstract

The invention relates to a rotary evaporator having a rotary drive, having an evaporator flask rotatable about an axis of rotation by the rotary drive, having a vapor tube, and having a glass structure adjoining the vapor tube in the direction of vapor flow, wherein a filter connected upstream of the glass structure, in particular upstream of the vapor tube, is provided for filtering solids from a vapor flow.

Claims

1-16. (canceled)

17. A rotary evaporator, the rotary evaporator comprising: a rotary drive; an evaporator flask rotatable about an axis of rotation by the rotary drive, a vapor tube; a glass structure adjoining the vapor tube in the direction of the vapor flow, and a filter connected upstream of the glass structure for filtering solids from a vapor flow.

18. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is connected upstream of the vapor tube.

19. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the rotary evaporator is configured such that the filter rotates along with the evaporator flask.

20. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein a connection section is provided for the evaporator flask that is attached to the rotary drive, with the filter being drive-effectively connected to the connection section.

21. The rotary evaporator of claim 20, wherein the filter is fastened to a sealing device by which the vapor tube is sealed with respect to the connection section.

22. The rotary evaporator of claim 21, wherein the sealing device is a sealing disk having a leadthrough for the vapor tube.

23. The rotary evaporator of claim 21, wherein the connection section has a receiver for the evaporator flask into which the sealing device is inserted.

24. The rotary evaporator of claim 23, wherein the receiver has a receiver base and wherein the sealing device is arranged between the receiver base and a neck of the evaporator flask.

25. The rotary evaporator of claim 24, wherein the sealing device is arranged between the receiver base and a flange-like connection point of the neck of the evaporator flask.

26. The rotary evaporator of claim 21, wherein the filter is connected to the sealing device by a screw connection.

27. The rotary evaporator of claim 21, wherein the sealing device has a collar section that is directed in the direction of the axis of rotation and to which the filter is fastened.

28. The rotary evaporator of claim 21, further comprising: a further sealing device by which the vapor tube is sealable with respect to the connection section to which the filter is not fastenable without further aids and that is usable with the rotary evaporator instead of the sealing device to which the filter is fastened.

29. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter projects into the evaporator flask.

30. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is arranged at least partly within the evaporator flask.

31. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is part of a filter unit that can be non-destructively dismantled into a plurality of parts.

32. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is configured as an elongate hollow body.

33. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is provided at a front-face end with a connection section for fastening the filter and/or is closed at a front-face end by a closure element.

34. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein the filter is produced from a porous material.

35. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, wherein a plurality of filters are provided that differ from one another and that are selectively usable with the rotary evaporator.

36. The rotary evaporator of claim 17, further comprising: a plurality of filters connected one after the other that are each part of a common filter unit.

Description

[0025] A non-restrictive embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing and will be described in the following. There are shown in a schematic representation,

[0026] FIG. 1 a longitudinal section through a connection section for an evaporator flask rotatable by a rotary drive of a rotary evaporator; and

[0027] FIG. 2 a filter in accordance with the invention.

[0028] An evaporator flask 13 is shown in FIG. 1 that can be rotated about an axis of rotation R by a rotary drive, not shown, of a rotary evaporator. The evaporator flask 13 is suitable for receiving a liquid mixture or a powder to be dried and is completely produced from glass. During the operation of the rotary evaporator, evaporated solvent moves through a vapor tube 17 configured as a hollow glass shaft into a cooler, not shown, of the rotary evaporator. The vapor tube 17 is non-rotatable with respect to the axis of rotation R. The evaporator flask 13 comprises a belly 19 and a neck 21 that has a peripheral, flange-like connection point 23.

[0029] The evaporator flask 13 is fastenable to a connection section 25 only shown in connection with FIG. 2 and fixedly connected to the rotary drive of the rotary evaporator, in particular by means of a retainer element 27 such as is known from DE 10 2014 110 343 A1. In accordance with this document, whose content is fully referenced here and whose content is included by reference in the disclosure content of the present invention, clamping elements 31 are moved radially inwardly on the rotation of the retainer element 27 relative to the connection section 25 to hold the flange-like connection point 23 and thus the evaporator flask 13 tight to the connection section 23 in a shape-matched and/or force-fitting manner.

[0030] In this respect, a sealing device 33 configured as a sealing disk is provided that has a central leadthrough through which the vapor tube 17 projects and that is clamped between the flange-like connection point 23 of the evaporator flask 13 and the connection section 25 on the fastening of the evaporator flask 13 to the connection section 25.

