Sample Vessel with Opaque Body and Translucent Windows
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional sample vessels suffer from light scatter and reflectance issues due to translucent materials, electrostatic build-up, and inadequate reagent rehydration, which affect measurement accuracy in sample analyzers.
Innovation Solution
A sample vessel design featuring an opaque body with aligned first and second translucent portions that allow light to pass through, using electrostatically dissipative materials to reduce noise and reflections while maintaining a low unit cost, and optimizing the optical path length for improved measurement precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If translucent materials are used for the sample vessel body, then light can pass through for measurement, but light scatter and reflectance increase reducing measurement accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The sample vessel applies different optical properties to different regions: the majority of the vessel body is opaque to minimize light scatter and reflectance, while specific window regions are made translucent to allow light passage for measurement. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing light transmission only where necessary while maintaining opacity elsewhere to reduce interference.
Solution Approach 2:
The vessel body is segmented into distinct functional zones: opaque body portions that minimize light interference and translucent window portions that enable optical measurement. This segmentation allows each region to perform its specific function optimally, resolving the contradiction between light transmission and light scatter reduction.
2Reliability
If electrostatically dissipative materials are used, then electrostatic build-up is reduced, but material cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The vessel incorporates materials with modified electrical properties (electrostatically dissipative materials) that allow controlled charge dissipation. By changing the electrical parameter of the material while maintaining optical functionality, the system prevents electrostatic interference without requiring additional separate components, thus managing complexity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If opaque materials are used for the sample vessel body, then light scatter and reflectance are reduced, but light cannot pass through for measurement
Solution Approach 1:
The vessel body exhibits spatially varying optical properties: opaque in most regions to minimize light scatter and reflectance, and translucent in specific window regions to permit light transmission for measurement. This local quality differentiation simultaneously achieves both requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The vessel is divided into opaque body segments and translucent window segments, allowing the opaque portions to block stray light while the window segments transmit measurement light, resolving the contradiction between light blocking and light transmission.
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 design reduces unwanted scatter and reflections, enhances measurement accuracy, and prevents electrostatic interference, while keeping costs low by using a predominantly opaque body with strategically placed translucent sections.
Implementation Method 1
a first translucent portion and a second translucent portion spaced from the first translucent portion a distance that extends along a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis. The first and second translucent portions are each disposed along the bottom of the body.
Implementation Method 2
The body includes an opaque portion, a first translucent portion, and a second translucent portion
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3~4
AI summary
An embodiment of the present disclosure is a sample vessel for a holding a sample for analysis by a sample analyzer. The sample vessel includes a body that includes a bottom, an open top spaced from the bottom along a first axis, a side wall that extends from the open top to the bottom, and an interior chamber for holding a sample and that extends from the open top toward the bottom along the first axis. The body includes an opaque portion, a first translucent portion, and a second translucent portion spaced from the first translucent portion a distance that extends along a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis. The first and second translucent portions are each disposed along the bottom of the body.