GB2520521A

GB2520521A - Universal Rack System

Info

Publication number: GB2520521A
Application number: GB1320651.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Klaus Kunz
Original assignee: Stratec Biomedical AG
Current assignee: Stratec Biomedical AG
Priority date: 2013-11-22
Filing date: 2013-11-22
Publication date: 2015-05-27
Also published as: GB201320651D0

Abstract

A rack (20) for positioning and holding at least one container 1 comprising a base plate 21 and at least two positioning pins 30 which are positioned on the base plate and are spaced apart wherein the positioning pins have at least two contact faces such that the at least one container contacts one or more contact faces (31, 32; fig 6b) of the at least two positioning pins and thus held in position. The rack may include a clamping pin 40, a handle 50 and end member 60 which also connect to the base plate. The base plate may comprise apertures or holes (21 fig 2b) which connect with projections on the base of the pins, handle and end member to secure these elements to the base plate. The base plate may also include T-slots for mounting the rack upon an apparatus. The rack may include an adaptor element 80. The rack is adjustable to carry containers of various sizes and diameter.

Description

Title: Universal Rack System

Description

Cross-reference to related applications

[0001] None

Field of the invention

[0002] The field of the invention relates to a rack for positioning at least one container and a method for the arrangement of at least one container on a rack.

Background of the invention

[0003] Racks used to load and unload reagents and samples on automated analyser systems br use in clinica' diagnostics and life science are produced by a number of companies. For example. Stratee Biomedical AG, Birkenfeld, Germany. produces a number of racks for specimen handling and detection for use in an automated analyser systems and other laboratory instrumentation.

[0004] Special racks have to date been developed for different types of devices. The racks are generally milled from aluminium. This milling results in a costly production and will also incur costs for stock holding. These milled racks are heavy and difficult to handle.

Moulded plastic racks are also known, but an expensive mould is necessary for every application.

[0005] This disclosure teaches a rack including several functional elements adaptable for various applications. The several functional elements are universally arranged on the rack such that various rack geometries can he set up for various container dimensions and for various uses with less expense, low cost production and low costs for stock holding. The rack of the present disclosure has a high degree of modularity and includes only a few components and has a low weight.

Summary of the invention

[0006] The present disclosure teaches a rack for positioning at least one container comprising a base plate and at least two positioning pins. The at least two positioning pins have at least two contact faces and are mounted on the base plate for positioning the at least one container. The at least two positioning pins are spaced apart at a distance, and the at east one container contacts one or more contact faces of the at least two positioning pins. The arnmgement of the at least two positioning pins on the rack enables various rack geometries to be set up for various containers with various dimensions. The racks have only a few (standard) components. This results cost savings in the producdon and reduces the weight of the rack. The universal arrangement of the various distances of the positioning pins enables position of the barcode labels of the various containers with various dimensions and the barcode labels of the positioning pins within the barcode scanner's zone of (he depth of locus.

[0007] The at least two positioning pins may comprise at least two contact faces arranged at an obtuse angle, which may be T-shaped in one aspect of the disclosure. This arrangement enables receipt of the positioning pins containers of various dimensions, in particular the receipt of small and big containers.

[0008] The present disclosure teaches further a method for the arrangement of at least one container on a rack comprising the method steps of placing at least. one container on a base plate, positioning the at least one container between at least two positioning pins spaced apart at a distance and arranging the at least one container between one or more contact faces of the at least two positioning pins. This method allows the simple arrangement ol (lie at least one container between the at least two positioning pins on the rack for providing various rack geometries, which can he set up for various containers with various dimensions with only a few components.

[0009] The arranging of the at least one container may comprise arranging the at least one container between an obtuse angk of the at least two positioning pins.

[0010] Other objects. features, aspects and advantages of the disclosed rack will become apparent for those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses preferred embodiments of the rack.

Brief description of the drawings

[0011] Referring now to the attached drawings which form a part of this original

disclosure:

[0012] Fig. 1 is a perspective side view of a known rack milled of aluminium according to the state of the art: [0013] Fig. 2a is a perspective side view of a base plate; Fig. 2b is a perspective side view of the base plate illustrated in Fig. 2a with openings for receiving functional elements of a rack; [0014] Fig. 3a. 3b and 3c are a front view of a three-lane rack; 3d and 3e are a front view of a two-lane rack; 00l5] Fig. 4 is a top view of a rack according to the first aspect of the present invention; [0016] Fig. 5 is an enlarged top view of the rack illustrated in Fig. 4 according to the first aspect of the present invention; [0017] Fig. 6a is a perspective side view of a positioning pin; Fig. 6b is a top view of the positioning pin illustrated in Fig. ôa; [0018] Fig. 7a is a perspective side view of a clamping member; Fig. 7h is a side view of the clamping member illustrated in Fig. 7a; [0019] Fig. 8 is a perspective side view of a level compensation element; [0020] Fig. 9 is a perspective side view of an adapter element; [0021] Fig. lOa is a perspective side view of an end member; Fig. lOb is a perspective rear view of the end member illustrated in Fig. I Oa; [0022] Fig. 11 is a perspective side view of a handle member; [0023] Fig. 12 is a perspective side view of the rack illustrated in Fig. 4: and [0024] Fig. 13 is a pcrspcctivc bottom view according to another aspect of the prcscnt invention including a stirring function.

