Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N35/00—Automatic analysis not limited to methods or materials provided for in any single one of groups G01N1/00 - G01N33/00; Handling materials therefor
  • G01N35/00584—Control arrangements for automatic analysers
  • G01N35/00594—Quality control, including calibration or testing of components of the analyser
  • G01N35/00712—Automatic status testing, e.g. at start-up or periodic
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N30/00—Investigating or analysing materials by separation into components using adsorption, absorption or similar phenomena or using ion-exchange, e.g. chromatography or field flow fractionation
  • G01N30/02—Column chromatography
  • G01N30/88—Integrated analysis systems specially adapted therefor, not covered by a single one of the groups G01N30/04 - G01N30/86

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an automated fluid handling system, and in particular to an automated liquid chromatography system with a system-restore arrangement for restoring operation process after a power shortage.
• the object of the invention is to provide an automated fluid handling system, which system overcomes one or more drawbacks of the prior art. This is achieved by the fluid handling system as defined in the independent claims.
• an automated fluid handling system comprising a controller arranged to control the operation of the fluid handling system in accordance with a predefined or user-defined operation process, the fluid handling system comprising a power source input for connection to an external power source, the fluid handling system comprising a back-up power source arranged to supply back-up power to the controller, wherein the controller is arranged to monitor the power source input and
• the boot procedure is not initialized following a suspend mode, then proceed according to normal boot procedure to enable start of a new operation process, and -if the boot procedure is initialized following a suspend mode, then perform a second verification based on the saved information to determine if the suspended operation process may be resumed or not.
• the automated fluid handling system comprises a graphical user interface and wherein the second verification comprises prompting a user to select if the suspended operation process is to be resumed or not.
• the predefined or user-defmed operation process comprises resume settings that defines when the operation process can be safely resumed after suspension mode and wherein the second verification automatically resume the suspended operation process in response to said resume settings.
• the resume settings comprises a time threshold below which the process is resumed automatically after suspension mode, and above which user input is requested in order to resume the process.
• the operation process is comprised of two or more operation phases and wherein the resume settings define during which operation phase(s) the operation process can be safely resumed after suspension mode.
• the back-up power source comprises a super capacitor or a battery.
• the system is a liquid chromatography system.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an automatic fluid handling system according to the present invention
• Figure 2 is a flow chart of a method according to the present invention.
• Figure 3 is a simplified flow chart of an example of a liquid chromatography system.
• Fig. 1 schematically discloses a generic automated fluid handling system 10 according to the present invention.
• the fluid handling system 10 comprises a fluidics section 20, a controller 30 and a power source input 40 for connection to an external power source 45 for powering the system 10.
• the external power source 45 may be any conventional source of electrical power such as an electric power grid, a power generator, a solar power plant or the like.
• the fluidics section 20 and the controller 30 are powered by the external power source 45 as indicated by dotted lines in fig. 1, but in order to better handle failure of the external power source 45 the fluid handling system 10 further comprises a backup power source 70 for supplying back-up power to the controller 30 during situations of power failure.
• the fluidics section 20 may be of any type as briefly discussed above, such as: liquid chromatography fluidics, filtration fluidics, biomolecular synthesis fluidics, optical or electrochemical sensor or imaging fluidics, biosensor fluidics or the like for analysis or preparation of samples.
• samples to be analyzed or otherwise processed are provided in or in contact with a fluid flow path during operation of the fluid handling system 10 and the flow of fluid in the flow path can be precisely controlled in an automated manner.
• laboratory fluid handling systems as briefly discussed above. Such systems comprise a number of fluid handling units, e.g. one or more pumps, valves, mixers, sensor units etc of different types. Said fluid handling units are interconnected by fluid conduits in the form of, rigid or flexible tubes or the like.
• the controller 30 may be comprised of any suitable micro-controller or the like and is arranged to control the automatic operation of the fluid handling system 10 in
• controller 30 comprises a memory 50 for storing information relating to predefined or user-defined operation process, as well as other information and software code used by the controller 30 to control the automatic operation of the fluid handling system 10.
• the memory 50 may be comprised of any conventional memory circuit arrangement that can be read, and it may either be a volatile memory which need constant power supply to keep data or a non-volatile memory which preserves stored data without need for power supply. Examples of memory circuits are: Random Access Memory (RAM), Solid State Drive Memory (SSD) or the like.
• the controller 30 comprises a graphical user interface (GUI) 80.
• GUI 80 may be integrated with the controller and the fluid handling system 10, but alternatively it may be provided through an external device, like a computer or the like as is well known in the art.
• the controller 30 is arranged to monitor the power source input 40 in order to detect power shortage.
