Centrifuge Adapter With Separation Joint
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Solution Overview
Problem
Centrifuge adapters face challenges in maintaining sample container stability and preventing damage during high acceleration centrifugation, especially with larger volume containers, due to deformation and entanglement risks, which restricts separation efficiency and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
An adapter with a bucket-like base body and a separation joint in the side wall that expands radially, featuring overlapping edge regions to prevent entanglement and damage, and a wedge-shaped design to maintain stability and facilitate easy insertion and removal, along with a flexible material for recoil functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If sample containers are made with thinner walls to reduce weight and cost, then manufacturing cost and weight are reduced, but mechanical stability and self-supporting capability are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter serves as an intermediary structure between the centrifuge rotor and the sample container. It provides mechanical support to thin-walled sample containers, maintaining their stability during centrifugation without requiring the containers themselves to be thick-walled. The adapter's robust structure compensates for the reduced strength of thin-walled containers.
2Productivity
If larger volume sample containers are used to increase centrifugation efficiency, then productivity is improved, but deformation and entanglement risks increase due to high acceleration forces
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter acts as a protective intermediary that bears the mechanical loads during centrifugation of large-volume containers. It prevents deformation of the sample container walls and eliminates entanglement risks by providing a rigid framework that maintains proper spacing and positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The adapter enables changes in operational parameters by allowing larger volume containers to be centrifuged at high acceleration forces without risking deformation. The adapter structure transforms the system's capability to handle higher volumes and forces that would otherwise be unsafe.
3Ease of operation
If separation joints are added to the adapter to facilitate sample container removal, then ease of operation is improved, but sample containers with complex geometry or attachments risk entanglement and damage
Solution Approach 1:
The separation joint functionality is extracted as a distinct feature that can be selectively activated. The joint remains closed during centrifugation to prevent entanglement, and only opens during removal when needed. This extracts the harmful potential of open joints while retaining the benefit of easy removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The separation joint transitions from a static open structure to a dynamic closed structure during centrifugation. The joint's ability to change state allows it to adapt to different operational phases: closed during high-speed rotation to prevent entanglement, and open during removal to facilitate easy extraction.
4Productivity
If high acceleration forces are applied during centrifugation to improve separation efficiency, then productivity is improved, but forces on the sample container and adapter increase causing deformation and firm wedging
Solution Approach 1:
The adapter enables the system to operate at higher acceleration forces by transforming the mechanical stress distribution. It changes the force parameters the system can withstand, allowing higher productivity without exceeding material strength limits through its load-distributing structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The adapter effectively protects sample containers from damage during centrifugation and removal, allows for high-volume centrifugation without deformation, and enhances separation efficiency by maintaining container stability and ease of handling.
Implementation Method 1
allows for the side wall region to be expanded from a starting position to an expanded position by means of an applied force
Implementation Method 2
substance mixtures are separated by implementation of high acceleration forces. To this end, the substance mixture is placed in a sample container, which is then driven so as to rotate in such a manner that centrifugal forces occur within the sample container
Data Source
AI summary
Adapter for inserting a sample container in a centrifuge bucket, comprising a bucket-like base body, which delimits a cavity for accommodating the sample container and has a bottom region and an adjoining side wall region, the top edge of which defines an opening edge of the cavity, and an insertion opening, through which the sample container can be inserted in the cavity and which is delimited by the opening edge, at least one separation joint being present in the side wall region of the base body, which separation joint extends from the opening edge in the direction towards the bottom region and which allows for expanding the side wall region from a starting position (P1) to an expanded position (P2) by applying a force in such a way that the opening edge has a larger circumference as compared to the starting position (P1). The side wall area has two edge regions separated from each other by the separation joint, which at least in the starting position (P1) lie one above the other radially and overlap in the circumferential direction (U), thus forming an overlap region.