Abstract: The invention concerns a cell culture harvesting device consisting of a scraper head with a blade and a guide strip, the scraper head and the guide strip being connected with one another only by magnetic attraction. The magnetic attraction is achieved by the fact that one of the ends of the scraper head and the guide strip which are turned toward one another have a magnet and the other has either a magnet or a material which can be magnetized by the magnet of the respective counterpart. In this way, the scraper head and the guide strip can be moved synchronously and in parallel at a distance from one another. This has the advantage that the scraper head can be placed into the cell culture vessel before a cell culture is started and can be sterilized together with it thereby eliminating the risk of contamination due to a cell culture harvesting device later being placed into the cell culture vessel.

Abstract: A device for humidifying the useful space of a climatic chamber, the humidifying device having a flexible bag which defines water-holding reservoir defined by watertight walls. The flexible bag can be refilled through a closure. The flexible bag is at least partly made of a water-vapor-permeable material, such as a copolymer of tetrafluorethylene and hexafluoropropylene, or polypropylene. The efficiency can be improved compared with conventional open humidifying systems by appropriately structuring the surface of at least the water-vapor-permeable part of the humidifying bag, for example, by providing tufts. To impart form stabilization to the bag, its opposite faces can be joined to each other through the inside of the bag by heat-sealing or stitching.

Abstract: The invention is directed to methods and apparatus for collecting and preparing stored blood that minimizes handling and manipulation of blood bags to thereby reduce the contamination risk. In particular, the invention is directed to methods and apparatus wherein at least one sterilely packed blood bag is provided in a packaging apparatus that supports the blood bag during filling and also serves as the transport container for the blood bag. The packaging apparatus comprises a sterile package for at least one blood bag and has a completely enclosed interior space to hold the blood bag and a closure element used to open up the interior space. The interior space has a volume of at least 500 ml or can be expanded to at least 500 ml by applying an internal pressure directed outwards from the interior space and the interior space can be closed by the closure element. Preferably, the packaging apparatus also serves as a support during centrifugation of the collected blood.

Abstract: A laboratory centrifuge is known with a centrifuge housing which contains a motor and a rotor connected with the motor through a drive shaft, the motor being held in the motor housing which includes an upper end shield and a lower end shield, and with the motor having a rotor tank arranged above it which has a passage for the drive shaft on the motor side. In order to indicate, starting from here, a laboratory centrifuge which is economical to manufacture and simple to assemble, which can be cooled easily, if necessary, it is proposed that the rotor tank and the upper end shield be made as a single piece.

Abstract: A laboratory centrifuge having a housing which can be closed by a casing cover and having in the housing a rotor chamber which contains a motor-driven vertical-axis rotor to accept test tubes is disclosed. During operation, the test tubes are warmed by friction. To cool the centrifuge, cooling air is pulled in through openings in the lower side of the housing and upward into the rotor chamber by the fan action created by the rotation of the rotor. The air is guided out of the rotor chamber through an air exit in a direction of flow tangential to the perimeter of the rotor in a manner that ensures low turbulence and, thus, low noise. In particular, a slit-like air exit opening is arranged between the casing cover and the top side of the housing.

Abstract: The method relates to the co-culturing of two cell cultures in two cell culture chambers such that the cellular products produced by the co-cultured cells are exchanged between the two cell culture chambers. The apparatus for culturing the cells contains two cell culture chambers separated by a microfiltration membrane which is permeable to medium, gases, and cellular products, and is impermeable to cells. A culture medium supply chamber is adjacent to and separated from the first cell culture chamber by a dialysis membrane which is permeable to medium and gases. The exterior portion of the second cell culture contains a gas-exchange membrane which allows gas exchange between the apparatus and the environment. The apparatus can be in a modular form where the first and second cell culture chambers form one module which is detachable from the culture medium supply chamber which forms the second module.