• GUI graphical user interface
• the controller 30 is illustrated comprising a dedicated power monitor 60 which is arranged to monitor the power source input 40.
• the power monitor 60 is arranged to switch the power feed to the controller 30 between the external power source 45 and the backup power source 70 depending on the status of the power source input 40.
• the power monitor 60 is illustrated as receiving the power connections from the respective power sources, however as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art, the power line need not be directly connected to the power monitor 60, and it may be arranged to monitor the power line directly or indirectly.
• the power monitor 60 comprises a suitable circuit capable of registering the presence of power at the power source input 40.
• the backup power source 70 comprises any suitable power source capable of supplying uninterrupted backup power during a power shortage at the power source input 40.
• the backup power source 70 is arranged to only supply power to the controller 30 including the memory 50 for enabling saving information relating to status of the operation process at the time of power shortage. In this way, the capacity of the backup power source 70 does not need to be very high, and the
• the backup power source 70 comprises one or more super-capacitors.
• the backup power source 70 may be connected to the power source input 40 for charging the batteries and/or super-capacitors. Charging may either be performed by a direct connection as indicated in fig. 1 or by an indirect connection through the controller 30. Still further, the backup power source 70 may be comprised of one or more disposable batteries whereby the charging arrangement can be omitted.
• the controller 30 is arranged to monitor the power source input 40 and in accordance with one embodiment the controller 30 is arranged to;
• Information that is saved when a power shortage is detected comprise an indicator flag which is used in the verification step at power up to identify if the boot procedure is initialized following a suspend mode or not. Further, the saved information comprises sufficient process information related to the status of the operation process at the time of power shortage in order to, in the following steps, validate if the operation process may be resumed or not, as well as information needed to resume the operation process accordingly.
• the controller 30 is arranged to build a checksum during the operation process, which checksum may be used for validation if the operation process may be resumed or not.
• the controller 30 is arranged to verify if the suspended operation process may be resumed or not based on the saved process information.
• the second verification comprises prompting a user to select if the suspended operation process is to be resumed or not, e.g. using the GUI 80.
• the information presented to the user comprises process information that can be used for evaluation and verification.
• the predefined or user-defined operation process comprises resume settings that defmes when the operation process can be safely resumed after suspension mode and wherein the second verification automatically resume the suspended operation process in response to said resume settings.
• resume settings comprises a time threshold below which the process is resumed automatically after suspension mode, and above which user input is requested in order to resume the process.
• the operation process is automatically resumed e.g. during initial conditioning and preparation steps performed during an initial time frame. Further there may be an upper time threshold after which the operation process may be resumed automatically, e.g. during subsequent washing steps or the like.
• the operation process is comprised of two or more operation phases and the resume settings define during which operation phase(s) the operation process can be safely resumed after suspension mode. Similar to above, the operation process may be allowed to restart automatically during initial conditioning and preparation phases, as well as during subsequent wash phases or the like. Still further, the controller may be arranged to initiate a timer when the power shortage is detected, and the verification process may comprise a further verification where the timer value at power up is compared to a timer threshold, and in case the timer value is below the threshold, the operation process may be resumed or potentially automatically resumed.
• Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a method for verifying resume of a suspended operation process following power up after power failure:
• the automated fluid handling system 10 is a
• FIG. 1 schematically shows one embodiment of a
• chromatography system 190 comprising:
• a column connection valve 230 for selectively connecting/disconnecting a column 240 in the fluid path.
• UV monitor 250 • an ultraviolet (UV) monitor 250 for detecting the output from the column.
• the chromatography system of fig. 3 represents a general example of how a chromatography system may be designed, and other embodiments may be of different design comprising two or more of some components and potentially lack some of said components.
• the chromatography system is a liquid chromatography system.
• controller 10 is arranged to control the operation of the fluid handling system in accordance with a predefined or user-defmed operation process as disclosed above.

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• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
• Biochemistry (AREA)
• Immunology (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Pathology (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Safety Devices In Control Systems (AREA)
• Testing And Monitoring For Control Systems (AREA)

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• 2014
  • 2014-09-11 IN IN2709DE2013 patent/IN2013DE02709A/en unknown
  • 2014-09-11 WO PCT/EP2014/069399 patent/WO2015036484A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2014-09-11 US US14/917,427 patent/US10101347B2/en active Active

Patent Citations (4)

Non-Patent Citations (3)

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