The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 12, 1999
Filed:
May. 15, 1996
James L DiGuiseppi, Durham, NC (US);
Thurman C Thorpe, Durham, NC (US);
Akzo Nobel N.V., Arnhem, NL;
Abstract
An apparatus and method for mixing/agitating microorganism culture bottles includes a wheel in which culture bottles are placed, with the wheel being set at an angle from vertical so that bottles are not inverted during rotation. A sensor such as a florescence or colorimetric sensor for carbon dioxide is disposed along the flat bottom surface of each of the bottles. Once during each revolution the bottles pass across a photodiode/light emitting diode pair (for a calorimetric system). A sensor transmits light emitted by the LED to the photodiode. At the same instant, an infrared reflective objective sensor, emitting on a digital rotary encoder, determines the bottle number. The change in sensor transmittance is directly related to cell growth so that bottles positive for growth can be detected by suitable software.