Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Analyzer – structured indicator – or manipulative laboratory... – Sample mechanical transport means in or for automated...
Patent
1997-05-01
2000-01-18
Le, Long V.
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Analyzer, structured indicator, or manipulative laboratory...
Sample mechanical transport means in or for automated...
422 63, 422 67, 422104, 436 43, 436 47, 4353031, G01N 3502
Patent
active
060155329
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention is concerned with incubation vessel supports which enable the effects temperature differences experienced over a period of time by incubation vessels contained within an incubator to be minimized. More particularly, the invention is concerned with incubation vessel supports which are adapted to provide carefully controlled space/time and temperature/time integrals for any particular supported incubation vessel, such integrals being as nearly as possible the same for each such vessel.
Incubators are used in a wide range of applications. Some of those applications dictate careful temperature control, for example biological reactions or carefully controlled chemical reactions. In the area of analysis or testing it can be particularly vital that individual tubes containing samples for testing be subjected to as similar an environment as possible to ensure consistency of results. Immunoassay apparatus in particular demands consistent incubation conditions for individual test.
Lately, complicated apparatus has been developed to permit automation of multiple tests or assays, for example, reference can be made to the apparatus described in WO 92/05448. Unfortunately, there is a problem with such apparatus in that, even in modestly sized incubator chambers, temperature differentials and fluctuations exist across the space within the chamber. With conventional mechanisms for mounting incubation vessels, this means that individual test samples may not necessarily be exposed to sufficiently similar temperature conditions. Even slight variations can have a serious effect on the most precise of assays.
Assay apparatus is known in which incubation vessels are moved between different functional stations, for example, for reagent addition stations to an incubation station (see, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,633). In addition, the problem of maintaining temperature control of reaction containers in an automatic analysis apparatus is also known. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,936, for example, this is addressed by providing a constant temperature air chamber surrounding a row of reaction containers, the temperature control equipment including an air circulation passage and a blowing device for blowing constant temperature air against the reaction containers. This prior art does not, however, address the specific difficulty of "ironing out" temperature differentials influctuations within incubator chambers as such and the solution to that problem by particularly controlled movement of incubation vessels.
This invention provides an incubation vessel support comprising a moveable platform and incubation vessel mounting means carried by said platform and moveable relative to said platform such that, in use, each vessel mounted thereby is moveable with a space/time integral substantially the same for each said vessel. Because the space/time integral is substantial the same for each vessel, It follows that temperature differences throughout the relevant space are experienced by all such vessels over a period of time, and the temperature/time integral is thus also substantially the same for all such vessels.
The invention is based, inter alia, on the appreciation that an incubation vessel support can be structured in which, over a complete cycle of movement (the word "cycle" not implying any necessity for circularity of movement), any given incubation vessel mounted on the support and within an incubator can be subjected to substantially the same temperature/time integral, even though at any particular point in time individual incubation vessels may be subject to temperature differences.
The concept of the invention will now be further explained and better understood by reference to the following description of an automated analytical system capable of performing chemical analyses, immunoassays or assays involving nucleic acid probes.
In the accompanying drawings:
FIG. 1 shows an incubation vessel support structure in accordance with the present invention, presenting detail shown in exploded form; and
FIG. 2 illustrates
REFERENCES:
patent: 3489521 (1970-01-01), Buckle et al.
patent: 3623844 (1971-11-01), Anthon
patent: 4045179 (1977-08-01), Bunce
patent: 4849176 (1989-07-01), Sakagami
patent: 5133936 (1992-07-01), Umetsu et al.
patent: 5178833 (1993-01-01), Covain
patent: 5244633 (1993-09-01), Jakubowicz et al.
Clements John A.
Jay Ronald F.
Kemp Paul M.
Alfa Biotech S.p.A.
Katz Robert D.
Le Long V.
LandOfFree
Incubation vessel support does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Incubation vessel support, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Incubation vessel support will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-560957