Automated microbial analyzer
US4118280A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 3, 1976 |
| Grant date | Oct 3, 1978 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 3, 1996 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S435/809
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
Medical specimens suspected of containing harmful microorganisms are diluted in saline solution and the dilution so formed is vacuum loaded into a cuvette or card containing viewing walls having dried selective culture media therein. The dilution rehydrates the culture media, each of which is selective in the sense that its optical characteristics will change when the organism to which it is specific metabolizes within it. A plurality of the cards are loaded into a tray, and the tray is placed on a rotatable carrousel of a card holder unit along with other trays. The carrousel is indexed at periodic intervals, and each time that it is indexed a different tray moves to a reading position facing a card reader unit. The carrousel has a center stack from which heated air is discharged such that it passes along both major surface areas of the cards in the tray, thus maintaining the cards at a temperature suitable for incubating microorganisms in them. The reader unit includes a reader head which moves vertically along that tray which is in the reading position, and this head has extractor and locator slides which move horizontally. The extractor slide engages each card and withdraws it …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.