Appeal No. 1997-1669
Application No. 08/185,649
Appellants’ invention relates to a transport device (2)
for conveying sample vials (20) including a platen (4) having
a plurality of chambers (16) rotatable around a central axis,
the chambers each 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 further 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, 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 to
2
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