Dctailcd description of the invention

[0025] The invention will now he described on the basis of the drawings. It will he understood that the embodiments and aspects of the invention described herein are only examples and do not limit the protective scope of the claims in any way. The invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents. It will be understood that features of one aspect or embodiment of the invention can be combined with a feature of a different aspect or aspects and/or embodiments of the invention.

[0026] While various embodiments of thc prescnt invcntion havc bccn described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by a way of example, and not limitation, it will be apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art that various changes in foirn and detail can be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0027] Fig. I shows a conventional milled rack 10 for positioning a p'urality of containers (not shown), according to the state of the art. The conventional milled rack 10 comprises a housing 11, which is milled from massive aluminium, and includes receiving portions 13 for receiving the plurality of containers (not shown). The housing 11 comprises a handle part 12 and an end part 14. The handle part 12 and the end part 14 are integrally formed with the housing 11 of the rack 10. This conventional milled rack 10, as shown iii Fig. 1. is unwieldy, heavy and expensive to manufacture. The conventional milled rack 10 has to be developed for every individual application and cannot be simply adapted to various applications, which results in high production cost and inventory costs.

[0028] The configuration of the rack according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to Figs. 2 to 13.

[0029] Fig. 4 shows a top view of a rack 20 according to a first aspect of the disclosure.

The rack 20 comprises a base plate 21, which is shown in more detail in Figs. 2a and 2b.

The base plate 21 is made of aluminium extrusion sections having a rigid base with at least two mounting elements 15 arranged on the underside of the base plate 21. The at least two mounting elements 15 form a T-stht, hut this is not limiting of die invention. Fig. 2h shows that the basc plate 21 comprises openings 22 (holes) for receiving functional elements 30, 40, 50, 60. The different types of functional elements 30, 40, 50, 60 will be described later.

The at least two mounting elements 15 forming the T-slot are arranged on the underside of the base plate 21 such that the rack 20 can he mounted on at least two feeding elements 16 of a loading bay 19 to load arid unload reagents and samples on the automated analyser systems. The at least two feeding elements 16 are foimed as reversed T-sections, but this is not. limiting of the invention. The feeding elements 16 in the loading bay 19 are spaced apart from each other at a width of approximately 20mm, 22mm or 24mm.

[0030] Figs. 3a to 3c show that the rack 20 can be constructcd as a so-called "three-lane rack". The "three-lane rack" is mounted on two of the feeding elements 16 spaced apart from each other at a width of 20nim (see Fig. 3c), 22mm (see Fig. 3b) or 24mm (see Fig. 3a). The "three-lane rack" covers three lanes of the loading bay 19 but is only mounted on two of the lanes (see Fig. 3a and 3b).

[0031] Figs. 3d and 3e show that the rack 20 can also he constructed as a so-called "two-lane rack", which is mounted on two of the feeding elements 16. The feeding elements 16 are spaced apart from each other at a width of 20mm (see Fig. 3e) or 22mm (see Fig. 3d).

The rack 20 formed as a "two-lane rack" covers two lanes of the loading bay 19. as can be seen in Fig. 3d and 3e.

[0032] As shown in Fig. 4, the rack 20 comprises different functional elements 30. 40.

50, 60. The functional elements 30, 40, 50, 60 include at least two positioning pins 30, at least one clamping pin 40, a handle member 50 and an end member 60. As seen in Fig. 4, the rack 20 comprises a plurality of positioning pins 30 for positioning at least one container 1. The positioning pins 30 are sequentially arranged on the base plate 21. The positioning pins 30 are in one aspect of the invention sequentially arranged most adjacent to one of the long sides 23 of the base plate 21 depending on the barcode scanner reading direction. As a result, this arrangement of the positioning pins 30 allows the reading of barcode labels 101 (as shown in Fig. 12) on the positioning pins 30 and/or barcode labels 100 (as shown in Fig. 12) on the containers 1 electively from the right side or the left side of the rack 20 depending on where the barcode scanner is arranged.

[0033] As shown in Figs. Oa and oh, the positioning pin 30 has at least two contact faces 31, 32, a mounting part 35 and a base part 34. The mounting part 35!èr mounting the positioning pin 30 on the base plate 21 is formed as a snap-in element. The at least two contact faces 31, 32 are arranged at an obtuse angle f3 to each other, as shown in Fig. 6b.

