Incubator Sterilization via Dynamic Gas Circulation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current microbiological isolators and incubators face challenges in ensuring complete sterilization of cultivation rooms, gas supply pipes, and sampling pipes, leading to potential contamination and incorrect experimental results due to inadequate gas flow and sterilization coverage, especially in corners and complex piping systems.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a sterile gas circulation pipe with a circulation pump and fan to ensure thorough sterilization of the cultivation room, gas concentration control pipes, and sampling pipes, using a controller to manage the sterilization mode and prevent biased gas distribution by alternately introducing sterile gas into multiple gas supply pipes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If sterile gas is naturally circulated from isolator chambers into incubator cultivation rooms, then sterilization is performed without additional equipment, but corners in the box-like cultivation boxes have poor gas flow and less circulated sterile gas resulting in incomplete sterilization
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a circulation pump to dynamically circulate sterile gas through the cultivation room and piping system. This dynamic circulation ensures that sterile gas reaches all areas including corners and hard-to-reach regions, resolving the incomplete sterilization problem while maintaining system simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a circulation pump (fluid dynamics device) to force sterile gas through the gas supply pipes and sampling pipes. This pneumatic circulation system ensures complete sterilization of both the cultivation room and the piping network, addressing the poor gas flow in corners and pipes
2Device complexity
If sterile gas is naturally circulated into cultivation rooms, then the system remains simple, but the sampling pipes and gas supply pipes are not sterilized resulting in inability to sterilize the piping system
Solution Approach 1:
The circulation pump serves multiple functions: it circulates sterile gas through the cultivation room, forces gas through the gas supply pipes to sterilize them, and enables sterilization of sampling pipes. This multi-functionality achieves complete piping sterilization without adding separate sterilization systems
Solution Approach 2:
The circulation pump creates pneumatic flow that forces sterile gas through the entire piping system including gas supply pipes and sampling pipes. This ensures complete sterilization of all pipes and components that come into contact with the cultivation environment
3Ease of operation
If corners in the cultivation box have poor gas flow during natural circulation, then the system operates simply, but complete sterilization of the entire cultivation room cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The circulation pump creates dynamic gas flow that actively circulates sterile gas throughout the cultivation room, ensuring that corners and areas with poor natural convection receive adequate sterilization. The pump maintains continuous circulation to achieve complete coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a controller to monitor and control the circulation pump operation. The controller ensures the pump operates during sterilization cycles to maintain proper gas flow patterns, achieving complete sterilization coverage while maintaining simple operation through automated control
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 configuration ensures reliable sterilization of the entire cultivation room and associated pipes, preventing contamination and ensuring accurate experimental results by ensuring uniform and complete circulation of sterile gas, even in hard-to-reach areas like corners.
Implementation Method 1
a circulation pump provided in the sterilising gas circulation pipe for insulating said sterilising gas through said gas concentration control pipe
Implementation Method 2
a valve in said sterlilising gas circulation pipe, said valve being opened in a sterilisation mode to enable sterilising gas which is supplied to the cultivation room in a sterilization mode, to circulate from the cultivation through the gas concentration control pipe
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4
AI summary
There is provided an incubator for an isolator, which is capable of reliably sterilizing a cultivation room of the incubator, a gas supply pipe and a sampling pipe. An incubator 1 for an isolator 40 includes a gas concentration control pipe 16 provided to communicate to a cultivation room 4 for control of concentration of cultivation gas in the cultivation room 4, a sterile gas circulation pipe 26 for circulating sterile gas from the cultivation room 4 to the gas concentration control pipe 16, and a circulation pump 24 provided in the sterile gas circulation pipe 26.