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18/03/2003
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Tom Shelley reports on two new developments that greatly reduce the cost and difficulty of handling nasty chemicals in laboratories
A low cost and simple to use pump, from an industry insider, looks to be an ideal way of handling the quite noxious fluids involved in medical laboratory procedures.
Much less expensive than the peristaltic and piston pumps presently used for the same tasks, it also comes with an additional technology to avoid the need for fume cupboards at the receiving end, without compromising safety.
The devices are the conception of Mr Sean Codling, who lives in Portsmouth and has a background in marketing equipment for medical laboratories.
The pump, which recently won Codling a Smart Micro Award, is inspired by bilge pumps. It has a 6mm ball valve on its lowest extremity, and another 6mm ball valve in a reciprocating piston above it. Fluid sucked in through the first valve is forced through the second and out of a side tube.
Easy to clean
Unlike bilge pumps, it has been prototyped in DuPont ‘Delrin’ acetal resin and can easily be taken apart for cleaning. It is designed to either be mounted on a bottle, or stood on a base. It can be finger operated from a plastic button in the top, or motor-driven through two circular cams beneath a motor coaxial
with the piston rod.
Codling told Eureka that he intended to make production versions of the pump out of PEEK, and that they would be cheaper than peristaltic pumps (typical prices £500 to £5,000) or the very accurately dispensing chemical piston pumps used in medical laboratories, which typically cost £1,000 to £12,000.
To complement the pump, he has also devised a safe waste bottle container to avoid the need for fume cupboard housings. The device consists of a transparent, chemically resistant plastic container, sufficiently large to contain overflows. An active carbon filter in the top prevents release of solvent vapour into the environment. Codling says that suitable filters are commercially available, which change colour when solvent starts to penetrate, and which last for one year. When filled, the waste bottle could be emptied using the pump.
Both ideas are patented. The company developing the pump is called Scideas. Sean Codling
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Author
Tom Shelley
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Source
Image (C) Phil Homes
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