Abstract: The invention is a laboratory mill that allows small samples to be shaken, mixed, ground, homogenized or comminuted effectively within a small vial. The design is similar to a planetary mill but unlike those devices, neither axis of rotation is centered on the axis of the processing vessel. The design allows many vials to be processed at one time and even when the diameter of the vial is quite small, maintains the processing performance. The performance of the device when used as a comminuter is demonstrated showing that the device can comminute organic solids down to a median particle size of 1 micrometer with a narrow size distribution. Because the processing takes place within a vial, the mill does not require cleaning between samples which allows the application of the device in automated or high throughput systems.

Abstract: The invention is a device and method for separating liquids from solid particles in a laboratory. The device consists of a pipette tip, which has holes or slots arranged radially around the axis of the tip and the lower end of the tip, closed. The smallest dimension of the hole or slit is smaller than the diameter of the solid particles from which the liquid is to be separated. These holes or slits are positioned towards the lower end of the tip such that when plunged into a sample, they are below the level of the phase to be extracted. The method comprises mounting the device on a manual or robotic pipettor, plunging the tip into a mixture of solid particles and liquid to be separated, aspirating the liquid and removing the tip with the aspirated liquid, leaving the solid particles behind in the original container.

Abstract: The invention is an automated robotic system for the production and testing of formulations at a very high throughput. It is an integrated system of hardware and software capable of preparing and evaluating hundreds of emulsions per day. The system can formulate aqueous solutions (SL), oil in water emulsions (EW), suspo-emulsions (SE), micro capsule suspensions (CS), micro-emulsions (ME), and suspension concentrates (SC) at the 1 ml to 25 ml scale. The system can process emulsions rapidly in an automated way and enable very flexible formulation recipes to be introduced. The system allows chemists to generate experimental samples of varying recipe and method to be conducted in parallel with projected throughput of up to 1200 formulations processed and characterized per day. Materials and consumables can be distributed from storage storage systems to the work stations where dispensing of ingredients in various states can be performed, including solids, liquids, gels, pastes, suspensions and waxes.