I’m posting to see if anyone could help me think through a possible redesign of the Vial Cap S. I work with anaerobic cultures in batch fermentation, and one of the recurring problems I have is oxygen getting into the vials.
I’ve been considering using the type of setup discussed by the colleagues at Learke. One possible approach would be to add a larger septum to the Vial Cap S, so that it could accommodate the silicone plugs they use (see attached picture). I think this could be particularly useful for working under pressure, as I’ve had my vials reach around 3 bar.
However, in practice I usually work with Luer-type airlocks/check valves, which are available at different pressure ratings and are quite inexpensive.
Because of this, I was wondering whether a simpler redesign might be enough: seal the existing holes for theports, keep the self-healing plug for the pressure sensor and other needles such as the Luer-lock pressure valve, inoculation, sampling, etc.
I’d be very interested to hear how others would approach the redesign (my skills in CAD are rather limited).
We are exploring some alternative approaches here too. Our primary motivation is an airtight lid, with at least two IO ports, for an upcoming aeration system. One idea we are testing now is polypropylene compression fittings for the stainless steel tubes.
This sounds great, very excited to see where this goes. Kegland is about to release a very interesting spunding valve that can control both gas influx and outflux. It’s connected to the RAPT ecosystem, which it’s an open source software. Here the link in case is useful!
…btw is there any link I could find the Cap-S in an editing format for Fusion? (I’ve tried with Printable but it doesn’t let me download it in the right format).
The silicone seal is 2mm thick, so doesn’t deform too much when you push the stainless steel ports through. So far it does appear to be airtight at low pressures, but needs more testing.
