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EP-3934996-B1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSPORTING AND HOLDING CONSUMABLES IN A PROCESSING INSTRUMENT

EP3934996B1EP 3934996 B1EP3934996 B1EP 3934996B1EP-3934996-B1

Inventors

  • COMBS, David, H.
  • BUSE, DAVID, A.
  • HAGEN, NORBERT, D.
  • OPALSKY, DAVID
  • CHEN, JIN

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200306

Claims (16)

  1. An apparatus for transporting groups of consumables between a plurality of vertically spaced holding shelves (104), the apparatus comprising: the plurality of vertically spaced holding shelves; a support chassis (122) disposed at a laterally-spaced position with respect to the plurality of holding shelves; a transport elevator (210) coupled to the support chassis for moving the support chassis in a vertical direction between the plurality of holding shelves; a lift platform (180); a scissors actuator (140) connecting the lift platform to the support chassis and configured to translate the lift platform laterally with respect to the support chassis between a first position laterally aligned with the support chassis at the laterally-spaced position with respect to the plurality of holding shelves and a second position laterally displaced from the support chassis and laterally aligned with one of the holding shelves; and a carrier (300) configured to be carried on the lift platform and to be placed on any of the plurality of holding shelves.
  2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier comprises a base (302), a pair of support rails (312, 314) for slidably supporting the consumables thereon, and a resilient tab (320, 322) located at an end of each support rail and configured to releasably retain the consumables on the support rails.
  3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each resilient tab is disposed at the end of a serpentine spring that is attached to or contiguous with a portion of the respective support rail.
  4. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the transport elevator comprises: two drive belts (220, 222), each drive belt being attached to a portion of the support chassis; a drive pulley (216, 217) for each drive belt; a motor (212) coupled to the drive pulleys; and an idler pulley (224, 225) for each drive belt.
  5. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising an elevator home sensor configured to detect a locator flag extending from the support chassis.
  6. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the scissors actuator comprises a first arm (142) having first (142a) and second (142b) ends and a second arm (144) having first (144a) and second (144b) ends, wherein the first and second arms are rotatably connected to each other at intermediate positions between their respective first and second ends, wherein the first arm is pivotably attached at its first end to the support chassis and is pivotably and translatably attached at its second end to the lift platform, and wherein the second arm is pivotably and translatably attached at its first end to the support chassis and is pivotably attached at its second end to the lift platform.
  7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first and second arms are rotatably connected to each other by a slewing ring (146) having an inner ring (146a) and an outer ring (146b), wherein the inner and outer rings are rotatable with respect to each other, and wherein the first arm is attached to the inner ring at its respective intermediate position, and the second arm is attached to the outer ring at its respective intermediate position.
  8. The apparatus of claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the second end of the first arm is pivotably and translatably attached to the lift platform by a slide that is slidably disposed within a linear slot formed in the lift platform, and wherein the slide is rotatably attached to the second end of the first arm.
  9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a roller bearing disposed within the slide that rolls against a side of the slot during lateral translation of the lift platform.
  10. The apparatus of any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the scissors actuator further comprises a motor (192) coupled to the first end of the first arm to effect powered pivoting movement of the first arm.
  11. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the scissors actuator is configured to translate the lift platform in either of two opposed lateral directions with respect to the support chassis.
  12. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 11, further comprising a carrier detection sensor (115) associated with each holding shelf and configured to detect the presence of a carrier on the associated holding shelf.
  13. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transporter (120) for transporting the groups of consumables between the plurality of holding shelves, the transporter comprising the support chassis, the lift platform and the scissors actuator.
  14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the carrier is longer than the lift platform so that a first end (304) and a second end (306) of the carrier extend beyond first and second ends of the lift platform, wherein each holding shelf comprises a first portion (112) and a second portion (114) spaced apart by at least the length of the lift platform, and wherein the transporter is configured and controlled to transport a carrier supported on the lift platform from the lift platform to one of the plurality of holding shelves by: a) moving the support chassis with the transport elevator to a vertical position at which the lift platform is above the holding shelf; b) moving the lift platform laterally with the scissors actuator into a position at which the first and second ends of the carrier are aligned with the first and second shelf portions of the holding shelf; and c) lowering the support chassis with the transport elevator to move the lift platform between the first and second shelf portions until the first and second ends of the carrier are supported on the first and second shelf portions.
