Gas knife using parallelogram flow
AssigneeVentana Medical Systems, Inc.
InventorCharles Hassen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one aspect of the present disclosure is a method of contactlessly urging, directly, or moving a substance on the surface of a substrate, the method employing a gas knife (300) configured to produce a gas curtain having parallelogram flow.
Claims23
An automated slide processing apparatus comprising:
- at least one fluid dispenser configured to dispense a fluid onto an upper surface of a slide;
- and
- a liquid removal device for driving the dispensed fluid on the upper surface of the slide toward at least one of (i) a wicking feature in communication with at least a portion of an end of the slide, or (ii) a longitudinal edge of the slide;
- where the liquid removal device projects a gas curtain having a shape which approximates a parallelogram.
A method of moving a fluid present on an upper surface of a slide, comprising:
- (a) positioning a gas knife proximal a first longitudinal edge of a slide, the gas knife providing a substantially uniform gas curtain directed toward the slide, the gas curtain having a gas flow rate of between about 10 L/min to about 20 L/min;
- and
- (b) moving the gas knife across the slide at a velocity of between about 0.75 inches/second (1.905 cm/second) and about 1.25 inches/second (3.175 cm/second) in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the slide, wherein the gas knife maintains a height separation from the upper surface of the slide throughout its movement, the height separation ranging from between about 0.4 cm to about 0.6 cm.
A gas knife comprising a plenum and a plurality of outlets in fluidic communication with the plenum, the plurality of outlets arranged in parallel along an end of the plenum, each gas outlet having a slant angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the plenum ranging from between about 20 degrees to about 40 degrees, and wherein a ratio between a length of the outlet and a diameter of the outlet is greater than 5, and wherein the plurality of outlets are provided at a pitch of between about 3 and about 20 outlets per inch (2.54 cm).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.