Patent ID: 9304518
Filing Date: 2016-04-05
CPC Classification: B01D,G01N,G05B,G05D

Claim Text:
1. A system for joining a plurality of fluid manipulation components into a flow scheme for directing fluids to and from a chromatographic separation device and for operating said joined fluid manipulation components according to a selected protocol, said system comprising: a plurality of modules, each said module comprising (a) one of said fluid manipulation components and (b) a microcontroller that (i) encodes machine readable data characterizing the type of said fluid manipulation component, and (ii) transmits operational signals to said fluid manipulation component in response to commands received from outside said module; a mounting frame comprising a plurality of mounting sites, each said mounting site constructed to receive a single module interchangeably with other said modules, and each said mounting site comprising a signal connector that couples to and communicates with the microcontroller of a module mounted at said mounting site; and a software platform embedded in said mounting frame or in a computer external to said mounting frame or distributed between said mounting frame and a computer external to said mounting frame, the software communicating with the microcontroller of each module mounted on said mounting frame through said signal connectors, said software being programmable for (1) receiving said machine-readable data, (2) recognizing from the received machine-readable data the types of the fluid manipulation components, (3) automatically mapping the plurality of fluid manipulation components to the flow scheme based on the received data, (4) guiding a user of the system in the joining of said fluid manipulation components according to said flow scheme, and for (5) causing said fluid manipulation components, once joined, to direct fluids to and from said chromatographic separation device in accordance with said protocol.