AUTOMATION OF THE HANDLING AND MANIPULATION OF VESSELS DURING MICROPROPAGATION

Micropropagation takes place in a sterile vessel. Many plants will propagate at much more advantageous rates if the medium is exchanged or more medium is added during production. This requires time consuming and tedious handling and manipulation of the vessels. If the vessel remains unchanged, the minimum set of tasks that must be performed is: grasp vessel and lid, open vessel, aside lid, pour off medium, add medium, close vessel, and discharge vessel. The prototype machine has a single arm rotating at a constant speed on a central vertical axis. The arm has a stationary upper clasp to grasp the lid and a movable lower clasp to grasp the vessel. The lower clasp moves vertically and rotates in a plane tangential to the arm. Closed vessels are presented to the arm singularly. Only three cam followers perform the required operations on the vessel. The pumping rate for new medium set an upper limit of 200 vessels per hour in sustained production. Throughput could be increased by increasing the fill rate and/or adding more arms. The machine, 800 mm largest diameter by 300 mm high, could be enclosed in a laminar flow hood to maintain sanitation.