Color-Coded Bioreactor Caps with Fixed-Length Feeder Tubes
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Solution Overview
Problem
In bioreactor experiments, there is no quick and reliable method to ensure that feeder lines reach the bottom of bottles of different sizes, leading to potential errors and premature experiment failure due to incompatible tubing lengths.
Innovation Solution
A system of caps with visual coding by color or indicia, each with a tube of a specific length to extend along the interior bottom of bottles, ensuring proper length and reducing human error in selecting feeder lines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If visual coding is added to caps to indicate bottle size compatibility, then ease of operation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cap is provided with visual coding in the form of color markings or color-coded bodies that indicate the bottle size compatibility. Different colors correspond to different bottle sizes, allowing rapid visual identification and selection of the correct cap without requiring complex labeling systems or additional components.
2Reliability
If tube length is fixed to match specific bottle heights, then reliability is improved, but adaptability worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into multiple cap-tube assemblies, where each assembly is specifically configured for a particular bottle size range. The caps are provided in different sizes and color-coded to match specific bottle heights, with each cap having a tube of appropriate length pre-attached. This segmentation ensures reliable feeder line reach for each bottle size while maintaining overall system versatility through the collection of standardized modular units.
3Productivity
If multiple color-coded caps are used for different bottle sizes, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cap design incorporates universal features that allow a single cap structure to serve multiple functions across different bottle sizes. The basic cap geometry, threading, and tube attachment mechanism remain standardized, while only the visual coding and minor dimensional adjustments vary by size. This universality enables rapid setup through simple visual matching while limiting the number of distinct cap variants needed in the system.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of caps are provided each with a visual coding of color and/or indicia for use with different sizes of bottles at least in accordance with a height of the bottles from a closed bottom end to an open top end for engaging each of the caps. Each of the caps has a tube mounted to, or through, an aperture extending through a top closed end of the cap to extend a selected length enabling one end of the tube to reach or extend along an interior surface of the bottom end of any of the bottles of the height to which the cap is coded for use therewith. The other end of tube is extendable to a bioreactor container. Each of the caps has another tube or port to another aperture of the cap to provide an air vent with an optional air filtering device.