Selective component agitation apparatus and method
AssigneeAlfa Wasserman S.p.A.
InventorsGordon Coulter Forrest, Gerald John Allen, Philip Missing
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An independently rotatably mounted container may be used, by agitating the contents thereof, in the performance of a multi-component reaction or assay, by selective rotation of said container in the presence of adjacently mounted component containers which are not rotated. Such a principle may be applied in suspending solid phases in, for example, automated immunoassay apparatus or in reconstituting freeze dried reagents. Selective rotation has a number of advantages including gentleness to components and greater efficiency and reliability.
Claims14
An apparatus for selectively agitating one or more components of a multi-component reaction or assay, which apparatus comprises at least one component container which is rotatably mounted upon a platform which carries a multiple number of component containers, said at least one component container having an access opening via which the contents of the component container can be accessed and being mounted so as to be free to rotate independently of other component containers on the platform, and means for selectively rotating each of said at least one component container independently so as to cause agitation of the contents thereof, wherein said rotating means does not physically obstruct access to said access opening, and wherein said at least one container is provided, together with one or more additional containers, as a container pack which is removably mounted on said platform.
An apparatus for suspending a particulate solid phase which is suspensible in aqueous media, which apparatus comprises at least one container containing said particulate solid phase, said at least one container rotatably mounted upon a platform which carries one or more additional containers selected from the group consisting of reagent-, reaction-, and sample-containers, said at least one container having an access opening via which the contents of the container can be accessed and being mounted so as to be free to rotate independently of said additional containers on the platform, and means for selectively rotating each of said at least one container independently so as to bring said particulate solid phase into suspension therein, wherein said rotating means does not physically obstruct access to said access opening, and wherein said at least one container is provided, together with one or more additional containers, as a container pack which is removably mounted on said platform.
An apparatus for selectively suspending a particulate solid phase which is suspensible in aqueous media, which apparatus comprises a platform, a discrete container module removably mounted on said platform wherein said discrete container module includes at least one component container and at least one rotatably mounted container containing said particulate solid phase, and means for selectively rotating said at least one rotatably mounted container independently so as to suspend said particulate solid phase, further wherein said at least one rotatably mounted container has a cover with an access opening via which the contents of said at least one rotatably mounted container can be accessed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.