Microplate Vessel Bottom Low Points for Pipette Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Microplates with 48 vessels are difficult to fill and empty efficiently due to the 12 mm vessel spacing, which is incompatible with standard multi-channel pipettes designed for 9 mm spacing, requiring complex single-channel pipetting or specialized multi-channel pipettes.
Innovation Solution
A microplate design with 48 vessels arranged in rows and columns where the low points of adjacent vessel bottoms are spaced 9 mm or 18 mm apart, allowing alignment with common multi-channel pipettes for simultaneous filling and emptying, and featuring various vessel group configurations to accommodate different pipette tip alignments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If vessels are arranged with 12 mm spacing to accommodate 48 wells, then the microplate can hold more samples, but standard multi-channel pipettes with 9 mm pin spacing cannot be used for simultaneous filling
Solution Approach 1:
The vessel bottoms are designed with localized low points that are positioned at specific distances (9 mm or 18 mm) from adjacent low points. This local feature arrangement within the vessels allows compatibility with standard 9 mm spaced multi-channel pipettes, while the overall vessel spacing remains 12 mm to accommodate 48 wells in the microplate.
2Quantity of substance
If vessels are arranged with 12 mm spacing, then more vessels can be included, but laborious single-channel pipetting or special adjustable multi-channel pipettes are required
Solution Approach 1:
By positioning the low points at specific locations within each vessel bottom, the design enables use of standard fixed-spacing multi-channel pipettes, eliminating the need for complex adjustable mechanisms or single-channel pipettes.
Solution Approach 2:
The pattern of low point positions is replicated across all vessel bottoms in the microplate. This consistent replication allows a single multi-channel pipette configuration to work across all vessels, simplifying the overall system while maintaining high vessel count.
3Quantity of substance
If vessels are arranged with 12 mm spacing, then 48 vessels can be accommodated, but complete removal of sample liquid is difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The low points at the bottoms of vessels are positioned to align with the pins of multi-channel pipettes. This localized feature ensures that pipette tips reach the lowest point of each vessel, enabling complete removal of sample liquid from all vessels simultaneously.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
Microplate comprising a plate, 48 vessels, each of which is connected to or integrally formed with the plate, having an opening on the top of the plate and arranged in rows and columns with a distance between the centers of the openings of adjacent vessels of 12 mm, characterized in that the vessels each have a vessel bottom (5.2) with a low point on the inside, wherein the low points of adjacent vessels in the rows and/or in the columns have a distance from each other of 9 mm or of 18 mm.