Vial Loading Apparatus

MAE156B WINTER SPONSORED PROJECT 2015

University of California, San Diego

Team: Bernardo Luiz Rocha Ribeiro, Daniel Madeira de Almeida, John Thomson, Lucas Coêlho de Almeida

Sponsor

Project Background

In the studies of genetics it is very common to use model organisms. Model organisms are species that can be used to better understand the biology of other species, frequently human beings. Fruit flies (Drosophila) are widely used in genetic research because they share 75% of the genes that cause diseases in humans. Thus it is possible to understand more about human genetics by studying fruit flies. During the research, flies are trapped inside vials with media (their food), and can be knocked out by using carbon dioxide when a scientist wants to observe them under the microscope. Genesee Scientific's division, Flystuff.com is one of the most respected supplier of Drosophila products in the world. They are known for developing innovative solutions for researchers that face daily problems. One example is the Droso-Filler™, shown in Figure 1, a tool that makes it possible to fill many vials with media at once.

Figure 1 - Droso-Filler™, one example of the products created by Genesee Scientific

Genesee Scientific is engaged in developing a more efficient solution to other day-to-day activities of lab assistants, such as organizing the vials in Genesee’s patented vial tray (Figure 2). This tray can hold up to 100 vials at once, thus placing the vials can be a tiresome activity. Genesee Scientific sponsored this project with the intent to speed up the loading process and reduce repetitive stress injury suffered by the user.

Figure 2 – Genesee Scientific’s patented tray

Objectives

Create a fast and user-friendly method to transfer vials from the shipping box to the reload tray. (Figure 3)

Requirements for the tool:

Be handheld
Lightweight
Have a great mechanical resistance
Change the pattern from honeycomb, that is the one that comes inside the shipping boxes to square, that is presented in the reload trays.

Figure 3 – Transfering from the shipping box to the tray

Final Design

The final design of the tool changes the pattern from honeycomb to square in a manageable way and can be used by anyone. The tool is composed of Delrin and Aluminum. Also, before this final design, the time spent by a person to take the 100 vials from the bulk and place into a single tray was around 3 minutes. With this tool, the time goes down to around 30 seconds.

The following sequence describes the mechanical process of how the tool works:

[1] - Align tool [2] - Activate grabbing mechanism

[3] - Remove tool from the shipping bulk

[4] - Reshape packing pattern

[5] - Release vials inside the tray

Tool Demonstration

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDirvGMFWSk

Executive Summary

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0pWD0LUFTGjM1ZMTmQ2QnJtMEU/view?usp=sharing