I’m curious to get some feedback from the design community on the project that’s consumed the last couple years of my life. The Bottle Lift has been developed to address an ergonomic and safety issue around using liquid chromatography systems in a laboratory environment. LC systems are typically quite tall, and require bottles of consumable solvents mounted on top of the units. There are several reasons for their placement, but the main reason being that these machines somewhat rely on gravity feeding of the solvents.
This imposes safety and ergonomics issues for the operators when it comes to monitoring solvent levels, or replacing solvent bottles, due to the height of the units. For most operators it is necessary to climb on structures or ladders to monitor and replace solvents.
The Bottle Lift System places solvent bottles at your fingertips for safe, easy fluid management. It eliminates the risk of climbing up ladders or other structures to replace, refill, or view solvents for your liquid chromatography equipment. This ergonomically-designed lift system delivers bottles to the bench top so you can safely and comfortably load and unload solvents. A simple touch pad moves the bottle platform up and down the column. The momentary push buttons ensure that the system is only in motion when there is an operator present. The clear platform allows you to easily monitor liquid levels, while the quick release system allows you to clean any spilled fluids or replace platforms.
The actuator is driven by a trapezoidal lead screw, which provides inherent safety and will not back drive in the event of a power loss or system failure. The cost of lab space is monumental, and it’s crucial that we minimized our footprint and occupied space. The footprint of the unit is only 155mm wide x 347mm long, and has been designed to mount to existing lab benches and pair up with current HPLC installs. The mounting location places the bottle platform in the empty space in front of the bench. The system features a helical path of travel. As the unit reaches the top of its travel, it swings over the top of the HPLC unit and out of the isle, further utilizing empty space.
It’s a very simple unit, and addresses a real need in the laboratory environment. We have a couple of units at customer sites and released the product officially at the SLAS trade show in January. The response from the community has far exceeded our expectations. It’s been patented and we’re gearing up for our first production release.
I am a design engineer with a background in machining and race car mechanics. I’m not an industrial designer by any means, but I’m curious to some feedback from people on the thoughts of the units aesthetics. Manufacturing cost and simplicity have both been the biggest driver for this product.
Website:
http://www.thebottleliftsystem.com/
Typical HPLC units:
The Bottle Lift System:
Installed:
Operation:
