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US 12,486,713 B2Granted
Door for a laboratory workstation
AssigneeTecan Trading AG
InventorsRoland Fischer, Andre Haefelfinger, Antono Djojoatmodjo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A door for a laboratory workstation is disclosed. The laboratory workstation has a horizontally extending work surface for providing a working area. The door is movable in relation to the work surface in a vertical direction perpendicular to the work surface between a safety position, in which the door closes the working area for manual access of a user, an access position in which the working area is open for manual access of a user, and a loading position.
Claims16
A laboratory workstation (2) comprising:
- a horizontally extending work surface (3) defining a working area (4) thereon,
- at least one robotic device (17) for carrying out one or more automated process operations in at least a part of the working area (4),
- a processing unit (9) configured for controlling the one or more automated process operations, and
- a door (1) with an access opening (8) at a fixed location in the door (1),
- wherein the door (1) is configured to be movable in relation to the work surface (3) in a vertical direction perpendicular to the work surface (3) between a safety position (5) in which the door (1) closes the working area (4) for manual access of a user, an access position (7) in which the working area (4) is open for manual access of the user, and a loading position (6),
- wherein the access opening (8) in the door (1) is moved between an open status, a loading status, and a closed status as the door (1) is moved between the access position (7), the loading position (6), and the safety position (5), respectively, wherein the user has limited manual access to the working area (4) in the loading status and the user has no access to the working area (4) in the closed status,
- wherein, when the door (1) is in the safety position (5), the access opening (8) is positioned below the work surface (3) and is in the closed status, and wherein, when the door (1) is in the loading position (6), the access opening (8) is aligned to the work surface (3) and is in the loading status so that the user is allowed limited access to the working area (4),
- wherein positioning of the door (1) is under control of the processing unit (9) which is configured to control an activity of the at least one robotic device (17) for carrying out the one or more automated process operations in at least a part of the working area (4) in dependence of a present position of the door (1);
- and
- wherein the processing unit (9) is located at the laboratory workstation (2) or is configured to be connectable to the laboratory workstation (2).
7 more elements
A method of controlling a manual access to a working area (4) of a laboratory workstation (2), the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a laboratory workstation (2) comprising:
- a horizontally extending work surface (3) defining a working area (4) thereon,
- at least one robotic device (17) for carrying out one or more automated process operations in at least parts of the working area (4),
- a door (1) with an access opening at a fixed location in the door (1), wherein the door (1) is movable in relation to the work surface (3) in a vertical direction perpendicular to the work surface (3) between a safety position (5) in which the door (1) closes the working area (4) for manual access of a user, an access position (7) in which the working area (4) is open for manual access of the user, and a loading position (6), and
- a processing unit (9) configured for controlling one or more automated process operations in at least parts of the working area (4) or in dependence of a present position of the door (1);
- bringing the door (1) into a safety position (5) so that the access opening (8) is positioned below a level of the work surface (3), thereby closing the working area (4) for manual access of a user, under control of the processing unit (9),
- carrying out one or more automated process operations in the working area (4) in an automated manner by the robotic device (17) under the control of the processing unit (9),
- pausing the one or more automated process operations in at least parts of the working area (4) and afterwards allowing the door (1) to be moved into a loading position (6), each under the control of the processing unit (9),
- moving the door (1) from the safety position (5) into the loading position (6) so that a user has limited, manual access to at least parts of the working area (4) through the access opening (8) under control of the processing unit (9);
- and
- loading or unloading the work surface (3) through the access opening (8), while the one or more automated process operations are paused, and the door (1) is in the loading position (6) under the control of the processing unit (9).
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.