The present invention relates to a multipart connection for chromatography columns for carrying out separations of substances on variable packing materials which are packed in a column body. The column body can be made of glass, ceramic, sapphire or stainless steel. The packing materials can be silica gel, silica gel derivatives or solid polymer gels of different type or agarose gels or polyacrylamide gels. There are three versions of the column body, namely cylindrical with connecting flanges at the end, cylindrical with external threads at the end and cylindrical without flanges and without external threads at the end.
In chromatography columns, a carrier fluid transports dissolved sample substances through a capillary tube running around a connection into a column interior. At the end of the column connection, the fluid is passed through a frit of fine-pored sintered glass, ceramic or stainless steel, in order to ensure uniform distribution over the column cross-section.
The filling of the column with very fine pulverulent packing materials can be effected with the aid of a suspension of this material, the suspension being filled into the column and then being compressed by a piston. Carrier fluid thus emerges. As a result of this compaction of the packing particles, an optimum spatial arrangement of the particles is achieved, so that a uniform column bed is produced.
For this packing step, the chromatography column must normally be clamped into a device, in which a piston, after the column has been introduced, is forced upon the suspension under a mechanical load. After the compaction, this piston must be carefully removed and the actual chromatography column connection must be introduced.
This procedure is very involved since it requires additional mechanical devices. Moreover, the homogeneity of the column packing is disturbed by the change in load when the piston is withdrawn, so that the performance capacity of the column is impaired.