Apparatus And Method For Storing And Dispensing Material, Especially In Micro Quantities And In Combination With Limited Starting Amounts

Abstract

The invention is directed to a dispensing unit suitable to precise! dispense material in powder and / or granular form. The dispensing device comprises a gate valve opening sealingly closed by a blend. A control unit, which is interconnected to a scaling device, controls the opening of the gate valve opening by the position of the blend. The precise amount of the material is adjusted in relation to the signal of the scaling device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for dispensing material, especially small amounts of solid material in powder or granular form.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]In various industries, such as the chemical and the pharmaceutical industry handling of non-liquid materials in solid or powdery form is used for preparing mixtures, drugs, tests, in-process products or final products. Several dispensers for handling powder materials are known from prior art and it is inherent to those devices that in general the are not suitable to precisely dispense different amounts of material, especially when the amount of material to be dispensed is small (e.g. in the range of milligrams). Most important, these devices are not suitable to dispense powder materials if the starting amount is very limited, such as e.g. 30 mg or less. However, in the chemical and the pharmaceutical industry, for research, development and production, it is important to b...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a dispensing device that is easy to use, made of metal or injection molded plastic, and can be used with different materials in powder or granular form. It offers a high accuracy of dispensing and is suitable for laboratories and small-scale scientific research. The device has a simple setup and is easy to clean and maintain. It can be interconnected to existing control devices and can handle small amounts of material. The device includes a compartment with a gate valve to prevent waste and spilling of material. It also has an agitator and a conveyor to mix and distribute the material. The device can be interchanged with other dispensing devices of different size or containing different materials. It is designed to be easy to use and dispose of."

Problems solved by technology

One disadvantage consists in that the device is not suitable for small amounts of material.

With these devices the minimum amount possible to be dispensed is given by the smallest standardized container available and a fine graduation is therefore difficult to achieve.

A further disadvantage is the logistic effort necessary to produce, handle and store the different containers.

Still a further disadvantage consists in that the remains of the containers have to be disposed or separated form the mixtures.

The dispensers known from prior art are not suitable for automatic dispensing of small starting amounts in the range of that needs to be dispensed into typically used vessels and receptacles, such as plates, vials, bottles, capsules, etc., in very low quantities, like 1 mg or less.

One reason for this problem consists in that the known devices are to large or have to man parts involved such that, due to the large surface of the parts involved, small quantities of powder may not be handled.

Also, the waste of the powder, caused by the known devices, is considerable.

Another draw back is that the devices known from prior art in general consist of a large number of parts which are difficult to manufacture, assemble, maintain and clean.

A further draw back is that the devices known from prior art have to be adjusted according to the physical characteristics of the material to be dispensed or cannot be used for dispensing of cohesive powders.

In addition, the known devices do loose powder during operation because the are not sufficiently sealed.

Uncontrolled loss of powder may cause serious problems and contamination.

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