Conductive Pipette Tip with Translucent Zone for Liquid Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electrically conductive pipette tips are opaque and costly, making it difficult to visually inspect the liquid level and ensuring reliable contact with dosing devices, regardless of orientation.
Innovation Solution
A pipette tip with a multi-component injection molding process, combining an electrically conductive plastic area for conductivity and a translucent plastic area for visual inspection, or using imprints or shaped bodies of conductive material for conductivity and visibility, allowing for orientation-independent liquid detection and contact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If electrically conductive plastic compound containing carbon black is used to make pipette tips, then electrical conductivity is achieved, but the tips become opaque and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating distinct zones within the pipette tip: a translucent zone made of clear polypropylene for visual inspection, and a conductive zone made of carbon black-containing polypropylene for electrical conductivity. This spatial differentiation allows each region to have optimized properties for its specific function, resolving the contradiction between conductivity and transparency while controlling costs by limiting conductive material to only where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining two different polypropylene compounds: a clear polypropylene for the translucent areas and a carbon black-containing polypropylene for the conductive areas. This composite approach allows the pipette tip to simultaneously achieve optical transparency where needed and electrical conductivity where required, without the entire structure needing to be made from expensive conductive material.
2Reliability
If electrically conductive plastic compound containing carbon black is used to make pipette tips, then electrical conductivity is achieved, but the tips become opaque preventing visual inspection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating distinct zones within the pipette tip: a translucent zone made of clear polypropylene for visual inspection, and a conductive zone made of carbon black-containing polypropylene for electrical conductivity. This spatial differentiation allows each region to have optimized properties for its specific function, resolving the contradiction between conductivity and transparency while controlling costs by limiting conductive material to only where needed.
3Reliability
If conventional conductive pipette tips are used, then conductivity is ensured, but reliable contact with dosing devices cannot be guaranteed regardless of orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing the conductive zone to extend around a significant portion of the circumferential surface of the pipette tip. This circumferential distribution ensures that regardless of how the tip is oriented or rotated, the conductive material will maintain contact with the dosing device, making the system universal across different orientations and improving contact reliability.
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
Enables visual verification of the liquid level and ensures reliable contact with dosing devices, while reducing production costs by minimizing the use of conductive materials.
Implementation Method 1
electrically conductive plastic pipette tips... through capacitance measurement, whether the pipette tip is immersed in liquid
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an electrically conductive pipette tip, comprising an elongated, tubular body, which has a lower opening at the lower end for the passage of liquid, and an upper opening at the upper end for the passage of air, and a through-channel between the lower opening and the upper opening. The body is provided with at least one electrically conductive area extending from the lower opening to the upper opening, and with at least one translucent area made of plastic, which extends from the through-channel to the exterior of the body.