Controlling plunger drives for fluid injections in animals
DCFirst Claim
1. An injector of the type having a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe toward and away from a nozzle located in the front of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject, adapted for use with a syringe including an extender attached to said plunger, comprising:
- a control circuit which causes said motor to move, said control circuit tracking the location of said motor while moving said motor, anda memory storing an offset value representative of the length of the extender which is attached to said plunger, whereinsaid control circuit computes a value indicative of the location of said plunger within said syringe by relating said stored offset value to the tracked location of said motor, and ceases motion of said plunger when said computed value indicates that said plunger is at an end of said syringe.
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Abstract
A computer-controlled injector of the type as a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe housing toward and away from a nozzle located in the front of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject. The injector tracks the plunger position during an injection, and compensates for plunger extenders found in partially pre-filled syringes by applying a stored offset value to the computed plunger position, to produce a corrected plunger position reflecting the actual position of the plunger and compensating for the presence of the extender. The offset value can be determined by querying the operator as to the capacity of the syringe and determining therefrom the appropriate offset value, or may be automatically computed by detecting physical indicia on the syringe or extender which indicate the length of the extender.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An injector of the type having a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe toward and away from a nozzle located in the front of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject, adapted for use with a syringe including an extender attached to said plunger, comprising:
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a control circuit which causes said motor to move, said control circuit tracking the location of said motor while moving said motor, and a memory storing an offset value representative of the length of the extender which is attached to said plunger, wherein said control circuit computes a value indicative of the location of said plunger within said syringe by relating said stored offset value to the tracked location of said motor, and ceases motion of said plunger when said computed value indicates that said plunger is at an end of said syringe. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method of controlling an injector of the type having a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe toward and away from a nozzle located in the front of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject, adapted for use with a syringe including an extender attached to said plunger, comprising:
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storing an offset value representative of the length of the extender which is attached to said plunger, causing said motor to move, tracking the location of said motor while moving said motor, computing a value indicative of the location of said plunger within said syringe by relating said stored offset value to the tracked location of said motor, and ceasing motion of said plunger when said computed value indicates that said plunger is at an end of said syringe. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6)
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7. An injector of the type having a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe toward and away from a nozzle located at a distal end of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject, adapted for use with syringe assemblies which have differing capacities, comprising:
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a detector located proximate to a syringe installed on said injector for detecting a physical indicia on said syringe related to the capacity of said syringe, and generating an electrical signal representative of said physical indicia, and a control circuit which causes said motor to move and tracks the location of said motor while moving said motor, wherein said control circuit computes the location of a plunger within said syringe relative to an end of said syringe, by relating said electrical signal to the tracked location of said motor. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. A method of controlling an injector of the type having a motor which advances and retracts a plunger located within a syringe toward and away from a nozzle located at an end of the syringe to inject fluid into or out of an animal subject, adapted for use with syringe assemblies which have differing capacities, comprising:
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detecting a physical indicia on a syringe installed on said injector, said indicia being related to the capacity of said syringe, and generating an electrical signal representative of said physical indicia, causing said motor to move, tracking the location of said motor while moving said motor, and computing the location of a plunger within said syringe relative to an end of said syringe by relating said electrical signal to the tracked location of said motor. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification