Culture Bag Surface Structure for Foaming Suppression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing culture bags experience foaming issues when oscillated, leading to damage to culture targets like cells, despite efforts to enhance agitation performance, indicating a need for a solution that suppresses foaming while maintaining high culture efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A culture bag with an inner surface featuring alternating fine structures, such as concave-convex patterns with specific dimensions and aspect ratios, which promotes efficient fluid circulation and gas exchange, reducing foaming and enhancing agitation performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If oscillation agitation is applied to enhance nutrient circulation and gas dissolution, then culture efficiency is improved, but foaming occurs causing damage to culture targets
Solution Approach 1:
The culture bag incorporates a specific zone (gas-liquid separation zone) with different functional properties from the main culture space. This separation zone has a smooth inner surface and sufficient volume to allow gas bubbles to coalesce and escape without creating harmful foam in the culture fluid, thus enabling effective agitation while protecting culture targets
Solution Approach 2:
The gas-liquid separation zone acts as an intermediary structure between the agitation system and the culture fluid. It provides a transition region where gas bubbles can be safely handled and separated from the liquid phase before returning to the culture space, preventing direct foam formation on culture targets
2Productivity
If baffles are used to create vortex motion for efficient mixing, then agitation performance is improved, but wave collision with baffles generates excessive foaming
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the gas handling function from the agitation system by providing a dedicated gas-liquid separation zone. This allows the culture bag to achieve efficient mixing through oscillation without the harmful side effect of foam generation that occurs when agitation structures like baffles are used
Solution Approach 2:
The culture bag is segmented into functionally distinct zones: the culture space for cell growth and the gas-liquid separation zone for bubble management. This segmentation allows each zone to be optimized for its specific function, enabling effective agitation while preventing foam-related damage to culture targets
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 culture bag effectively suppresses foaming and improves culture efficiency by diversifying fluid flow and gas distribution, ensuring better nutrient circulation and reduced impact on culture targets during oscillation.
Implementation Method 1
the inner surface including, at least in part thereof, a first surface formed of a fine structure and a second surface formed of a structure different from that of the first surface
Implementation Method 2
high agitation performance of the culture fluid allows circulation of nutrients, and maintains gas components such as oxygen and carbon dioxide being dissolved in the culture fluid
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a culture bag accommodating a culture fluid, the culture bag is capable of suppressing foaming in the culture fluid when oscillating the culture fluid to perform a culture, and performing a culture with high efficiency. The culture bag includes a culture space accommodating a culture fluid, the culture space being an endless space to allow the culture fluid to circulate therein, in which the culture bag has an inner surface that comes into contact with the culture fluid to be accommodated therein, the inner surface including, at least in part thereof, a first surface formed of a fine structure and a second surface formed of a structure different from that of the first structure.