Appeal No. 1997-2954
Application No. 08/401,876
Appellants’ invention relates to a transport device (2)
for conveying sample vials (20), the device including a platen
(4) having a plurality of chambers (16), each of the chambers
including reduced diameters at the bottoms thereof for
retaining one of the sample vials (20) and providing access to
retained sample vials from below, a platen gear (52) and a
drive motor (66) with a drive gear (68) cooperating with the
platen gear (52) for rotating the platen (4). The transport
device includes a first vial transport (86) having a first
displaceable rod (88) moved to enter the chamber (16) from
below through an opening (100) to engage and convey the vial
(20) into the chamber (16) from a point above the chamber (16)
and the reverse. The sample vials (20) have caps with septums
and contain sample material with a headspace that includes
volatile gases for analysis by gas chromatography. Appellants
provide the transport device (2) with an electrically powered
heater (76) to heat the platen (4) and the sample vials (20),
a vial mixing device (102) including a second displaceable rod
(104), a motor (109) to move the rod (104) into engagement
with a sample vial (20) and a solenoid (110) that pulses the
rod to mix the contents of the vial to increase the rate of
2
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