| 摘要 |
<p>In known aspirator probes, horizontal displacement of a tip carried by the probe may occur at a dispensing station. Although the tip is accurately seated for dispensing a sample on to a test element, the tip can pivot on withdrawal of the probe from the seating arrangement. This pivoting movement can lead to "tip flick" - a problem in which the dispensed sample is not fully absorbed into the test element and the pivoting movement causes the residual liquid to be flicked off-center and as a consequence provides inaccurate analysis. Described herein is an improved aspirator probe (40A) which is pivotable about a pivot point (P) to allow for horizontal displacement error in seating the probe (40A). The amount of "tip flick" which occurs by pivoting the tip (48A) about the pivot point (P) as the probe 40A starts to withdraw from the seating is minimized by having the pivot point (P) located from a fulcrum (49A) at the seating, a distance (L) which is at least five times the length ( l ) of the disposable tip (48A) measured from the fulcrum (49A). <IMAGE></p> |
