Pipetting Guide for Microscope Stage Sample Preparation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for pipetting liquids into sample vessels on a microscope stage lack secure guidance, leading to user errors such as contacting the sample with the pipette tip or inaccurate injection due to loss of contact with the vessel wall, especially with multichannel pipettes where visual control is difficult.
Innovation Solution
A microscopic examination device with a movable pipetting guide that is fixable in relation to the microscope stage, featuring pipette guiding structures that can be positioned relative to the sample receptacles by pivoting the guide, ensuring secure and accurate pipetting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a hand-held pipette is used for pipetting liquids into sample vessels on a microscope stage, then the operation is flexible and easy to perform, but the pipetting precision and reliability deteriorate due to lack of secure guidance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a pipetting guide as an intermediary device between the hand-held pipette and the sample vessel. This guide includes a guide element with a guide opening that receives the pipette, and a support element with a support opening that receives the sample vessel. The guide structure provides secure guidance for the pipette tip to contact the vessel wall at a defined position, ensuring accurate liquid injection while maintaining hand-held operation flexibility.
2Productivity
If a hand-held pipette is used without secure guidance, then the operation is simple and quick, but the reliability deteriorates due to user errors such as contacting the sample with the pipette tip
Solution Approach 1:
The pipetting guide acts as a mediator that ensures reliable operation without slowing down the process. The guide element and support element create a defined geometric relationship between pipette and vessel, preventing user errors such as pipette tip contact with the sample. The guide structure maintains consistent positioning throughout the pipetting operation, enhancing reliability while preserving operational speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The pipetting guide is pre-positioned on the microscope stage with the guide element and support element in fixed spatial relationship. This preliminary arrangement ensures that when the user brings the pipette and vessel into the guide, the correct geometric alignment is automatically achieved, preventing errors before they occur and ensuring reliable pipetting from the start of the operation.
3Ease of operation
If a hand-held pipette is used with visual control, then the operation remains manual and flexible, but the measurement precision deteriorates due to difficulty in visually controlling the pipetting process
Solution Approach 1:
The pipetting guide provides a fixed geometric framework that eliminates the need for difficult visual control. The guide opening and support opening are positioned at precise distances from each other, ensuring that when the pipette is inserted through the guide opening and the vessel is placed on the support element, the tip-to-wall distance is automatically correct. This mechanical guidance replaces the need for visual estimation, improving precision while maintaining manual operation.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a microscopic examination device comprising a microscope and a sample preparation arrangement for preparing one or more samples to be examined in said microscope, said preparing including pipetting one or more liquids into one or more sample receptacles for said one or more samples, said sample preparation arrangement comprising a base and a receiving structure adapted to receive said one or more sample receptacles, said sample preparation arrangement further comprising a pipetting guide movably fixed or fixable in relation to the receiving structure, said pipetting guide comprising one or more pipette guiding structures positionable in relation to said one or more sample receptacles by pivoting said pipetting guide in relation to said base. A method of preparing one or more samples for microscopic examination is also part of the present invention.