Flexible Filter Cartridge for Contamination-Free Fluid Sample Preparation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for testing fluid samples, particularly in microbiological analyses, face challenges such as contamination during transportation and handling, require specialized equipment and skilled personnel, and are often impractical due to the need for laboratory settings, making it difficult to perform reliable and efficient sample preparation and analysis outside of a laboratory.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible, sealable, flexible fluid sample containment vessel integrated with a removable filter cartridge and enclosed fluid pathway system that allows for contamination-free sample processing and analysis without the need for vacuum systems or electrical power, enabling unskilled users to perform filtration and analysis in the field.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rigid glass or plastic bottles are used for fluid sample containment, then sample protection and sterility are improved, but weight and transportation cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible thin-wall plastic containment vessels instead of rigid glass or plastic bottles. These flexible containers maintain sample protection and sterility while significantly reducing weight and transportation cost, directly resolving the contradiction between reliability and weight.
2Measurement precision
If membrane filtration is performed using traditional filtration apparatus, then individual organisms can be captured and cultured, but contamination risk increases during sample transfer and manipulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the filtration process with the sample containment vessel by integrating a membrane filter directly into the flexible container. This integration eliminates the need for separate transfer steps and manual manipulation, allowing organism capture while minimizing contamination risk from external exposure during sample handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The membrane filter is pre-installed within the containment vessel before sample collection. This preliminary setup ensures that filtration capability is already in place, allowing immediate capture of organisms upon sample introduction while maintaining a closed system that prevents contamination during the filtration process.
3Productivity
If traditional filtration apparatus and equipment are used, then filtration and analysis can be performed, but device complexity and requirement for skilled personnel increase
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible containment vessel with integrated membrane filter serves multiple functions: sample collection, sample containment, filtration, and organism capture. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for separate filtration apparatus and complex equipment, reducing device complexity while maintaining filtration capability and enabling use by unskilled personnel.
4Reliability
If rigid containment vessels are used, then sample security during transport is improved, but packing efficiency and storage space decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible thin-wall plastic containment vessels can be collapsed when empty or after sample removal, allowing compact packaging and efficient storage. When in use, they maintain sample security during transport. This flexibility directly resolves the contradiction between sample security and storage space efficiency.
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
This solution prevents contamination, simplifies the sample preparation process, allows for compact and cost-effective transportation, and enables efficient, rapid filtration and analysis of microbiological samples outside a laboratory setting, reducing the need for specialized equipment and skilled personnel.
Implementation Method 1
a filtration process in which the sample is aspirated under vacuum through a porous membrane that captures the bacteria and removes the fluid
Data Source
AI summary
The application relates to a device and method for preparing and testing a fluid sample using a filtration procedure for analysis of a filterable constituent of the fluid. In particular the process employs an enclosed pathway whereby the fluid sample may be put into a sealable flexible containment-vessel, and can then be passed through a fluid passageway to a removable enclosable filter cartridge, wherein the filterable constituent may be removed and the resultant filtrate fluid discharged from the cartridge. Once introduced to the flexible vessel, the enclosed pathway system thereby enables the fluid to be filtered and the filterable constituent examined with minimal complications of contamination of the sample through exposure to environmental pollutant external to the fluid sample.A useful objective of the device and method is to enable analyses of microbiological content of a fluid sample.The application further relates to a means of conducting the filtration of a fluid sample without necessarily requiring a pump or vacuum equipment to express or aspirate the fluid from the flexible containment vessel through the filter cartridge.