Automatic sealing closure means for closing off a passage in a flexible cuvette
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsDennis R. Zander, John B. Chemelli, Craig A. Caprio
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There are described a cuvette and a method for sealing off flow such as flow in a passageway from an access port in the cuvette with a closure, that ensures a complete seal merely by applying the closure. The cuvette is improved in that it has the closure in a closure portion that is joined to the rest of the cuvette along a hinge line that passes through the passageway to be closed off, so that application of the closure by bending the closure portion about the hinge line pinches off the passageway.
Claims7
In a flexible cuvette defined by opposed flexible sheets sealed together to contain at least one temporarily sealed chamber containing a reagent, and a patient sample access port constructed to be closed after sample injection, said port being fluidly connected to said at least one chamber of said cuvette by a passageway;
- the improvement wherein said cuvette further includes on a portion thereof, closure means for frictionally engaging said port, said portion being integrally connected to the rest of said cuvette about a hinge line, a portion of said hinge line being constructed to pass through said passageway adjacent to said port,
- so that bending of said portion along said hinge line to engage said port with said closure means causes said opposed sheets of said cuvette to pinch and seal said passageway closed.
A method for sealing off the access port of a flexible cuvette connected to at least one internal compartment by a passageway, the method comprising the steps of
- a) providing closure means on a portion of said cuvette joined to said cuvette along a hinge line that is located to intersect said passageway, said closure means being constructed to friction-fit with said access port, and
- b) bending said closure means about said hinge line until said closure means frictionally engages said access port and said passageway is pinched off at said hinge line against any further flow.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.