Patent ID: 11892455
Assignee: MESO SCALE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  Y | IPC B  G

Claim 2:
3. The environmental monitoring system of claim 2, wherein said piercing probe comprises:
(i) a piercing section with external surfaces that taper to a vertex so as to form a piercing tip at one end of a piercing direction, wherein said piercing section is pyramidal and said piercing section includes exposed cutting edges extending in a radial direction from said piercing tip, wherein said exposed cutting edges are positioned in said piercing section to align with the corners of said wells;
(ii) a seal displacement section, arranged adjacent to said piercing section along said piercing direction, with a cross-sectional shape, perpendicular to said piercing direction, that is square or square with rounded corners, and slightly undersized relative to said wells;
(iii) a plate stop section adjacent to said seal displacement section, wherein said plate stop section is sized to prevent entry of the stop section into said wells, thereby defining the maximal distance of travel of said piercing probe into said wells; and
(iv) a through-hole parallel to said piercing direction and off-set from said piercing tip, and wherein said pipetting probe is fixedly attached to a piercing probe guide and movably located in said through-hole such that it can be withdrawn into said piercing probe during seal removal operations and extended from said piercing probe during pipetting operations.