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OwnerRobert Cassou, Maurice Cassou +1inventors
InventorsRobert Cassou, Maurice Cassou, Bertrand Cassou
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Straws, in particular for artificial insemination of animals and storage of biological products, are filled by aspiration through a suction nozzle fitted with a needle which enters the straw to the rear of a composite stopper and is fitted with a seal. A biological product (diluted sperm) is drawn up a flexible elastomer tube to an injector nozzle in response to reducing the pressure in the straw. The flexible tube is held centered over a distance equal to at least five times its outside diameter in a hoop held in a support. The elastomer from which the flexible tube is made has a Shore hardness of 41 to 47 and a reversible elongation capacity of at least 250%. These arrangements ensure rigorous centering of the needle in the hoop despite the flexibility of the tube. Parts which have been in contact with the sperm can be discarded after all of a sample has been used up, rather than requiring costly cleaning.
Single-use injector nozzle/ for machines for filling with biological products tubes usually called straws in the form of tubular sections of polymer material provided internally near one end with a composite stopper comprising between two porous plugs a volume of powder which gelifies when coming in contact with an aqueous liquid, wherein the filling being effected by gripping the straws between two nozzles fitted with seals bearing on the ends of the straw, namely a suction nozzle connected to a vacuum source and bearing on the end of the straw near the composite stopper wherein said injector nozzle fitted with a flexible tube which dips into a flask containing the biological product, said injector nozzle comprising a rigid needle adapted to be inserted into said straw and crimped axially into a body which has two external reference surfaces for respectively centering and longitudinally positioning said nozzle relative to a nozzle support, said flexible tube being made from an elastomer having a Shore hardness between 41 and 47 and a reversible elongation capacity of at least 250%, having an inside diameter of the same order of magnitude of the outside diameter of said needle and a nominal outside diameter at least twice said inside diameter, a right cross-section at the end into which said needle is inserted to a length of at least five times said needle outside diameter forming a seal bearing surface for the end of said straw remote from said composite stopper, and said flexible tube being gripped, at least when said nozzle is mounted on said machine, over a distance equal to at least five times its nominal outside diameter starting from the right cross-section at said end in a tubular hoop of rigid material whose inside diameter is matched to the nominal outside diameter of the tube with sufficient clamping force to hold and seal said needle, said hoop comprising said two reference surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.