The positioning pin 30 has substantially an elongated form with a t-shaped cross-section, but. this is not limiting of the invention. The positioning pin 30 is formed of a plastic material, hut this is not limiting of the invention, and the positioning pin 30 could he made of a metal.

[0034] As seen in Fig. 4. the rack 20 comprises a plurality of clamping members 40 for aligning the containers 1. The clamping members 40 are sequentially arranged on the base plate 21 depending on the various dimensions of the various containers 1. Tn other words, the clamping members 40 are arranged in different distances on the base plate 21. As a resull, this arrangement allows a high modularity of the rack 20 for aligning containers I of various dimensions.

[0035] As shown in Figs. 7a and 7b, the clamping member 40 has a mounting part 43. a base part 41 and a bracket part 42. The mounting part 43 for mounting the clamping member 40 on the base plate 21 is formed as a snap-in element. The base part 41 and the bracket part 42 of the clamping member 40 form the clamping function of the clamping member 40. The base part 41 has substantially an elongated form in an upright direction.

The bracket part 42 is formed on the upper end of the base part 41 and has a curved shape.

The bracket part 42 is elastically deformable for clamping the containers I with respect to the positioning pin 30. As a result, the clamping member 40 is adaptable to various containers 1 of various dimensions, which can be held in a tight manner. The clamping to member 40 is formed of a plastic material, but this is not limiting of the invention.

[0036] As shown in Fig. 4. the rack 20 comprises a handle member 50 and an end member 60. The handle member 50 and the end member 60 are both mounted on the broad sides 24 of the base plate 21 located oppositely to each other. As shown in Fig. 11, the handle member 50 has a handle part 51. a mounting part 52 and a contact face part 53. The mounting part 52 can be screwed on the base plate 21. The handle part 51 can be formed as a round handhold or a half-round handhold for improved handling. The contact face part 53 lacing the surface of the base plate 21 contacts at least one container I for positioning the container I with the at least one positioning pin 30. as shown in Fig. 4.

[0037] As shown in Figs. ba and lOb, the end member 60 has a mounting part 62, a contact face part. 63 and a locking part 61. The mounting part 62 can be screwed onto the base plate 21. The contact face part 63 facing the surface of the base plate 21 contacts at least one container 1 for positioning the container 1 with the at least one positioning pin 30, as shown also in Fig. 4. The locking part 61 of the end member 60 is equipped with a snap-in locking (not shown) or a push-push locking (not shown) for holding the rack 20.

As a result, the handle member 50 and the end member 60 contain different functions, e.g., holding function, locking function, positioning function and aligning function, thus, a rack is provided with fewer components. The handle member 50 and the end member 60 are both formed of a plastic materiaL hut this is not limiting of the invention.

[003 8] Fig. 5 shows an enlarged view of the top view of the rack 20 as illustrated in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 5, the containers 1 with different diameters (i.e.. big and small containers 1) are positioned on the base plate 21 by the positioning pins 30 and are aligned by the clamping members 40. The positioning pins 30 are arranged on the base plate 21 with various distances 33 between each other. The positioning pins 30 are spaced apart in the various distances 33, depending on the various sizes of the containers 1. The positioning pins 30 are closely arranged on the base plate 21 and the distance 33 is small for containers 1 with small diameters. The positioning pins 30 are more broadly alTanged on the base plate 21 and the distance 33 is large for containers 1 with large diameters. A variation of the distance 33 between the positioning pins 30 enables the containers 1 of various dimensions to he arranged on the base plate 21. such that the containers I contacts one or more contact faces 31, 32 of the positioning pins 30. This arrangement enables the positioning of the barcode labels 100 (as shown in Fig. 12) of the containers 1 of various dimensions within the reading zone of the barcode scanner (i.e.. within the barcode scanner's zone of the depth of focus).

[0039] Fig. 5 shows a further aspect of the invention in which the rack 20 comprises an adapter element 80 br receiving containers I with dimensions, which are not able to he positioned and to he aligned by the positioning pins 30 and clamping members 40, due to the small size of the containers 1.

[0040] As shown in Fig. 9. the adapter element 80 has a receiving part 81, a contact face part 82 and a level compensating part 83. The receiving part 81 can he formed elastically for receiving containers 1 of various diameters. The receiving part 81 comprises recesses for positioning the container 1 such that the barcode label 100 of the containers 1 is visible to the barcode scanner. The contact face part 82 of the adapter element 80 contacts one or more contact faces 31, 32 of the positioning pin 30 when the adapter element 80 is positioned on the base plate 21. The level compensating part 83 of the adapter element 80 compensates for low dimensions of containers 1 with small diameters. This arrangement enables the positioning of the barcode ahels 100 of the containers I having smafl and low dimensions within the reading zone of the barcode scanner (i.e., within the barcode scanner's zone of the depth of focus). The adapter element 80 is formed of a plastic material, but this is not limiting of the invention.

