Flux Drive, Inc.

Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.

John B Rusconi

Philip Corbin, Iii

Robert L Dahlin

John A Molnar

Walter F Strong

Michael G Youngquist

Steven M Clark

Scott McKinley DeWinter

Michael P Lucas

Philip Corbin

An apparatus for transferring torque magnetically with a primary rotary member and a secondary rotary member. The primary rotary member has permanent magnets mounted circumferentially on a cylinder, the secondary rotary member having a cylindrical geometry with electroconductive material arranged on its outer periphery and parallel to the axes of the rotary members. The secondary rotary member also having magnetically permeable material. The secondary rotary member is placed partially or totally inside the primary rotating member. The secondary rotary member's axial position relative to the primary rotating member can be varied by a suitable mechanical structure. This causes the two rotary members to axially overlap one another more or less as desired. Rotation of the primary rotary member causes rotation of the secondary rotary member, since magnetic flux lines emanating from the permanent magnets mounted on the primary rotating member, cut through all, or part of, the electroconductive material placed on the periphery of the secondary rotary member. This can vary the torque transmitted between the two rotary members, thereby enabling the varying of the rotational speed of the secondary rotary member relative to the primary rotary member.

Apparatus for transferring torque magnetically

An apparatus for transferring torque magnetically with a primary rotary member and a secondary rotary member. The primary rotary member has permanent magnets, the secondary rotary member with electro-conductive materials. The secondary rotary member also having magnetically permeable material. The secondary rotary member is placed partially or totally inside the primary rotating member. This causes the two rotary members to axially overlap one another more or less as desired. Rotation of the primary rotary member causes rotation of the secondary rotary member, since magnetic flux lines emanating from the permanent magnets mounted on the primary rotating member, cut through all, or part of, the electro-conductive material placed on the secondary rotary member. This can vary the torque transmitted between the two rotary members, thereby enabling the varying of the rotational speed of the secondary rotary member relative to the primary rotary member.

The present invention comprises a loading device for automating transfer of a plurality of probes between a cassette within which the plurality of probes are initially constrained and an analytical instrument, e.g., mass spectrometer. The loading device may be configured to accept a single or a plurality of cassettes each removably constraining a plurality of probes to be analyzed. The loading device may permit each of the plurality of cassettes to be independently interchanged with a separate cassette removably constraining a separate plurality of probes during mass spectrometric analysis, or for additional cassettes to be loaded into the device during analysis. In a useful embodiment, the loading device comprises a cassette transport assembly and a probe insertion assembly. The cassette transport assembly linearly translates one or more cassettes to align the cassette(s) with respect to the mass spectrometer so that a probe may be translated therebetween by the probe insertion assembly. The probe insertion assembly also provides means to rotatably engage said probe.

Device and methods for automating transfer of multiple samples to an analytical instrument

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Dublin, CA, United States of America

John B Rusconi