Sample container

Details Sample container Sample container

1997-09-26

2001-11-20

Warden, Jill (Department: 1743)

Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser

Control element responsive to a sensed operating condition

C422S091000, C206S524200, C206S524300, C220S062110, C220S062150

Reexamination Certificate

active

06319475

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a container for containing sample in which a thermal process is needed to be applied used in a medical, chemical, and biotechnology fields.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional container is composed of a single thick resin layer. Because of this, the heat is hardly conducted while thermal process is applied externally to the container. The sample in the container cannot be heated and cooled effectively. In addition, flexibility in a part of an outer surface of the container which is contacted with a container supporter is out of consideration. Therefore, the container and the container supporter are contacted insufficiently, resulting in poor heat transfer coefficency therebetween.
An object of present invention is to effectively transmit a heating or a cooling from outside, to the sample, to which the thermal process is required to be applied, solving such conventional problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention takes advantage of technical means for obtaining a good thermal conductivity by adding an inorganic substance which has 10W/(mK) or more of the thermal conductivity as a filler in a resin. In other words, a defect of the resin originally having a small thermal conductivity is compensated with the inorganic filler, which is dispersed in the resin, having a large thermal conductivity. If content ratio by volume of the inorganic filler is small, effect to improve the thermal conductivity is small. At least 30% by volume of the inorganic filler is required to be added. The more the amount of the inorganic filler is, the larger the thermal conductivity is. However, more than 90% by volume of the inorganic filler is hard to be realized. If an inorganic filler in a form of perfect spherical particles is, for example, up to 95% by volume of the inorganic filler is available. 30% to 95% by volume of the inorganic filler may be selected in view of strength, thermal conductivity, a cost, a shape or the like. Any shape of the inorganic filler may be selected from particles, whiskers, fibers, a foil or the like depending on purposes. A plurality of shapes may be combined, if required. Material of the inorganic filler may be selected from the group consisting of cermamics, metal and carbon having not less than 10W/(mk) of thermal conductivity, for example boron nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide, silicon oxide, quartz glass, zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, beryllium oxide carbon, diamond, gold, silver, copper, aluminum, tungsten and molybdenum or the like in view of strength, insulating ability or the like depending on purposes. These materials may be combined.
Some samples require no contact portion with the inorganic filler material in view of their properties, therefore the contact portion have to be a resin. The contact portion is formed with a suitable resin alone for the sample properties after selecting a kind of resin. Thickness of the contact portion formed with the resin alone is to be at least 5 &mgr;m, however it depends on the material thereof, because too thin contact portion may be broken to make the sample contact with the inorganic filler. On the other hand, if the thickness exceeds a predetermined level, heat resistance of the contact portion formed with the resin alone becomes large to inhibit transmitting the heat to the sample. 200 &mgr;m or less of the thickness is preferable. Namely, the container of the present invention is composed of two portions which are the portion contacting with the sample constituted with the resin alone and the rest portion constituted with a composite of the resin and the inorganic filler.
The resin used for the portion of the outer surface of the container which is contacted with the container supporter is softer than that used for the sample container, thereby the container supporter can be stuck fast to the outer surface of the container. In other word, the soft resin is deformed to stick fast to a concave-convex surface of a hole in the container supporter into which the container is inserted, whereby heat is effectively transmitted from the container supporter to the container. The mechanism of the soft resin deformation may be plastic deformation or elastic deformation. In case of the plastic deformation, tensile strength of the resin used for the portion of the outer surface of the container which is contacted with the container supporter is preferably 32 MPa or less. In case of the elastic deformation, longitudinal elastic modulus of the same is preferably 1.4 GPa or less. The soft resin may be a soft gel resin. In case that the sample is treated under a thermal process at a temperature in a range from 50° C. to 100° C., the resin used for the portion of the outer surface of the container which is contacted with the container supporter is deformable by the thermal process to be stuck tightly to the sample container, when the same resin has 50° C. of softening temperature. Temperature applied at the thermal process in a biotechnology field is substantially 100° C. or less. Therefore, the resin used for the portion of outer surface of the container which is contacted with the container supporter having 100° C. or less of the softening temperature may be selected depending on purposes. When this soft resin is used, the content ratio of the inorganic filler is preferably 30% to 95% by volume as well. 5 to 300 &mgr;m in thickness of the inorganic filler is effective.
According to th e sample container constructed as described above, because of provision of the composite portion composed of the resin and inorganic filler with high heat conductivity, it is possible to effectively transmit the heating and cooling process from the outside to the sample. Due to the fact that the sample does not directly touch the inorganic filler, there will be no damage to the sample. Furthermore, when the resin of the outer portion which is contacted with the sample container supporter is composed of softer material than that of the main resin of the sample container, close sticking between the sample container supporter and the sample container is possible.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4072243 (1978-02-01), Conant et al.
patent: 4743544 (1988-05-01), Namba et al.
patent: 4744478 (1988-05-01), Hahn
patent: 4773559 (1988-09-01), Sasaki et al.
patent: 4872590 (1989-10-01), Sasaki et al.
patent: 5012950 (1991-05-01), Knappe
patent: 5804270 (1998-09-01), Kawamura et al.

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