Patent ID: 9285262
Filing Date: 2016-03-15
CPC Classification: G01G,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A system for managing bulk liquids and/or bulk solids for in-vitro diagnostics, the system comprising: a sample processing unit; at least one bulk container unit for receiving at least one bulk liquid and/or bulk solid supply container for supplying the sample processing unit with at least one bulk liquid and/or bulk solid respectively and/or at least one bulk liquid and/or at least one bulk solid waste container for receiving at least one bulk liquid and/or bulk solid waste respectively from the sample processing unit; at least one weight measuring device comprising a loading plate, a reference base and a force measuring cell connected to the loading plate and to the reference base, the force measuring cell comprising a vibrating wire sensor comprising a tensioned sensor wire, wherein the loading plate is biased with respect to the reference base by a weight applied to the loading plate by a bulk container and to transfer force to the force measuring cell, the transferred force causing a deformation of the force measuring cell and a change in tension of the sensor wire causing a change in vibrational frequency resulting in an electric signal indicative of the weight of the bulk container, wherein the loading plate and the reference base are resiliently coupled such that the loading plate is movable towards or away from the reference base in the same direction of the force applied by the weight to the loading plate and at the same time it is laterally translatable in a direction orthogonal to the direction of the applied force, wherein an increase in force applied to the loading plate corresponds to a decrease in distance between the loading plate and reference base and to an increase in lateral displacement and wherein a decrease in force applied to the loading plate corresponds to an increase of the distance and a decrease of the lateral displacement.