Well Plate Lid Venting for Uniform API Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional well plate designs experience API leakage and gasket detachment due to high pressure during titration, leading to non-uniform distribution and safety concerns during pharmaceutical development.
Innovation Solution
A well plate assembly with an interior channel system in the lid, featuring inlet and outlet valves, and lid clips to manage pressure and ensure uniform API distribution, preventing gasket detachment and leakage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If high pressure is applied during API injection to ensure thorough mixing, then mixing efficiency is improved, but API leakage and gasket detachment occur
Solution Approach 1:
The lid is segmented into multiple regions: sealed regions that maintain pressure for mixing, unsealed regions that allow pressure release, and intermediate regions with pressure equalization channels. This segmentation allows different pressure conditions in different areas, enabling thorough mixing without causing gasket detachment or API leakage.
Solution Approach 2:
Pressure equalization channels act as intermediaries between the sealed injection region and the unsealed vent regions. These channels gradually equalize pressure across the lid, preventing sudden pressure spikes that would cause gasket detachment while still allowing sufficient pressure for mixing in the well plates.
2Manufacturing precision
If high pressure is applied during API injection to ensure complete distribution, then distribution completeness is improved, but API bursts out of the wells
Solution Approach 1:
Extraction ports are provided in the lid that allow excess pressure and API to be vented out of the sealed system. When pressure builds up during injection, the excess API and pressure can escape through these ports rather than bursting out of the well plates, maintaining distribution uniformity while preventing leakage.
Solution Approach 2:
The lid transitions from a completely sealed state during injection to a dynamically controlled pressure state during mixing. The pressure equalization channels and extraction ports dynamically open and close based on pressure conditions, allowing the system to adapt between maintaining pressure for mixing and releasing pressure to prevent leakage.
3Measurement precision
If individual well puncturing is used to distribute API, then precise control is achieved, but the process becomes time-consuming and creates splatter
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple individual well injection operations are merged into a single simultaneous operation. The lid with its channel system allows API to be injected once and automatically distributed to all wells at the same time through the pressure equalization channels, achieving both precise control and time efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The lid is pre-configured with channels and pressure equalization pathways before API injection. This preliminary setup ensures that when API is injected, it automatically follows the predetermined paths to distribute uniformly across all wells, eliminating the need for individual well puncturing while maintaining precision.
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 solution ensures efficient, uniform, and safe distribution of API into individual wells, maintaining reproducibility and user safety by managing pressure and preventing API release during experimentation.
Implementation Method 1
If the pressure within the wells exceeds the limit of the outlet valve, the outlet valve opens and allows air to escape the lid safely
Data Source
AI summary
A well plate assembly with an interior channel system in the well plate lid provides a more efficient and uniform distribution of fluid into a receptacle positioned below the well plate lid. The channel system in the lid allows air, or other fluid, to pass through with the use of a pump to each of a plurality of channels in the receptacle. Inlet and outlet valves in the lid prevent a gasket positioned between the lid and the receptacle from releasing contact with the receptacle due to high pressure experienced during the injection of fluid into the assembly. Specifically, pressure under a specified tolerance passes through the inlet valves, and if the pressure within the channel system exceeds the limit of the outlet valve, the outlet valve opens and allows air to escape the lid safely without disturbing the fluid flow into the channels below.