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US 10,208,277 B2Granted
Flow-path control method, and cell culture device
AssigneeHitachi High-Technologies Corporation
InventorsAkihiro Shimase, Kazumichi Imai, Eiichiro Takada, Sadamitsu Aso
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Abstract
According to the present invention, a problem of closed systems, namely minimizing the number of electromagnetic valves required to control a plurality of flow paths, can be addressed, and thus a low-cost cell culture device can be achieved. In this flow-path control method for X number of flow paths satisfying X≤2N, the X number of flow paths are selected by using N number of valves to simultaneously and selectively control the opening and closing of the plurality of flow paths.
Claims15
A flow-path control device comprising:
- X number (X≥3) of flow paths;
- and
- a minimum N number of valves satisfying X≤2N;
- wherein each of the valves includes a housing, a moveable member, an actuator that is connected to drive a moveable member, a first fixed member that is fixed to the housing and has a portion extending parallel to the moveable member on a first side of the moveable member and a second fixed member that is fixed to the housing and has a portion extending parallel to the moveable member on a second side of the moveable member,
- wherein, for each of the valves, the first fixed member, the second fixed member, and a portion of the moveable member that is parallel to the first fixed member and the second fixed member traverse the flow paths,
- wherein each of the valves is disposed in a different position along a flow direction of the flow paths,
- wherein a first plurality of the X number of flow paths pass on the first side of the moveable member between the moveable member and the first fixed member, and a second plurality of the X number of flow paths pass on the second side of the moveable member between the moveable member and the second fixed member,
- wherein each of the X number of flow paths pass the respective moveable member of each valve, and
- wherein the flow-path control device opens any one of the X number of flow paths by simultaneously controlling each of the N number of valves.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.