Dosing System and Method for the Dosing of a Medium

• US 20110148597A1
• Filed: 11/05/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sartorius Lab Instruments GmbH & Co. KG (Sartorius AG)
• Original Assignee: Sartorius AG, Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH (Sartorius AG)
• Inventors: Oldendorf, Christian, Schmidt, Dieter, Weitemeier, Swen, Baurnfalk, Reinhard, Reif, Oscar-Werner
• Granted Patent: US 8,896,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.5
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 33/84 Mixing plants with mixing receptacles receiving material dispensed from several component receptacles, e.g. paint tins
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 35/881 by weighing, e.g. with automatic discharge

Abstract

A dosing system and a method for dosing a medium, having a dosing control unit (4), at least one exchangeable container (2) containing a medium to be dosed, and a dosing valve (3, 3′) that can be connected to the container (2), wherein at least one part of the dosing valve (3, 3′) that comes into contact with the medium is designed as an exchangeable system component (7, 10) and has a machine-readable code for identification purposes, wherein at least one container (2), as an exchangeable system component (2), has a machine-readable code for identification purposes, wherein the exchangeable parts (2, 7, 10, 19) that come into contact with the medium are designed as disposable parts, and wherein the dosing control unit (4) is connected with a communication unit (5) to read the codes, and wherein the communication unit (5) has a unique read connection (22) to each exchangeable system component (2, 7, 10, 19) or its code.

Claims

22. A dosing system with a dosing control unit (4), comprising

at least one exchangeable container (2) for holding a medium to be dosed,

a dosing valve (3, 3′

) connected to the container (2),

at least a first part of the dosing valve (3, 3′

) that comes into contact with the medium is a first exchangeable system component (7, 10) and includes a first machine-readable code for a first identification purposes,

wherein the at least one exchangeable container (2) includes a second machine-readable code for a second identification purposes,

wherein the at least one exchangeable container and the exchangeable system component are disposable, and

wherein the dosing control unit (4) is connected to a communication unit capable of reading the codes, and

wherein the communication unit (5) has a read connection (22) to the at least one exchangeable container and the system component or the first machine-readable code or the second machine-readable code.

24. The dosing system according to claim 22, further comprising

a pump (18) that includes a part which contacts the medium for transporting the medium and which part is an exchangeable system component and which includes a third machine-readable code.

25. The dosing system according to claim 22, wherein the dosing control unit (4) is connected to a system component memory (21) for storing at least the first machine-readable code and the second machine readable code.

26. The dosing system according to claim 25, wherein dosing information is stored in the system component memory (21).

27. The dosing system according to claim 22, wherein the first machine-readable code and the second machine-readable code are bar codes on a label.

28. The dosing system according to claim 27, wherein the coding comprises identification codes stored in a first identification memory and a second identification memory (6).

29. The dosing system according to claim 28, wherein the first and second identification memory (6) containing the codes are writable via a communication unit (5).

30. The dosing system according to claim 28, wherein each identification memory (6) is an EEPROM or a transponder.

31. The dosing system according to claim 24, wherein the parts that contact the medium are sterilizable.

32. The dosing system according to claim 24, wherein the dosing valve (3, 3′

) comprises

a second valve part which is disposable and which is integrated into a tubing system, and

a reusable actuator (8) that can be controlled by the dosing control unit (4).

33. The dosing system according to claim 32, wherein the dosing valve (3) is a pinch valve, flap valve, slide valve or diaphragm valve.

34. The dosing system according to claim 33, wherein the pump (18) comprises

a second pump part (19) which is disposable and which is integrated into the tubing system (14), and

a reusable drive (20) which is controlled by the dosing control unit (4).

35. The dosing system according to claim 34. wherein the second pump part (19) includes an exchangeable tube of a peristaltic pump, or an exchangeable pump head of a centrifugal or piston pump or of a diaphragm pump.

36. The dosing system according to claim 35, further comprising

a target container connected to the at least one exchangeable container,

a dosing sensors,

a scale (9, 9′

) for monitoring the container by weight (2), and/or a second scale (17) for monitoring the weight of the target container (15).

23. A dosing system with a dosing control unit (4), comprising

a plurality of exchangeable containers (2) for holding a medium to be dosed,

a plurality of dosing valves (3, 3′

) each having a first part suitable for contacting the medium, each connected to one of the plurality of exchangeable containers (2),

the plurality of exchangeable containers are each fixedly connected to the dosing valve (3, 3′

) associated to each container,

wherein each of the plurality of the exchangeable containers (2) or the first part of the dosing valves (3, 3′

) that come into contact with the medium, have a machine-readable code for identification purposes,

wherein the plurality of containers and the first part of the dosing valve that comes into contact with the medium are disposable parts,

wherein the dosing control unit (4) is connected to a communication unit (5) for reading data codes, and

wherein the communication unit (5) has a read connection (22) to each of the plurality of the exchangeable containers (2) or the part of the dosing valves or the data codes.

37. A method for dosing a medium arranged in an exchangeable container (2) of a dosing system (1, 1′

, 1″

, 1′

″

), the method comprising the steps of

supplying the medium to a target container (15) via a dosing valve (3, 3′

) connected to the container (2),

controlling a dosing control unit (4), wherein prior to starting the dosing process, machine-readable codes arranged on exchangeable system components (2, 7, 10, 19) that come into contact with the medium and that are designed as disposable parts, are read by a communication unit (5) via in each case unique read connections (22), and the permissibility of using the system components (2, 7, 10, 19) having the codes is verified by the dosing control unit (4) connected to the communication unit (5).

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein,

in order to verify the permissibility of using system components (2, 7, 10, 19), their codes are compared by the dosing control unit (4) with data stored in a system component memory (21) and/or in an identification memory (6) of the system components (2, 7, 10, 19) and/or in a database.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein, in the case of non-permitted system components (2, 7, 10, 19) the dosing process is discontinued.

40. The method according to claim 39, wherein in the case of non-permitted system components (2, 7, 10, 19) a blocking notice is written at least in the memory assigned to the non-permitted system components.

41. The method according to claim 38, wherein the identification data of the container (2) are stored in the system component memory (21) and/or the identification memory (6) of the dosing valve (3, 3′

) connected with the container.

42. The method according to claim 38, wherein dosing information regarding the dosing process is stored in the system component memory (21) and/or the identification memory (6) and/or a database.