Abstract: A climate cabinet, turntable and use of the turntable. The climatic cabinet (1) can be loaded automatically and manually and has a conventional door (3) and a controllable door (2) as well as a turntable (4) which is connected via a releasable coupling (9) disposed in the interior of the climatic cabinet (1) with a positioning drive (5) and is seated on the floor of the climatic cabinet (1). The controllable door (2) is movably seated on two guide systems (6, 7) perpendicularly and parallel with the loading side (21). The positioning drive (5) is controllable by a higher system or by a user. The turntable (4) has a support shaft (45), tray disks (41) and spacer sleeves as well as spacer tubelets (47, 46) for spacing the tray disks apart, also positioning elements (51) for receiving storage pieces (50). The turntable (41) is suitable for use in a device, for example a climatic cabinet (1), or outside of this device.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a system for closing cylindrical containers, such as Petri dishes, for example, with a cover cap whose cover apron presses against the outer surface of the lateral wall of the container. In particular, the present invention provides a cylindrical container and cover system having a simple and convenient, yet secure, closing and opening mechanism which consists of as few individual parts as possible. The cover cap of the present invention has individual elevations on the inner surface of the cover apron. The elevations press against the outer surface of the container walls to hold it in a non-positive manner. The elevations are made as knobs or elongated struts, and are arranged on opposite circular sections of the cover apron in such a way that at least two opposite sections of at least 130.degree. of the periphery of the cover apron have no elevations. In accord with the invention, a simple mechanism for removing the cover cap from the container is also provided.

Abstract: In order to achieve a mechanically simple, reliable, and independent balancing device for compensation of an unbalance in a rotating body without the need for a supply of a fluid from outside the rotor nor an adjustment of nozzles to insert the fluid, the balancing device features a feed device with a fluid-containing cavity arranged stationary in or on the body of rotation, which has outlet openings emerging into the balancing chambers, which are to be closed and opened by a movable closing body depending upon the occurrence of an unbalance. Specifically, on or in the body of rotation reside at least three balancing chambers uniformly distributed in the peripheral direction, each of which is connected by an inlet opening to a feed device for a fluid with a specific gravity that is greater than that of air, and with a regulator for regulated feeding of fluid from the feed device into the balancing chambers.

Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to attain optimal gas exchange, nutrient supply and disposal of metabolic waste products without contamination during high-density cell cultivation of adherent cells. The culture vessel of the present invention provides methods and apparatus for the cultivation of cells on a three-dimensional carrier in a closed cell culture chamber, the supply with oxygen taking place across a gas-permeable gas exchange membrane bordering the cell culture chamber and the supply with nutrients taking place across a dialysis membrane bordering the cell culture chamber, across which nutrients are transported and across which metabolic products are removed, without the danger of contaminating the cells during contact with the tools necessary for manually separating the cells being cultivated from the nutrient medium. The cell culture chamber of the present invention features a vessel that is impermeable to fluids on all sides except for the boundary formed by the dialysis membrane.

Abstract: A cell culture vessel which permits gentle but vigorous intermixing and suspending of the cell culture during rotation. The culture vessel features a cell mixing and suspending device combined with a gas exchange membrane such that ample gas exchange occurs without the need to feed oxygen to the cells. The cell mixing and suspending device comprises a baffle system having at least one, and preferably more than one, mixing elements integral with the gas exchange membrane. Movement of the culture vessel, such as for example by rolling, shaking or swirling, moves the mixing elements such that the cells which are to be cultivated are gently intermixed and stably suspended within the cell culture chamber. Pressure variations within the cell culture vessel are accommodated by pressure equalizing device. The pressure equalizing device preferably comprises pressure sheathing made of gas permeable material positioned to form at least a portion of the outer wall of the supply chamber.

Abstract: A safety work bench with a work opening, whose lower boundary is formed by a boundary plate in which ventilation openings are arranged for the generation of a vertical air current, has at least one arm rest installed in the lower area of the work opening. In order to create a safety work bench in which the arm rests are easy to decontaminate, and in order not to significantly diminish the effective cross section of the ventilation openings, the arm rests are constructed as a separate structural member and are detachably mounted on the boundary plate at a distance from it.

Abstract: In order to determine an imbalance of a rotor caused to turn by means of a driving arrangement, imbalance-produced deflections or accelerations of the driving arrangement, spring-loaded with respect to a stationary housing, are determined and relayed as an electrical signal to an evaluation device. The sensor may be, for example, a piezoelectric crystal for detection of accelerations of the drive unit caused by imbalance or a path sensor for detection of deflections of the drive unit relative to the housing as a result of imbalance. The signal is evaluated as a function of the rotary speed of the rotor by means of an adaptive band filter. The method is especially suitable for determination of imbalance during operation of laboratory centrifuges, where an imbalance can occur, for example, from breakage of test tubes.

Abstract: Culture vessels for cell cultures having at least one cell culture chamber containing a cell culture mixture that is separated by a dialysis membrane from a nutrient medium in a nutrient supply chamber. Nutrients are transported through the dialysis membrane into the cell culture chamber and metabolic products are transported out of the cell culture chamber into the nutrient supply chamber. A gas exchange membrane that at least partly delimits the cell culture chamber and that is impermeable to liquids and to microorganisms that could contaminate the cell cultures is provided for feeding the gases required for cell culturing to the culture chamber and for discharging the gases generated during cell culturing. The cell culture chamber can advantageously be configured as a stand-alone module supporting both the dialysis membrane and the gas exchange membrane.

Abstract: A ventilation bag for a manually operable ventilation device for the artificial ventilation of humans. The bag is made of an elastic, gastight material in the form of an elongated hollow body, with an essentially circular cross section perpendicular to its longitudinal axis with gripping surfaces for differentiated reduction of the volume of the hollow body along its length and having an air inlet opening at one end and an air outlet opening at the other end. To be able to administer different ventilation volumes with relatively greater accuracy and to reduce fatigue to a minimum, the gripping surfaces are arranged, essentially concentrically about the longitudinal axis and one behind the other in the direction of the longitudinal axis, at at least one end of the hollow body, the diameter of the hollow body decreasing toward that at least one end having the gripping surfaces.

Abstract: In a surgery lamp with at least one arm which is divided by several uniaxial joints consisting of several parts, a lamp head being fastened to its one end, and its other end is held stationary, the arm has a spring counterbalance for counterbalancing the lamp head when it is moved; the locking of the joints is electrically variable, and the release for adjustment followed by locking is performed through a switch. The joints are constructed with a sealed channel disposed in one joint member concentrically with the joint axis filled with an electroviscous fluid into which projections of the other joint member reach. The annular channel and the members form a pair of poles for the application of a voltage to the electroviscous fluid, whereby the joint members can be rendered relatively immovable.

Abstract: An immersible lamp for use in a photochemical reactor has an outer bulb (10) surrounding an inner discharge tube (1) which can be cooled by a flow of inert gas such as nitrogen from a supply chamber (23) though hollow guide rods (6, 7) into a remote end (27) of the outer bulb, and back out through an outlet hole (18) and an exhaust chamber (24). In order to facilitate swapping out of the discharge tube (1) in the event of burnout or changes in output power or output spectrum requirements, without the need for welding or glassblowing expertise, the discharge tube (1) is mounted in a pair of sockets (4,5), one of which (4) is axially slidable. The socket is spring-loaded (8), and thus readily adapts to discharge tubes of differing lengths. The socket slides along guide rods (6, 7, 16) which also serve as electrical supply conductors to the sockets (4, 5). Spacer elements (11) help maintain alignment of the guide rods, sockets, and discharge tube with respect to the axis (12) of the outer bulb (10).

Abstract: An electrodeless low pressure discharge lamp, preferably filled with deuterium gas, is provided with a cylindrical envelope made from quartz glass and surrounded by a cylindrical excitation coil driven at between 10 and 800 MHz. Within the lamp envelope, there is provided a cylindrical aperture member made from boron nitride which in a radial direction extends to the inner surface of the envelope and which is provided with an uninterrupted coaxial channel for confining to a small diameter the plasma discharge arc generated during operation of the lamp, the aperture member having an optical axis extending through coaxially with its channel, the radiation emitting in a directed pattern along the optical axis.