Hermetic Petri Dish Receiver With Wireless Opening for Isolators
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing isolators face challenges in safely and efficiently handling nutrient medium carriers like Petri dishes due to the complexity and cost of robotic arms, difficulty in operation, and risk of contamination through glove openings.
Innovation Solution
A receiving device with a hermetically sealable interior and a wirelessly remote-controlled drive for opening and closing, allowing safe and simple handling of nutrient medium carriers without robotic intervention, suitable for existing isolators, including gloveless designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If robotic arms are used to handle nutrient medium carriers, then handling safety and sterility are improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the handling function from complex robotic systems and implements it through a simple receiving device with a drive mechanism. The receiving device is inserted into the isolator as a complete unit, and the drive mechanism automatically opens and closes the lid without requiring external robotic intervention, thereby eliminating device complexity while maintaining handling safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The receiving device is designed to be self-sufficient within the isolator. Once inserted, it autonomously performs the handling tasks of opening and closing the nutrient medium carrier lid through its integrated drive mechanism, controlled by a simple button on the receiving device itself rather than requiring external robotic control systems.
2Ease of operation
If glove openings are used for handling, then ease of operation is improved, but contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The receiving device serves as an intermediary between the operator and the nutrient medium carrier. Instead of directly manipulating the carrier through glove openings, the operator interacts with the receiving device's external button, which automatically actuates the drive mechanism inside the isolator to open and close the lid, thereby eliminating contamination risk while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of glove-based manual handling with an automated drive mechanism controlled by an external button. This substitution eliminates the need for glove openings entirely, as the drive mechanism can be activated from outside the isolator through the receiving device's interface, thereby removing the contamination pathway while preserving operational simplicity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If robotic arms are installed in existing isolators, then handling capability is improved, but retrofitting complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the handling function into a separate, self-contained receiving device that can be independently inserted into existing isolators. This segmentation allows the receiving device to be added as a modular component without requiring modification of the isolator's existing structure, thereby improving handling capability while minimizing retrofitting complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The receiving device is designed as a standalone unit that extracts the handling functionality from the isolator's existing structure. It includes its own drive mechanism and control interface, eliminating the need to retrofit complex robotic arms into the isolator. The device is inserted as a complete functional unit, thereby adding handling capability without increasing retrofitting complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
An accommodation device (2) for a culture medium carrier (7), such as a petri dish in particular, is specified. The accommodation device (2) has a hermetically closable interior (23) for accommodation of the culture medium carrier (7). By means of a wirelessly remote-controllable drive (25), the accommodation device (2) can be opened and closed, in order respectively to provide access to the culture medium carrier (7) and to hermetically close the interior (23) with the culture medium carrier (7) accommodated therein. The accommodation device (2) as a whole may be introduced into and removed from a hermetically insulable space (11) in an insulator (1). Also specified is a method of identifying microbes in the atmosphere of an insulator (1).