Abstract: The present invention provides a biosensor comprising means (5) for accommodating a fluid sample having a sensor surface at its bottom and means for detecting particles accumulated at and/or proximate the sensor surface. The biosensor further comprises a quadrupole magnetic unit (1, 2, 3, 4) adapted to provide a magnetic field gradient at the sensor surface, wherein the unit is arranged below the sensor surface.

Abstract: An instrument for use with fluid which includes a mixing element, and a container to hold the fluid to be mixed, characterised in that the mixing element includes a sensor that assists to measure a parameter of fluid.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to mixers for viscometers and methods of using the same. Such inventions are applicable, for example, to industrial processes such as printing. One embodiment of the invention is directed to a viscosity control system including a viscosity sensor, a mixing element, a shaft fixedly attached to the mixing element, and an actuator interfacing with the viscosity sensor and the shaft. The annular mixing element is oscillatable about an axis lying in a plane tangent to a point on a wall of the mixing element. The shaft is centered about the axis. The actuator receives a signal from the viscosity sensor and rotates the shaft and the mixing element in an oscillating manner about the axis. In some embodiments, the shaft rotates through an angle of less than 360 degrees.

Abstract: Electrical current driven through one or the other of two coils (20 and 22) draws a ferromagnetic bob (28) along a chamber (26) containing a liquid whose viscosity is to be measured. The current that flows through the coil includes an AC component, and the resultant magnetic field causes in the other coil an AC voltage whose magnitude depends on the bob's position. A position detector (38, 40) monitors the electromotive force thus induced and concludes that the ferromagnetic bob has reached a predetermined end-of-travel position when the magnitude of the electromotive force has fallen to a predetermined fraction the maximum value that it had attained during the stroke, and a coil driver (36, 38) switches current drive from one coil to the other so as to begin driving the bob in the opposite direction. If the position detector fails to detect the bob's reaching the end-of-travel position within a predetermined timeout interval, the coil driver reverses coil drive despite the absence of such detection.

Abstract: A viscosity sensor operates by measuring the time taken for a piston to fall within the measuring chamber of a calibrated tube immersed in a bath, and an apparatus comprising the sensor is used for the continuous control of a quenching bath. A cam or an equivalent mechanism is used to lift a mobile assembly having a sensor in its upper part and a piston in its lower part. The sensor detects the passage of a pair of shoulders and passes the data on to a regulator for further processing.