Pipette Tip Carrier Segmentation for Automated Refilling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing carriers for pipette tips are not suitable for use in automatic machines due to issues with refilling, stability, and space efficiency, particularly for non-nestable pipette tips, which often result in contamination and material wastage.
Innovation Solution
A carrier design featuring a frame with detachable plates and guiding elements that allow for secure attachment and easy removal by automatic machines, along with a distance piece for spacing pipette tips, ensuring stability and space-saving stacking of non-nestable pipette tips.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a detachable cover cap is used to protect pipette tips, then contamination is prevented, but the refilling process becomes complex and unsuitable for automatic machines
Solution Approach 1:
The carrier is divided into separate components: a frame, a bottom, and a plate holder assembly that can be independently accessed. The plate holder can be removed from the frame to allow automatic machines to access and replace plates without removing a cover cap, thus maintaining protection while enabling simple refilling.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate holder assembly is extracted as a separate removable component from the frame. This allows the plate to be accessed and replaced by automatic machines through the open top of the frame, eliminating the need for a detachable cover cap while maintaining contamination protection through the design of the plate holder itself.
2Stability of the object's composition
If a rigid grid-like subdivision is used to provide structural stability, then automatic machine handling is enabled, but pipette tips hit the subdivision and fall out during insertion
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a rigid grid structure in the horizontal plane that interferes with pipette tip insertion, the invention provides structural stability through vertical support elements (side walls and bottom) and flexible horizontal plate material. The plate flexes during insertion to accommodate pipette tips while the side walls prevent lateral displacement, resolving the contradiction between stability and reliable tip retention.
3Quantity of substance
If multiple plates are stacked to combine a larger number of pipette tips, then space efficiency is improved, but the lateral enclosure encumbers removal by automatic machines
Solution Approach 1:
The carrier is segmented into a frame and a removable plate holder assembly. Automatic machines can grasp and remove the plate holder from the frame through the open top, enabling easy access and plate replacement. Multiple plates can be stacked in separate carriers, and the segmented design allows each plate to be independently accessed and replaced without lateral encumbrance.
4Stability of the object's composition
If locking elements with frictional fit are used to detachably fix plate and lower part, then secure attachment is achieved, but detaching requires force greater than weight force
Solution Approach 1:
The plate holder assembly is extracted as a complete removable unit from the frame, eliminating the need for locking elements with frictional fit. The plate holder can be easily grasped and removed by automatic machines through the open top, and replaced when empty, without requiring forceful detachment. This extraction approach maintains secure attachment during use while enabling easy removal for refilling.
Data Source
AI summary
A carrier comprising pipette tips with a frame or box having four side walls, several plates with a plurality of holes, pipette tips inserted into the holes, a circumferential edge protruding from each plate and a circumferential resting edge of the upper edge of the frame or box defining locking elements for releasably connecting the frame or box with a lower plate, a distance piece formed from a single piece of material placed with a bottom side on the lower plate or on the pipette tips in the lower plate and an upper plate which is supported with the bottom side on the top side of the distance piece, the upper plate and the lower plate being part of the several plates, wherein the distance piece has an intermediate bottom with a plurality of additional holes for the lateral guiding of pipette tips held in the upper plate.