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:
Sep. 14, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 02, 1998
Gregory S Lee, Oklahoma City, OK (US);
William Adcox, Lexington, OK (US);
Lanny V Grade, Oklahoma City, OK (US);
Akzo Nobel, N.V., Arnhem, NL;
Abstract
A bottle retaining mechanism holds a culture bottle in place in a cell in an incubating apparatus which agitates the culture bottle and detects the growth of microorganisms in the culture bottle. When a bottle is not present in the cell of the apparatus, the retaining mechanism moves to a position which reflects light from the light emitter to the light detector in an amount greater than the amount of light reflected off of a bottle when present, so as to indicate when a bottle is not present in a cavity of the bottle holder. The retaining mechanism/reflectance flag also is capable of providing a reference signal for auto-calibration purposes. The amount of light reflected from the retaining mechanism/reflectance flag to the light detector in a cell when no bottle is present can be monitored in order to detect changes in the cell. By monitoring such changes in the empty cell, drift from the original cell calibration can be monitored. Based on the magnitude of the measured changes, small changes could be compensated for, whereas large changes could indicate that a cell must be replaced.