Abstract
A mechanism that provides an improved method of loading and unloading a row of disposable pipette tips onto a handheld multichannel pipettor. A single button fur tip load and unload operations is simpler than the current method of using a separate mechanism for ejecting the tips. The tips are configured in a rigid collar which is held by a clamp on the pipettor. An upward force combined with a sealing gasket that mates with the top of the pipette tips is used to provide the seal between the tips and the pipettor. This eliminates the requirement to “press downward” with excessive force in order to force the pipette tips onto a protruding sealing part. The loading and unloading of tips will be more reliable and repeatable, this providing better pipetting results. The low forces of the loading and unloading operations reduce the chance of repetitive stress injury for the operator.
Claims
1. A disposable tip collar that is used to load a single row of pipette tips in an evenly-spaced and rigid position. This collar can hold a variable number of pipette tips.
2. The collar of claim 1 is rigid and has a bottom edge to which a clamping force can be applied in order to load the collar and the tips onto a pipettor.
3. A clamping mechanism, or clamp, that includes an actuator that mates with the collar of claim 1, thereby allowing the combination of the collar and the clamp to lock the tips into place for pipetting.
4. A gasket that provides an airtight seal with the top edge of the pipette tips which are held in position by the collar from claim 1, thus providing an airtight seal as required for optimal pipetting.
5. A cam-driven mechanism combined with a spring or other device that provides constant upward pressure in the static position. This constant upward pressure is used to maintain the airtight seal of the tips to the gasket as described in claim 4.
6. A single trigger button that is used to release the upward pressure as described in claim 5, thereby allowing easy loading and unloading of the collar and tips as described in claim 1.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] FIG. 1 is a side elevation and cutaway view of a 12-channel handheld air displacement showing the clamping mechanism and trigger button of the current invention.
[0020] FIG. 2A is a first perspective view of the rubber gasket that provides the airtight seal.
[0021] FIG. 2B is a second perspective view of the rubber gasket that provides the airtight seal.
[0022] FIG. 3 is a side elevation and cutaway close-up view of a 12-channel handheld air displacement pipettor showing the rubber gasket installed along with the clamping mechanism and trigger button.
[0023] FIG. 4 is a side elevation and cutaway close-up view of a 12-channel handheld air displacement pipettor showing the clamping mechanism in the tip loading position.
[0024] FIG. 5A is a perspective view showing a tip rack containing rows of 12 disposable pipette tips being accessed by the pipettor with the clamp in the tip loading position.
[0025] FIG. 5B is a perspective view showing a single row of pipette tips loaded onto the pipettor and removed from the tip storage box.
[0026] FIG. 6 is a side elevation and cutaway view that shows the row of pipette tips loaded onto the pipettor and the clamping mechanism in the ready position.
[0027] FIG. 7 is a side elevation and close-up cutaway view that shows the positioning of the clamping mechanism onto the row of pipette tips and the position of the rubber gasket in relation to the tips.
[0028] FIG. 8A is a first side elevation and cutaway view of the handheld air displacement pipettor showing the position of the clamping mechanism during the aspirate phase of the pipetting operation.
[0029] FIG. 8B is a second side elevation and cutaway view of the handheld air displacement pipettor showing the position of the clamping mechanism during the dispense phase of the pipetting operation.
[0030] FIG. 9 is a side elevation and cutaway view that shows the row of pipette tips loaded onto the pipettor and the clamping mechanism in the tip unload position.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0031] FIG. 1 is an example of a typical handheld air displacement pipettor. The common parts used for pipetting are the frame 1 to contain the various parts, a linear motor 2, linear screw 3, and linear bearing 4 which are used to provide the vertical motion required to activate pipetting, a row of pistons 5 within a piston vacuum chamber 6 which are used to generate the air displacement function that allows pipetting of liquid to occur, and a series of tubes 7 that are used to connect the piston vacuum chamber to the disposable pipette tips. This drawing and description illustrates a 12-channel pipettor, but it is not meant to be limited to that number of channels. The present invention will apply to single-row handheld pipettors with any number of channels. Also shown in FIG. 1 is the clamp 8 which will act as the sealing mechanism for the pipette tips, the spring 9 which is used to provide the required force to maintain the seal of the pipette tips when they are loaded, and the trigger button 10 which is used by the operator to load and unload the pipette tips. The spring 9 is shown as the mechanism to produce the upward force required to move the clamp 8 upward and create the tip seal, however other methods could be used to generate this force.
[0032] In FIGS. 2A and 2B the gasket 11 is shown. The gasket is used to provide the airtight seal between the top edge of the pipette tips and the tubes 7 which lead to the piston vacuum chamber 6. The gasket can be manufactured from rubber, silicon, or any other similar compliant material as defined by the scope of this invention. FIG. 2A provides a perspective view of the gasket 11 before it is installed into the clamp 8. The gasket 11 is manufactured with upward extending sealing rings 12 that help provide the airtight connection to the tubes 7. FIG. 2B shows the gasket 11 installed into operational position in the clamp 8.
[0033] FIG. 3 is a close-up side view of the clamp 8 with the gasket 11 installed in the rest position. In this rest position, there is constant upward force 12 being applied to the clamp 8 by the spring 9. This constant upward force 12 is used to hold the clamp securely in position.
