Dispenser for dried biological reagent spheres
US5616299A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 6, 1995 |
| Grant date | Apr 1, 1997 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 6, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N2035/00574
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An apparatus for dispensing reagent spheres from a vial includes a housing with an inlet through which the reagent spheres are received from the vial. Within the housing is a dispensing tube which forms a passageway for the reagent spheres and which has a first relatively large section in communication with the inlet and a funnel section in which the passageway reduces in cross section to a narrower linearizing section. The cross sectional area of the linearizing section is only slightly larger than one of the reagent spheres being dispensed. A metering shaft extends across and blocks the linearizing section of the passageway. The metering shaft has a depression for conveying one reagent sphere at a time between portions of linearizing section when the metering shaft is rotated 180 degrees. A gear on the metering shaft meshes with teeth on a plunger which is slidably mounted to the housing. A user pressing the plunger causes the metering shaft to rotate transferring a reagent sphere to a portion of the passageway connected to the outlet of the housing and thereby ejects that reagent sphere from the housing.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.