It is a common technique for isolating compounds and can be compared to column chromatography as a similar process.
[1] Here the solvent travels from the center of the circular chromatography silica layered on a plate towards the periphery.
The entire system is kept covered in order to prevent evaporation of solvent while developing a chromatogram.
The wick at the center of system drips solvent into the system which the provides the mobile phase and moves the sample radially to form the sample spots of different compounds as concentric rings.
The rotation speed, eluent and feed flow rates have to be defined precisely such that the collector vessels only collect the correct substance.