[0034] FIG. 4. illustrates how the trigger button 10 is used to move the clamp 8 downward so that it will be in position for the loading of the tips. When the operator applies a sideways force 13 on the trigger button 10 the cam 15 is pressed against the clamp 8 in such a manner that the clamp 8 moves downward. This downward movement of the clamp 8 creates a downward force 14 which causes the spring 9 to decompress.
[0035] In FIG. 5 the tip loading step is shown. The tips 17 are located in a collar 18 which is used to position and hold a row of tips 17, in this case 12 tips. The collars 18 are stored in a tip rack 16 for convenience. In order to load a row of tips 17, the operator continues to apply sideways force 13 to the trigger button 10 which keeps the clamp 8 in the downward position. Then the pipettor is lowered so the clamp 8 is in position directly above a collar 18 of tips 17. Once the clamp 8 is in position, the operator simply releases the pressure on the trigger button 10. This will allow the spring 9 to compress, and the upward force 12 of the spring in the compressed state will cause the clamp 8 to move to its locked position as shown in FIG. 5B. This will allow the collar 18 with the row of tips 17 to be lifted from the tip rack 16 as the tips are now loaded onto the pipettor.
[0036] FIG. 6 shows a side view of the pipettor with the tips 17 and collar 18 in the loaded position. The user no longer has to apply any force to the trigger button 10 since the tips 17 and collar 18 are held in position by the upward force 12 generated by the spring 9, which is acting on the clamp 8 causing it to lock onto the collar 18. In this position, called the ready state, the pipettor is ready for use.
[0037] A close-up view of the pipettor in the ready state is shown in FIG. 7 to illustrate how this design achieves the required airtight seal for optimal pipetting. The top edge 19 of the clamp 8 is positioned tightly under the bottom edge 20 of the collar 18. This top edge 19 of the clamp 8 is generating upward force 12 onto the bottom edge 20 of the collar 18 as generated by the spring 9. The top edges of the tips 17 are in contact with the gasket 11. The upward force 12 that is applied to the tips 17 by way of the clamp 8 and the collar 18 cause the tip edges of the tips 17 to be firmly pressed into the gasket 11 with sufficient force to provide an airtight seal to the tubes 7.
[0038] As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, once the tips 17 have been loaded as described above, the pipettor can be used for aspirating and dispensing with no further intervention of the part of the user on the trigger button 10. The tips 17 will remain firmly locked in place during the aspirate function shown in FIG. 8A and during the dispense function shown in FIG. 8B. In FIG. 8A the pistons 5 are shown in the higher position just after an aspirate operation In FIG. 8B the pistons 5 are shown in a lower position as is typical for a dispense operation. As the pipettor is used for the aspiration and dispense functions and the trigger 10 is left untouched, there is constant upward force 12 being applied to the collar and tip assembly due to the force generate by the spring 12.
[0039] The method for unloading the tips 17 is shown in FIG. 9. When the operator is ready to unload the tips, the trigger button is 10 pressed with a sideways force 13 which will then decompress the spring 9 and cause a downward force 14 to be app lied to the clamp 8. This will cause the clamp 8 to move to the lowered position. In this position, there no longer is any force applied to the collar 18. The operator simply needs to tilt the pipettor slightly to the side and the collar 18 with the tips 17 will full out and can be disposed of. The pipettor is now ready for the next pipetting operation.
[0040] The invention is an entirely new and novel way to manufacture a handheld multichannel handheld air displacement pipettor using disposable tips that addresses the shortcomings of the prior art.
[0041] An advantage of the invention compared to the current art is that an upward clamping force applied to a rigid collar which holds the pipette tips is used rather than the traditional method which requires the user to apply high downward force to the pipettor onto the tips in order to effect a seal. The reduction of the tip sealing force and the elimination of the requirement to constantly “bang downward” simplifies the use of the handheld pipettor and reduces the chances for repetitive stress injuries.
[0042] Another advantage of the invention is that the pipette tips are held firmly in place within the collar when it is clamped to the pipettor mechanism. Once the upward clamping force has been applied, the tips will be locked into place; furthermore this operation will be repeatable for every tip loading operation since the clamped tip collar will always have the same tolerance. Unlike the prior art where there can be varying positions of the tips after each tip loading operation depending on how hard the user pressed down to load the tips, with the current invention the tips will allows be at the same height and will be held in a precise and reproducible manner. This will improve the precision and accuracy of the pipetting results.
[0043] Yet another advantage of the invention is that the process of unloading the tips is as easy as the loading process, again reducing the amount of force required to unload the tips and reducing the stress on the user.
[0044] Yet another advantage of the invention is that a single trigger mechanism is used to both load and unload the tips, unlike the prior art where two separate mechanism are typically required. This simplifies the design of the handheld pipettor, making it lower in cost to manufacture and more reliable since there are fewer moving parts.
[0045] Yet another advantage of the invention is that no sealing protuberances are present in the design. These sealing protuberances as used in the prior art require that the top portion of the pipette tips be forced over and onto the protuberances. In order to achieve an airtight seal with such a design the tolerances for the protuberances and the tips are very tight and the design and manufacturing costs are higher. The design of the current invention which eliminates the sealing protuberances is simpler, more reliable, and lower in cost to manufacture. The current invention also makes it easier to use a variety of different disposable tips since with the mechanism for the same reasons.
