Blow-down Devices
Recently a customer asked if there was an easy way to concentrate samples in our 6 and 24-well SynthArray reactors. We proviced a few suggestions but the customer thought they were expensive or unwieldy. Actually him becoming a customer was contingent on a suitable solution. So we made an offer. We would design and produce a blow-down device that worked with our reactors and give him one of each (for the 6 and 24-well reactors), if he would cover the prototype costs. He went for it.
Basically, the blowdown device is fairly simple. It is a block manifold that delivers a gas stream through Luer hubs to each of the wells. We made one design so that a 6 or 24 well device depends on what holes you plug up and which ones have luer adapters. Syringe needles are attached to the Luer hubs and the rest is obvious.
The blow_down device is the same size as the microtiter plate so that it fits in lots of useful places. As shown in the pictures, it can be held above the plate using the clamp or it can be placed on top of the reactor using two sleeves (pt. # SA10047) so that the solvent carried away in the gas stream can be effectively trapped.
So in the end, our customer got what he wanted and we got a few new products to sell. If you find yourself in a similar situation, let us know. We like to design and, often, new prototypes cost less than competing final products.
