Identification of sample cells in a chromatography autosampler

Inventors: Daniel Hoffmeyer (Santa Clara, CA); Husam Al-Esawi (El Dorado Hills, CA); Tobias Metz (Germering, DE); Til Richardsen (Kirchseeon, DE); Christoph Hollnagel (Gauting, DE)

Assignees: Dionex Softron GmbH; Dionex Corporation

G01N35/00732 G01N30/02 G01N35/1011 G01N2030/027 G01N2035/00801 G01N2035/00831 G01N2035/1025

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12669517
App. No.: 17/563,151
Granted: Jun 30, 2026
Kind: B2

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Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for the identification of sample cells in a sample tray that is placed in a chromatography autosampler. A cell gripper and labels are also provided to facilitate such identification.

Claims (36)

1 . A method for identification of sample cells of a sample tray placed in a chromatography autosampler, each sample cell having (i) a container having a translucent or transparent side wall, and (ii) a cap having an end surface visible from the sample tray, the method comprising:

top scanning, with a camera assembly of a machine vision (MV) module of the autosampler, the end surfaces of all the sample cells;

gripping, lifting, and rotating, with a cell gripper of the autosampler, each of the sample cells such that each of the sample cells is gripped while in the sample tray, lifted from the sample tray, and rotated above adjacent sample cells of the sample tray;

side scanning, with the MV module, the side walls of each of the sample cells, with the camera assembly; returning, with the cell gripper, each of the sample cells to the sample tray; determining, with a computing device, an identity of each of the sample cells within the sample tray based upon the top scanning;

determining a bottom liquid level at a lowermost portion of an inner volume of each sample cell;

identifying an inner bottom surface of the sample cell and a foreign object within the sample cell, and

controlling the sampling needle assembly and limiting the insertion depth of a sample needle of the sampling needle assembly based on a position of the bottom liquid level, the bottom surface, and the foreign object of a respective sample cell to avoid damaging the sample needle,

wherein the computing device controls the MV module.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the sample tray includes a machine-readable tray identifier, and wherein top scanning includes scanning the tray identifier.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising determining the position of each of the sample cells within the sample tray based upon a unique label affixed to a respective end surface of each sample cell.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the chromatography autosampler comprises the computing device.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the rotating includes rotating each of the sample cells about 540.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the side scanning includes scanning a bar-code label provided on the side wall of each of the sample cells.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the side scanning includes determining a top liquid level within each sample cell.

8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises determining the amount of a sample within each sample cell based upon the top liquid level within a respective sample cell, and adjusting the needle position based upon the top liquid level and the bottom liquid level within a respective sample cell.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the container and/or cap of each sample cell includes an identifying color, and wherein at least one of the top scanning and side scanning includes scanning the identifying color.

10 . The method according to claim 1 , the method further comprising comparing, with the computing device, the top scanning and the side scanning to determine whether a gripped sample cell is the correct sample cell for further processing.

11 . The method according to claim 1 , the method further comprising aspirating a sample from each of the sample cells with a sampling needle assembly, separating analytes of the sample with a chromatography column, and detecting said analytes of the sample with a chromatography detector.

12 . A method for identification of sample cells of a sample tray placed in a chromatography autosampler, each sample cell having (i) a container having a translucent or transparent side wall, and (ii) a cap having an end surface visible from the sample tray, the method comprising:

side scanning, with a camera assembly of a machine vision (MV) module of the autosampler, the side walls of each of the sample cells;

determining a bottom liquid level at a lowermost portion of an inner volume of each sample cell;

identifying an inner bottom surface of the sample cell and a foreign object within the sample cell and returning, with the cell gripper, each of the sample cells to the sample tray; and

13 . The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

determining, with a computing device, an identity of each of the sample cells within the sample tray based upon he side scanning;

wherein the computing device also controls the MV module and the cell gripper.

14 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the chromatography autosampler comprises the computing device.

15 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the sample tray includes a machine-readable tray identifier, and the method further comprising scanning the tray identifier with the camera assembly of the MV module.

16 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the rotating includes rotating each of the sample cells about 5400.

17 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the side scanning includes scanning a bar-code label provided on the side wall of each of the sample cells.

18 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the side wall of each sample cell is translucent or transparent, and wherein the side scanning includes determining (i) a top liquid level within each sample cell, and (ii) a bottom liquid level at a lowermost portion of an inner volume of each sample cell.

19 . The method according to claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises (i) determining the amount of a sample within each sample cell based upon the top liquid level within a respective sample cell, (ii) adjusting the needle position based upon the top liquid level and the bottom liquid level within a respective sample cell, and/or (iii) limiting an insertion depth of the sample needle based upon a position of the bottom liquid level of a respective sample cell.

20 . The method according to claim 13 , the method further comprising comparing, with the computing device, the side scanning to determine whether a gripped sample cell is the correct sample cell for further processing.

21 . The method according to claim 12 , the method further comprising determining the position of each of the sample cells within the sample tray based upon the unique label of each sample cell.

22 . The method according to claim 12 , the method further comprising aspirating a sample from each of the sample cells with a sampling needle assembly, separating analytes of the sample with a chromatography column, and detecting said analytes of the sample with a chromatography detector.