Lighthouse ApexP3, Operating Manual

Page: 17 / 130

00
248083440-1 Rev 5 2-1
2
Introduction
Overview
This operating manual introduces the Lighthouse
Apex Portable
family of portable Airborne Particle Counters and includes instructions
for inspecting, installing, using and maintaining the instrument.
Description
The
Apex Portable
instrument comes standard with four particle-size
channels of 0.3, 0.5, 1.0 and 5.0 microns (
Apex P3
) and 0.5, 1.0, 5.0
and 10.0 microns (
Apex P5
) with a flow of 1.0 CFM. Figure 2-1 shows
the standard configuration. Figure 2-1 lists features and specifics about
the
Apex P3
and Table 2-2 lists the
Apex P5
.
Figure 2-1
Apex Portable
Airborne Particle Counter
The instrument uses a LASER diode light source and LASER beam
shaping optics to illuminate a cross section of the air flow path. As
particles move along this path, they cross the LASER beam and scatter
light. The light scattered is collected by an optical imaging system onto
a photodiode. The photodiode converts the image into a current which
is converted to a voltage and amplified by an electronic circuit.
The result is the electronic circuit outputs a voltage pulse each time a
particle crosses the LASER beam. The amplitude of the voltage pulse
is proportional to the light scattered which in turn is proportional to the
size of the particle.