  15. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the lift platform includes first and second carrier locator pins (190, 191) configured to support the carrier, preferably, wherein a first carrier locator pin (190) is received in a lift platform locator hole (344) and a second carrier locator pin (191) is received in a lift platform locator slot (346) when the carrier is supported on the lift platform, preferably, wherein the locator pins and the lift platform locator hole and lift platform locator slot are formed in a carrier base (302).
  16. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein locator pins are provided on the carrier and locator holes are provided on the lift platform, preferably, wherein the carrier includes downwardly-projecting locator pins at the positions of a lift platform locator hole (344) and lift platform locator slot (346) that engage locator holes formed in the lift platform at the positions of first and second locator pins; or wherein the carrier includes more or less than two locator holes/slots or locator pins that align with a corresponding number of locator pins or locator holes/slots, respectively, on the lift platform.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of the filing date of provisional patent application Serial No. 62/815,184 filed March 7, 2019. FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates to systems and methods for transporting and holding a supply of consumables to be provided to a processing instrument within which the consumables will be moved or otherwise manipulated. BACKGROUND Instruments for performing multiple parallel and/or sequential discrete processes often require various consumables used in the performance of each discrete process. Such consumables may be used one time for each individual process - or for different steps of the process - and then discarded. Accordingly, a sufficient supply of such consumables must be provided to the instrument to enable the processes to be performed. For example, an analyzer for performing biological, chemical, biochemical, or other multi-step analytical processes on sample materials may perform numerous discrete procedures over a period of time. For example, the Panther® and Panther Fusion® systems available from Hologic, Inc. (Marlborough, MA) can process up to 320 samples in 8 hours and up to 750 samples in 15.2 hours. Multiple, different samples may be processed in parallel and/or sequentially, and multiple processes - e.g., tests - may be performed on each sample processed. A separate reaction vessel - such as a test tube - is typically required for each process performed on each sample that is tested by the analyzer, and, in some instances, a separate reaction vessel - such as a test tube - may be required for different steps of the process. Different systems for transporting and holding of consumables are described in CN 205 819 256 U, US 2018/155129 A1, using mechanisms such as transport elevators and scissors actuators coupled to a chassis to manipulate said consumables so as to dispose them on storing shelves. Other documents like WO 2012/012779 A2 or EP 2 148 208 A2 described different integrated mechanisms to transport consumables within carriers along a series of stations. It is often desirable to maximize the throughput of the processing instrument by performing as many processes as are possible over a given period of time, and, to that end, it is likewise desirable that the instrument be operated continuously, or nearly continuously, with minimal interruptions. Accordingly, to avoid interruptions in instrument operation due to the need to periodically reload consumables, such as reaction vessels on an automated molecular analyzer, it is desirable to have an ample supply of consumables on the instrument. Moreover, the consumables must be provided in such a manner that they are accessible to the instrument for use in processing samples, i.e., the consumables are not merely stored on the instrument in large quantities, requiring operator intervention to feed the consumables to the instrument in smaller batches. Throughput can be further improved if additional consumables may be loaded onto the instrument while the instrument is operating and without interrupting processing by the instrument. SUMMARY A system and method as disclosed herein enable a user to load a sufficient number of consumables - such as reaction vessels - onto an instrument to support prolonged operation of the instrument, e.g., 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 hours or more, without requiring further interaction from the operator. Thus, the system and method as disclosed herein represent an improvement over existing systems that require an operator to periodically return to the instrument to load additional consumables. Moreover, the system and method disclosed herein enable all consumables of an extended supply of consumables to be accessed by the instrument for processing, and further, where even more prolonged operation of the instrument is desired, the system and method as disclosed herein enable the user to load additional consumables onto the instrument without interrupting instrument operation. The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of the claimed subject matter. It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the claimed subject matter nor delineate the scope thereof. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. Aspects of the disclosure are embodied in an apparatus for transporting groups of consumables between a plurality of vertically spaced holding shelves. The apparatus is disclosed according to claim 1. Other features and characteristics of the subject matter of this disclosure, as well as the methods of operation, functions of related elements of structure and the combination of parts, and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appen