Moen Incorporated

Chiron Diagnostics Corporation

Bayer Corporation

Ciba Corning Diagnostics Corp.

Michael L Malek

W Randall Tucker

Glen A Carey

Gregory A Coghlan

Peter Bates

Howard J Kirchick

Gaurav Rohatgi

Mark S Bors

Steven E Bushnell

David J Howard

Todd A Veverka

William E Patton

Lori K Knotts

Linda A Harrison

Teresa M Bendele

Tina K Garyantes

Mark Steven Bors

A spout shank allows a spout to be mounted on one side of a mounting surface and then connected to a water supply source disposed on the other side of the mounting surface. The spout shank has a length that is adjustable over a range of lengths to accommodate mounting surfaces with different thicknesses.

Adjustable locking spout shank

A faucet wand includes a waterway having a plurality of conduits; a diverter valve and a reset valve. The diverter valve diverts fluid flow between two of the conduits and has a default position. The reset valve can cause the diverter valve to return to its default position from another position.

Faucet wand

A faucet wand includes a waterway having a body with a cavity therein. A plate is attached to the body to cover the cavity and form a conduit in the waterway.

A spray head for a faucet or the like has a wand body defining a flow path from an inlet to first and second outlets. Diverter seats are provided so a face seal on a diverter spool can direct flow to the first or second outlet. The spool is positioned by a trigger acting on cam surfaces formed on a toggle. A spring biases the toggle to one of two stable states. Movement of the spool by the trigger causes the toggle to change states so subsequent actuation of the trigger causes the spool to move in the opposite direction. The wand body also has a pause button that reciprocates in a chamber that is part of the flow path. The chamber includes a valve seat and the pause button has a spool having a face seal that is engageable with the valve seat to shut off flow through the spray head. A return spring causes separation of the pause button's face seal upon release of pressure on the pause button. The pause button's seals in the chamber are arranged to have equal diameters and thus provide balanced hydraulic forces on the spool.

Pullout spray head with single-button mode selector

A faucet has a spout and a pullout spray head connected to a flexible water supply tube and releasably connectable to the spout. The spout has a docking collar mounted thereon for receiving a connecting shaft of the spray head. The docking collar has an annular wall with a plurality of U-shaped slots which define a plurality of cantilevered snap fingers. Each snap finger includes a projection that fits into a groove in the connecting shaft when the spray head is docked. An elastomeric O-ring surrounds the annular wall at a point where the O-ring engages the snap fingers to bias them toward the groove. Ridges on the exterior surface of the wall retain the O-ring in place. The spout and docked spray head have parallel shoulders that define a mating plane. The projections and groove define a retaining plane. The mating plane is not parallel to the retaining plane such that rotation of the spray head about an axis normal to the mating plane will cause the projections to release from the groove.

Docking collar for a faucet having a pullout spray head

Pullout spray head docking collar with enhanced retaining force

Pullout spray head with pause button

Method and apparatus for enabling resuspension wash and magnetic localization of sample components bound to particles with magnetic properties in reaction vessels during separation and wash for enhanced chemiluminescent signal generation in biomedical assays. The assays involve moving reaction vessels past magnets that partially localize the particles prior to passing a reduced strength magnet where washing occurs, with or without resuspension, after separating out the unbound particles and liquid. The band of particles is subsequently resuspended in acid for chemiluminescent purposes. A variety of magnet configurations are employed to realize the reduced strength magnet. Reduced strength magnets adjacent the full width magnets prevent the band of magnetic particles from becoming split. The localized particles enable more efficient resuspension by reagent.

Method and apparatus for wash, resuspension, recollection and

Method and apparatus for enabling resuspension wash and magnetic localization of sample components bound to particles with magnetic properties in reaction vessels during separation and wash for enhanced chemiluminescent signal generation in biomedical assays. The assays involve moving reaction vessels past magnetic arrays that partially localized the particles prior to passing a gap where washing occurs, with or without resuspension, after separating out the unbound components and liquid. The band of particles is further localized by a focusing magnet at the end of the array prior to dosing the vessel with acid for chemiluminescent purposes. A block of soft magnetic material is employed in place of a magnet in the gap to minimize magnetic strength at the gap. Trimmed magnets adjacent the gap cause left, then right, particle shifting that localizes the magnetizable particles. The gap enables improved resuspension by wash, whereas the localized particles enable more efficient resuspension by reagent.

A luminometer for determining the composition of a specimen sample includes an annular guide path for sample containing cuvettes within a light tight housing. A rotor moves spaced segments through the guide path with the cuvettes positioned between the segments. The luminometer further includes one or two detector assemblies coupled to the housing and positioned to view and detect light emitted by cuvettes as they pass along the guide path between segments. A cuvette is advanced around the housing via the rotor and rotor segments and when the cuvette reaches a predetermined position on the housing, a reagent, such as a base, is added to the cuvette to initiate a chemiluminescent reaction within the cuvette and provide an emission of light energy in a predetermined spectral range. The luminometer has a waste aspiration probe to remove the contents of the cuvette after it passes the detector. A cuvette elevator moves a sample containing cuvette into the guide path between segments and an exit chute removes cuvettes after their contents have been aspirated. The luminometer permits continuous uninterrupted sample testing when coupled to an incubation chamber in which the cuvettes receive samples and test specific reagents before they are moved into the luminometer by the elevator.

Luminometer

Method and apparatus for transportation and processing of multiple protocol assays within an automated immunoassay analyzer instrument. The apparatus includes a cuvette ring movably coupled to a magnet ring. In one embodiment, the magnet ring and cuvette ring are provided having circular shapes. A temperature controlled housing is disposed about the cuvette and magnet rings to provide a rotary incubation and particle separation chamber. The cuvette ring holds a plurality of cuvettes each of which may have a different assay disposed therein. The cuvette ring advances the cuvettes around the circumference of the incubation chamber. A plurality of discrete processing centers for aspiration and dispensing fluid samples, reagents and wash fluids are disposed at predetermined positions about the incubation chamber. The cuvette ring moves cuvettes in both clockwise and counter clockwise directions around the incubation chamber to position particular cuvettes at particular ones of the plurality of discrete processing centers to thus accommodate different protocols of each of the assays. By controlling the manner in which the cuvette ring moves within the incubation chamber, a plurality of different protocol assays each of which require different incubation times, can be simultaneously processed in the analyzer instrument.

Growing community of inventors

North Olmsted, OH, United States of America

Michael L Malek