Long have we been plagued by vial overflows. Certainly, many were our fault when we pumped too much in during setup or made unscrupulous changes to code. However, not always! And the cost was always too high for the magnitude of the mistake. Testing vials, rebuilding, and recalibration took weeks of our time.
No longer! We can seal our vials, so that even if we make a mistake* and pump too much, it will flow out through an emergency tube into a secondary receptacle.
*Mistakes that cause overflows are the most common and most catastrophic
How It Works
Vials are sealed using O-ring, a plug for the sampling port, and caps with no air leaks
One fluidic port in the cap has a line connected that goes to a secondary container
If you pump too much fluid in or knock the vial over:
Parts
Emergency efflux enabled
- for air-tight fit of cap onto vial
- for sealing sampling port
Guide
Construct emergency efflux tubing
Place a capped vial in your eVOLVER as far away from your beaker as possible
Cut tubing to a length that comfortably drapes into your beaker from your vial
Use this tubing as a metric to cut tubing for the rest of your smart sleeves
Additions to Experiment Setup
Vial construction
Put O-ring in the slot in underside of cap
Put rubber stopper in sampling port
Emergency efflux lines must be far away from the bottom of the beaker. Efflux pumping will suck air and any liquid in from the emergency efflux port.
Fluid follows the path of least resistance out into the secondary container
- for sealing unused vial cap ports
Emergency efflux tubing (semi-clear is ideal)
Connector -
Sterile beaker or other container to drape efflux tubes into
Glass vial
Make a few extra just in case
Insert male luer locks into your tubing
Cap any unused ports
Autoclave emergency efflux tubing in an aluminum foil pouch
While setting up fluid lines during experimental setup:
Attach emergency efflux lines onto unused port
Drape ends of emergency efflux lines into sterile beaker
You can use the beaker you used in sterilization of fluid lines, but make sure it no longer has bleach or any other fluid in it
Tape lines in place, far from the bottom of the beaker
A basic eVOLVER vial setup with emergency efflux. Top, red emergency efflux line; center, capped fluidic port; bottom, black rubber plug in sampling port.
