Conductivity measuring cell

[PA4TIM]

Does anyone have some info on the use of this Philips PW9517 conducivity measuring cell. It is a glass tube with two hose connections and meter connection.

[alm]

Not sure about this particular instrument, but conductivity measurement is used to measure the concentrations of salts in a solution. For example drinking water might have a conductivity in the order of mS/m, while deionized water might be in the order of uS/m.

[PA4TIM]

Thanks Alm, I think too it is something like that. I have several conductanse meters. One in (n)S, the others in (u)mho.
I read somewhere it was also used in metalurgy, but not with a cell like this I presume 

Two things came to mind. It is used to measure contamination. pure water is suposted to be 1 Megohm (??)  per cm. This they used as calibration. But the tube is closed, only those two hose connections. Contamination that is left in the tube will  distorts future measurement. But how did they clean it ?

The hose connections make me think it was used in a sort of permanent way to constant monitor some fluid.

It is an intriging thing and beautifull build.

[alm]

You'd clean it by rinsing with water or other solvents. Same way you would clean the tubing, valves or pumps that might be attached to it. It could for example sit at the output of a water purification system (like those sold by Millipore) to monitor water quaility. Contamination is not an issue then since water quality is expected to be fairly constant, and it's continuously being rinsed with water.

[PedroDaGr8]

This is a conductivity flow cell. It would be used to detect the conductivity of a steam of liquid flowing through it. It would not be used for stationary volumes. These are commonly found as one of several types of detectors in liquid chromatography devices. For example, at work all three of the FPLC instruments have conductivity, pH and multi-wavelength absorbance detectors. These are often used to detect and help identify what material is coming off the column at what point (thigh conductivity can be used to determine the buffer coming off as well).

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