Dried biological reagent pill dispenser with vibrating mechanism
US5609270A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 27, 1995 |
| Grant date | Mar 11, 1997 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 27, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N2035/00564
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A dispenser include a housing with an inlet through which reagent pills are received from a vial. Within the housing is a dispensing tube that forms a pill passageway which has a first portion of relatively large cross section adjacent the inlet and a funnel portion in which the passageway reduces in cross section to a narrower linearizing portion. The dispensing tube has a series of ridges on an exterior surface. A metering shaft extends across the linearizing portion and has a depression for conveying one reagent pill at a time between sections of the linearizing portion when the metering shaft is rotated. A gear on the metering shaft is meshes with teeth on a plunger which is slidably mounted in the housing. The plunger also has a member projecting therefrom and against dispensing tube. A user pressing the plunger causes the metering shaft to rotate transferring a reagent pill to a portion of the passageway connected to the outlet of the housing and thereby ejects that reagent pill from the housing. That plunger movement also causes the member to ride over the ridges which vibrates the dispensing tube loosening any pills that become jammed in the funnel portion.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.