[0031] The sealing device 33 comprises a sealing ring carrier 39 and a sealing ring 41 inserted into an annular recess of the sealing ring carrier 39. The sealing ring 41 is manufactured from an elastically deformable material, in particular from PTFE, and is provided with at least one sealing lip, two sealing lips in the embodiment shown that are spaced apart from one another in the axial direction and are radially peripheral. The sealing ring carrier 39 is likewise preferably produced from PTFE. Respective O rings 45 are arranged at the two axial end faces of the sealing ring carrier 39. The two sealing lips 43 sealingly contact the outer side of the vapor tube 17. Due to their curvature, the sealing lips 43 contact the vapor tube 17 even more strongly when a vacuum is applied to the evaporator flask 13 during the operation of the rotary evaporator.

[0032] To prevent fine dust particles of the powder from being taken along with the solvent vapor that evaporates from the moist powder during a powder drying and thus entering into the cooler and the vacuum system of the rotary evaporator, a filter 49 is used to filter dust particles from a vapor flow. The filter 49 is in this process fastened to a sealing device 33 thatexcept for the section that serves for the fastening of the filter 49is substantially identical to the sealing device 33 shown in FIG. 1, as can be seen from FIG. 2.

[0033] On a powder drying, the sealing device 33 shown in FIG. 1 is replaced with the sealing device 33 (having the filter 49 fastened thereto) shown in FIG. 2. The filter 49 then extends, starting from the sealing device 33, in the direction of the evaporator flask 13 and projects into it. The filter 49 is here completely arranged within the evaporator flask 13. Since the filter 49 is connected upstream of the vapor tube 17 in the direction of the vapor flow, it can be avoided that, on a drying of powder, powder dust penetrates into the vapor tube 17 and into the glass structure arranged behind the vapor tube 17 and contaminates it. A cleaning of the glass structure is therefore not necessary, but can rather be restricted to the filter 49.

[0034] The filter 49 is drive-effectively connected to the connection section 25 via the sealing device 33, i.e. with a driven rotary drive, the filter 49 rotates along with the rotary drive, the connection section 25 and the rotary evaporator 13.

[0035] The filter 49 is configured as a filter tube and is part of a filter unit 51. At its left end in FIG. 2, the filter 49 is provided with a flange 53 via which the filter unit 51 is fastened to the sealing device 33. The flange 53 can here be provided with an external thread that is screwed into an internal thread of a peripheral collar 57 that is formed at the sealing device 33 and that faces in the direction of the axis of rotation R. At its right end in FIG. 2, the filter 49 is closed by a cover 55 so that no powder can enter through this end side into the vapor tube 17 and into the glass structure connected downstream of the vapor tube 17. The filter unit 51 can be non-destructively dismantled into its three parts 49, 53, 55 so that the filter 49 is in particular simply cleanable.

[0036] The filter 49 is configured as a glass filter. The filter 49 here comprises a sintered porous material, in particular an open-pore borosilicate glass that has high chemical resistance. A different material such as a ceramic material or plastic is, however, generally also suitable. Furthermore, a plurality of such filters can be provided that, however, differ from one another, for example in their porosity, to be used with different powders of different consistencies and/or grain sizes.

[0037] A multi-stage filter unit having a plurality of filters connected behind one another can also be provided. The filters connected behind one another can differ in their porosity. E.g. the pore size can decrease or increase stepwise in the direction of the vapor flow. The plurality of filters can furthermore be produced from different materials.

[0038] It can be ensured by the arrangement of the filter in accordance with the invention that on a complete powder drying in a rotary evaporator, no powder dust can enter into the vapor tube or into the glass structure connected downstream of the vapor tube so that no laborious cleaning of the rotary evaporator is required.

REFERENCE NUMERAL LIST

[0039] 13 evaporator flask [0040] 17 vapor tube [0041] 19 belly [0042] 21 neck [0043] 23 connection point [0044] 25 connector section [0045] 27 retainer element [0046] 29 line [0047] 31 clamping element [0048] 33 sealing device [0049] 33 sealing device [0050] 35 base [0051] 37 receiver [0052] 39 sealing ring carrier [0053] 41 sealing ring [0054] 43 sealing lip [0055] 45 O ring [0056] 49 filter [0057] 51 filter unit [0058] 53 flange [0059] 55 cover [0060] 57 collar [0061] R axis of rotation