Odor sniffing device and vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus for container

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12449333-B2
Application number	US-202118001249-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2021
Priority date	Jun 8, 2020
Publication date	Oct 21, 2025
Grant date	Oct 21, 2025

Abstract

Provided are an odor sniffing device ( 11 ) and a vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus for a container ( 1 ). The odor sniffing device ( 11 ) includes a primary sampling front end ( 116 ), which has a vent adapter ( 116 - 1 ) having a shape matching with a vent of the ventilator of the container, so that when the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) fits with the ventilator, the vent adapter ( 116 - 1 ) and the vent generally cooperate to achieve fluid communication. The vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus ( 1 ) may perform imaging inspection and chemical inspection simultaneously.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An odor sniffing device, configured to perform an inspection by sniffing gas and/or particulate matter in an inspected object, and the odor sniffing device comprising:
a primary sampling front end ( 116 ) configured to be accessible to a ventilator of a container and provide a suction force, so that the primary sampling front end collects gas and/or particles inside the container;
wherein the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) has a vent adapter having a shape matching with a vent of the ventilator of the container, so that when the primary sampling front end fits with the ventilator, the vent adapter and the vent cooperate to achieve fluid communication,
wherein the odor sniffing device comprises: a cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ) defining a cyclone chamber and comprising opposing first and second ends; and a primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ) being at least in fluid communication with the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) and the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ), the cyclone chamber of the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ) has a substantially tapered three-dimensional shape, the cyclone chamber has a first tapered part ( 115 - 1 ) close to the first end and a second tapered part ( 115 -II) close to the second end, and in a cross section along an axis of the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ), an angle (a) between side walls ( 115 - c , 115 - d ) on two sides of the second tapered part ( 115 -II) is greater than an angle (B) between side walls ( 115 - a , 115 - b ) on two sides of the first tapered part ( 115 - 1 ); and
wherein the cyclone concentration sampler comprises: a first inlet ( 115 - 1 ) of the cyclone chamber at an end face of the first end, configured to be in fluid communication with the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) through a portion of the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ), and to introduce the gas and/or particulate matter collected by the primary sampling front end into the cyclone chamber, wherein the gas discharged from the first inlet ( 115 - 1 ) of the cyclone chamber is enabled for forming a cyclone airflow flowing from the first end to the second end in the cyclone chamber; a first outlet ( 115 - 2 ) of the cyclone chamber at the second end configured to allow at least a portion of the gas and/or particulate matter in the cyclone chamber to be discharged from the first outlet of the cyclone chamber; and a sample gas outlet ( 115 - 4 ) of the cyclone chamber located on a side wall near the second end, configured to allow at least a portion of the sample gas to be discharged from the sample gas outlet of the cyclone chamber, wherein the sample gas outlet ( 115 - 4 ) of the cyclone chamber is closer to the first end than the first outlet ( 115 - 2 ) of the cyclone chamber.

2. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the first inlet ( 115 - 1 ) of the cyclone chamber blows gas downward in a direction of the first end of the cyclone chamber toward the second end.

3. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the first inlet ( 115 - 1 ) of the cyclone chamber is arranged in a substantially central position of the first end of the cyclone chamber.

4. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ) further comprises a second outlet ( 115 - 3 ) of the cyclone chamber located on the side wall and close to the first end, configured to allow at least a portion of the gas and/or particulate matter in the cyclone chamber to be discharged from the second outlet of the cyclone chamber.

5. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ) comprises:
a four-way valve ( 150 ) of the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ), wherein the first outlet ( 115 - 2 ) of the cyclone chamber and a second outlet ( 115 - 3 ) of the cyclone chamber are respectively connected with a first port and a second port of the four-way valve of the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ); and
a diaphragm pump ( 110 D) connected with a third port of the four-way valve ( 150 ) of the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ) through a ninth two-position three-way valve ( 101 - 9 ), wherein the diaphragm pump is configured to drive a gas flow in the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 );
wherein a fourth port of the four-way valve ( 150 ) of the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ) is connected with an external environment.

6. A vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus for a container, comprising:
a vehicle;
an imaging inspection section mounted on the vehicle and configured to perform an inspection on a to-be-inspected object in an imaging manner;
a robot arm mounted on the imaging inspection section; and
the odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) of the odor sniffing device is mounted on the robot arm;
wherein the robot arm enables the primary sampling front end to access to a ventilator of a container, so as to extract gas and/or particles inside the container from the ventilator,
the vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus, further comprising an intelligent identification device based on a camera device, configured to collect an image of the container and a surrounding environment, and use an intelligent algorithm to locate a position of the ventilator of the container by automatically identifying the collected image of the container, so as to control the robot arm to position the primary sampling front end ( 116 ) on the ventilator of the container for sampling,
the vehicle-mounted security inspection apparatus, further comprising a wind knife configured to gas-purge the ventilator of the container and an adjacent surface of the ventilator of the container for dust removal and moisture removal before an end portion of the robot arm is brought into proximity with the ventilator of the container.

7. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein a basal diameter (d 1 ) of the first tapered part ( 115 - 1 ) is larger than a basal diameter (d 2 ) of the second tapered part ( 115 -II) in an extension direction from the first end of the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ) to the second end of the cyclone concentration sampler ( 115 ).

8. The odor sniffing device according to claim 7 , wherein the sample gas outlet ( 115 - 4 ) of the cyclone chamber is arranged on a side wall of the second tapered part ( 115 -II) of the cyclone concentration sampler, a sample in the cyclone airflow is discharged through the sample gas outlet ( 115 - 4 ) of the cyclone chamber, and the first outlet ( 115 - 2 ) of the cyclone chamber is at a top of a cone of the second tapered part ( 115 -II).

9. The odor sniffing device according to claim 1 , wherein the primary sampling pipeline ( 117 ) comprises a three-way valve ( 140 - 11 ) of the primary sampling front end, wherein a first port of the three-way valve of the primary sampling front end is connected to the primary sampling front end ( 116 ), and a second port of the three-way valve of the primary sampling front end is connected to the first inlet ( 115 - 1 ) of the cyclone chamber, a third port of the three-way valve of the primary sampling front end is connected to a diaphragm pump ( 110 D) through an eighth two-position three-way valve ( 101 - 8 ), wherein when the eighth two-position three-way valve is in position 1, the diaphragm pump is in fluid communication with the three-way valve of the primary sampling front end through a first port of the eighth two-position three-way valve, and when the eighth two-position three-way valve is in position 0, the diaphragm pump is in communication with an outside through a second port of the eighth two-position three-way valve.

10. The odor sniffing dev

Assignees

• Nuctech Co Ltd
• Univ Tsinghua

Inventors

• Zhang Qingjun
• Li Yuanjing
• Chen Zhiqiang
• Li Jianmin
• Zhu Weiping
• Li Ge
• Yang Nei
• Cao Biao
• Wang Wei
• Ni Xiulin
• Liu Shengxi
• Liang Zheng

Classifications

• G01N2030/201

  multiport valves, i.e. having more than two ports · CPC title

• G01N30/7206

  interfaced to gas chromatograph (interfaces in general for introducing or extracting samples to be analysed with specially adapted mass spectrometer, see H01J49/04) · CPC title

• G01N30/20

  using a sampling valve · CPC title

• G01N1/24

  Suction devices {(G01N1/22 - G01N1/2294 take precedence)} · CPC title

• B25J9/1697

  Vision controlled systems · CPC title