[0041] Fig. 12 shows a perspective side view of the top view of the rack 20 illustrated iii Fig. 4, according to the first aspect of the present disclosure. The functional elements, e.g. the handle member 50, the end member 60, the positioning pins 30 as well as the various containers I of various dimensions include barcode labels 100. 101. The positioning pins 30. the handle member 50 and the end member 60 comprise barcode labels for positioning, i.e. positioning labels 101. The handle member 50 and the end member 60 are both symmetrically formed and contain on the right side as well as on the left side a surface for arranging the positioning label 101 depending on where the barcode scanner is arranged.

Due to the high modularity of the rack 20 the base plate 21 can he manufactured allowing a barcode scanning on both the right and the left side. The containers 1 of various dimensions comprise barcode labels for identification the contents of the containers 1, i.e. identification labels 100. The rack 20 of Fig. 12 comprise a level compensation element 70 for compensating low dimensions of containers I with various diameters and the adapter element 80. but this can be omitted.

[0042] As shown in Fig. 8, the level compensation element 70 has a mounting part 71 for mounting the level compensation element 70 on the base plate 21. The mounting part 71 of the level compensation element 70 is formed as a snap-in element. The level compensation element 70 is formed of a plastic material, but this is not limiting of the invention. Due to the high modularity of the rack 20 including its universally adaptable components 30. 40.

50. 60, 70, 80, 9Oan arrangement is possible for positioning the identification labels 100 of containers 1 of various dimensions and the positioning labels 101 within the reading zone of the barcode scanner (i.e., within the barcode scanner's zone of the depth of focus).

[0043] Fig. 13 shows a perspective bottoni view according to another aspect of the disclosure and includes a stirring element 91 having a stirring function. As shown in Fig. 13, the base plate 21 of the stirring rack 90 comprises a special extrusion section having a stirring element 91.

List of reference numbers 1 container conventiona' rack II housing 12 handle part 13 receiving portions 14 end part mounting element 16 feeding element 19 loading bay rack 21 base plate 22 openings 23 long side 24 broadside positioning pins 31, 32 contact faces 33 distance 34 base part 35, 43. 52, 62, 71 mounting part clamping member 41 base part 42 bracket part handle member 51 handle part 53. 63, 82 contact face part end member 61 locking part level compensation element 80 adapter dement 81 receiving part 83 level compensating part stirring rack 91 stirring element identification label 101 positioning label

Claims

Claims I. A rack (20) for positioning at least one container (I) comprising abase plate (21); at least two positioning pins (30) having at least two contact faccs (31. 32). wherein the at least two positioning pins (30) are mounted on the base plate (21) for positioning the at least one container (I), wherein the at least two positioning pins 30) are spaced apart at a distance (33). and wherein the at least one container (1) contacts one or more contact faces (31, 32) of the least two positioning pins (30).
2. The rack (20) according to daim 1, wherein the at least two contact faces (31, 32) are alTanged at an obtuse angle (p).
3. The rack (20) according to any of the above claims, wherein the at least two positing pins (30) are t-shaped.
4. The rack (20) according to any of the above claims, further comprising at least one clamping member (40) mounted on the base plate (21) for aligning the at least one container (1).
5. The rack (20) according to any of the above claims, further comprising an adapter element (80) for receiving a container (1) with various dimensions.
6. The rack (20) according to claim 5, wherein the adapter element (80) contacts one or morc contact faccs (31, 32) of the at least two positioning pins (30).
7. The rack (20) according to any of the above claims, further comprising a level compensation element (70) for compensate a container (1) with low dimensions.
8. The rack 20) according to any of thc above claims, wherein the base plate (21) is made of aluminum extrusion sections with a T-slot.
9. The rack 20) according to claim 1, wherein the base plate (21) having a stirring element (91).
10. A method for the arrangement of at least one container (1) on a rack (20), comprising the steps of: -placing at least one container (1) on a base plate (21); -positioning the at least one container (1) between at least two positioning pins (30) spaced apart at a distance (33): and -arranging the at least one container (1) between one or more contact faces (31, 32) of the at least two positioning pins (30).
11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the arranging comprises arranging the at least one container (1) between an obtuse angle (f3) of the at least two positioning pins (30).
12. The method according to any oiclaims 10 or 11, lurther comprising aligning the at least one container (1) with at least one clamping member (40).
13. The method according to any oldaims 10, 11 or 12, further comprising receiving a container (1) with various dimensions with an adapter element (80).
14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising arranging the adapter element (80) between one or more contact faces (31. 32) of the at least two positioning pins (30).
15. The method according to any of claims 10 to 14, further comprising compensating a container (1) with low dimensions by a level compensation element (70).