Method and device for pretreatment of samples by centrifuging
AssigneeStago Instruments
InventorBenoit Lagarde
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention concerns a method comprising detecting tubes inside carriers (P), detecting an expected imbalance of the centrifuge (CE) and, when said detection reveals the presence of such an imbalance owing to the presence of an insufficient number of carriers (P) or an odd number of carriers (P), the method consists in: simulating the load of the centrifuge incorporating the incomplete carrier (P), selecting a balance-restoring carrier based on the number of tubes missing in the incomplete carrier (P), determining the boat of the centrifuge (CE) wherein the balancing carrier should be placed and installing said carrier in the boat.
Claims10
Method for pretreating via centrifuging samples contained in tubes-placed in containers prior to being introduced into an automatic analysis device, the centrifuging being effected in a centrifugal machine comprising a rotor with a vertical axis, a plurality of boats being mounted tilting at the periphery of said rotor, said boats being able to each contain one container with tubes of samples, said method comprising the steps of detecting the presence of tubes inside the containers at the time they are transported to the centrifugal machine, detecting a foreseeable lack of balance of the centrifugal machine and when this detection reveals the presence of this lack of balance owing to the presence of incomplete containers or an odd number of containers:
- simulating the load of the centrifugal machine
- incorporating the incomplete container;
- selecting a balancing container according to the number of tubes missing in the incomplete container;
- determining the boat of the centrifugal machine inside which the balancing container needs to be arranged so as to obtain a good balancing of the load;
- placing this container in said boat in the place of the samples container which would be there, thus provoking a shift in the order of the introduction of the balancing containers in the centrifugal machine;
- putting back the balancing container on its storage area at the time of transferring the sample containers to the automatic analysis device once centrifuging has been carried out.
Device for pretreating via centrifuging samples contained in tubes placed in containers prior to being introduced into an automatic analysis device, the centrifuging being effected in a centrifugal machine comprising a rotor with a vertical axis, a plurality of boats being mounted tilting at the periphery of said rotor, said boats being able to each contain one container with tubes of samples said device comprising a feeding station placed along one lateral side of the centrifugal machine opposite a feeding station of the analysis robot, this feeding station comprising a first thrustor able to move in translation and used to extract the containers contained in the feeding station, bring them into a storage area adjacent to a belt conveyor which circulates parallel to the rear side of the centrifugal machine perpendicular to the displacement axis of the thrustor, a grasping mechanism able to transfer the containers situated on the belt conveyor into the boats of the centrifugal machine which come out of an opening situated in a feeding area and bring them back onto the belt conveyor after centrifuging, said belt conveyor transporting the centrifugal thrusters to a transport area situated on one lateral side of the centrifugal machine adjacent to the feeding station of the robot, said transport area comprising a second thrustor able to move perpendicular to the running off direction of the belt conveyor so as to transfer via a translation movement the containers brought by the belt conveyor into the feeding station of the robot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.