around Japan. Of his many experiences associated with developing various systems, we asked what he found di-cult and interesting about introducing the system at water treatment plants from the soware perspective.“On-site conditions diered greatly from plant to plant. It wasn't easy to respond to each unique situation with the correct soware modications. At some plants, the conditions were hot and humid. At others, the system would be exposed to a direct spray of water. My job was to nd a way to allow the system to properly function in a range of conditions we'd never previ-ously encountered. I did this by modifying the so-ware. All of it was quite interesting. is process of development seemed to present a gateway to potential future projects, so I was naturally profoundly interested.”At water treatment plants, measure-ment is currently basically restricted to substances that are relatively known. To expand the scope of application for the system, it needs to be capable of instantaneously identifying the sub-stances contained in the water. at in turn requires a radical advance in system functionality. That’s what sparked Tanaka’s curiosity.“Use of articial intelligence (AI) may possibly realize a system that can identify the type of phytoplankton present and also measure counts. I think the development of such a system remains a distant prospect, but it still fascinates me as an engineer. If we were to accomplish such a development, we would be able to provide products with applications in many more areas in society.”While Sekimoto took part in the development from the conception phase to the prototype production stage, a specialized team handled full-edged production of the actual prod-uct to be sold commercially. On this team was Takashi Sannomiya, who was involved in the assembly and modica-tion of the production model. He noted that water, the target substance for measurement by the present system, was peculiar compared to other materi-als he’d dealt with before.“For example, existing particle counters used in places like semicon-ductor manufacturing sites are used to measure extremely pure water (ultra-pure water). In other words, that target water is so clean that the surrounding pipes and the measuring instrument 0020040060080010002004006008001000Scattered light (ch)Fluorescence (ch)vvtt0.7µm0.5µmthresholdtvLight sourceLight sourceScattered lightdetectorScattered lightdetectorFluorescencedetectorLiquid ow (10 ml/min.)Liquid ow (10 ml/min.)Flow cellFlow cellTrapTrapLensLensLensLensPhotomultiplierLensLensLaserPhotodiodePhotodiodeDichroic mirror(410nm)Laser(405 nm)Long pass lterShort pass lterLensX axisY axis0.5 µm0.6 µm0.7 µm1.0 µm2.0 µm2503512345567823451(Scatter graph display)Detector structure of a phytoplankton counterThe detector has the features shown in the diagram on the left. The light source emits laser beams with wavelengths that excite fluorescent matter. The detector has two light receiving parts, one for scattered light and one for uorescence. Optical lters that allow the wavelength range of the target uorescence to pass are attached to the light receiving part for uorescence.Control softwareThe phytoplankton counter uses software programmed by Tanaka to display plankton counts as graphs like the ones shown. The graphs present the transition in counting results in a clear manner.Automatic dilution deviceThis device automatically dilutes high concentration samples taken from raw water at a water treatment plant to the desired dilution ratio, allowing continuous and automatic measurement of signicantly differ-ent concentrations of water from all plant purication processes.Detector structure of a common light scattering liquid-borne particle counterDetector structure of a phytoplankton counter4Takashi SannomiyaNew Business Promotion Section, Particle Counter Division. Since joining Rion in 1993, he has devoted himself to the de-velopment of particle counters, contrib-uted to the manufacture of high-end particle counter models on production lines, and also been involved with the current project from the initial stages to actual model production.Katsuyoshi TanakaNew Business Promotion Section, Particle Counter Division. Since joining Rion, he’s dedicated his time to software de-velopment, with a primary focus on software development for the section; in charge of customized products such as sound level meters, vibration meters, and seismometers. Recently he’s been involved in software development asso-ciated with new businesses.
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