Patent Grant
9140482
The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods for refrigeration and storage of a plurality of products such as samples of bodily fluids, and more specifically, to storage baskets used to hold the plurality of products and their method of use within a refrigeration device.
Cold storage units such as freezers are used for various purposes, including the storage of biological samples over short and long periods of time. For example, biological materials for transplantation such as blood, tissue, or plasma may require storage for short periods of time before use. In another example, biological cells such as DNA samples may be stored for longer periods of time. Conventional cold storage units may be cooled by mechanical refrigeration circuits or by other methods, including the provision of liquid nitrogen (“LN2”). One type of cold storage unit used to store biological samples is known as an “ultra-low temperature freezer” (“ULT”), which is used to cool its inner storage chamber to relatively low temperatures such as about −80° C. or lower, for example.
In order to avoid degradation of the biological materials or DNA samples, it is desirable to rapidly lower the temperature of these items after initial placement in the freezer. As a result, some conventional freezers and ULTs include a cabinet configured to receive a high speed cooling air flow driven through an evaporator of a refrigeration circuit or another known cooling heat exchanger. This high speed cooling air flow must quickly flow throughout the entire cabinet in order to effectively provide cooling energy at all positions in the cabinet. Thus, any supporting shelves located within the cabinet are typically formed with flow apertures or manufactured from a grid-like structure defining flow apertures to enable the cooling air flow to move through the supporting shelves. Moreover, conventional freezers may include an outer door and a plurality of inner doors that may be opened after the outer door to provide limited access to just one of the supporting shelves. The use of outer and inner doors also assists with the rapid cooling of the biological materials or DNA samples after a door opening because the amount of cold air lost through the door opening is limited by the smaller size of the door being opened.
In these conventional freezers and ULTs, it is typical for operators to individually place blood bags or other similar items directly onto the supporting shelves in the cabinet. However, this individual placement of blood bags into and out of the freezer reduces the cooling speed and efficiency of the freezer. To this end, an operator may not know the exact location on a supporting shelf where a desired blood bag is stored, so the operator may need to leave the door of the freezer open for extended periods of time, or reopen the doors multiple times to find a single blood bag while multiple bags are checked to find the desired blood bag. Such extended door openings or multiple door openings allow a significant portion of the cold air to leave the freezer, thereby undermining the inclusion of the outer and inner doors.
Furthermore, operators also may affect the cooling efficiency within the cabinet by placing blood bags or similar items directly onto the supporting shelves within the cabinet. For example, operators may position blood bags in relatively close proximity on the supporting shelves to achieve a higher storage density of blood bags. However, the blood bags may then cover a substantial portion or all of the flow apertures formed in the supporting shelves, which inhibits the rapid cooling air flow from movement throughout the cabinet. Consequently, blood bags or other items stored at a bottom of the cabinet (e.g., when the cooling heat exchanger or evaporator is on the top of the cabinet) may not receive rapid cooling energy as quickly as desired. When only one or a limited number of freezers are available to operators, this overloading of the supporting shelves to achieve a higher storage density proves to be difficult to avoid, even though such overloading reduces the operational cooling efficiency of the freezer.
There is a need, therefore, for a storage basket and methods that further simplify the retrieval and storage process for a plurality of storage bags or other products inside a freezer, thereby reducing the time that the freezer has to be opened and increasing the cooling efficiency of the system.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing and other shortcomings and drawbacks of solar mounting systems heretofore known. While the invention will be described in connection with certain embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention includes all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
To this end, the present invention provides a storage basket configured to hold multiple product units such as blood bags inside a freezer. More specifically, the storage basket may be used with a freezer including a cabinet communicating with a cooling air flow and having a plurality of supporting shelves configured to enable the cooling air flow to move within and throughout the cabinet. The storage basket includes first and second spaced-apart sidewalls and a plurality of inclined shelves extending between and operatively coupled to the first and second sidewalls. The inclined shelves support the multiple product units thereon and are oriented at an acute (non-zero) angle relative to the horizontal plane, thereby increasing the storage density available on the supporting shelves. The storage basket also includes at least one handle for permitting manual grasping of the storage basket when an operator moves the storage basket into or from the freezer. The inclined shelves also include a plurality of air flow apertures configured to enable the cooling air flow in the cabinet to move around and through the storage basket and around the multiple product units.
Consequently, the storage basket helps increase the storage density available within the cabinet while improving the cooling efficiency. This improvement in cooling efficiency is enabled by providing apertures for the cooling air flow through the storage basket and the functionality of removing a plurality of multiple product units simultaneously from a freezer. In this regard, operators do not have to individually pick up and review multiple product units, while the freezer door(s) stands open, when the exact location of a product unit to be retrieved from the freezer is not known to the operator.
In one embodiment, the storage basket includes first and second handles positioned proximate to the first and second sidewalls. To this end, the first and second handles extend upwardly from the respective first and second sidewalls and also extend inwardly from the respective first and second sidewalls so as to overlie at least one of the plurality of inclined shelves. Accordingly, the first and second sidewalls of the storage basket may be positioned in close or abutting relation with the sidewalls of the cabinet or with adjacent storage baskets, if multiple storage baskets are used on each supporting shelf of the freezer. To this end, the handles are provided in a convenient place for access by an operator, while not limiting the storage density achieved by use of the storage basket in the freezer.
Each of the plurality of inclined shelves on the storage basket may further include an inclined shelf surface having front and rear edges, a front wall extending upwardly from adjacent the front edge, and a rear wall extending downwardly from adjacent the rear edge. The inclined shelf surface is configured to support the multiple product units thereon, and the front wall is positioned to prevent the multiple product units from sliding off the inclined shelf surface. The front and rear walls of the plurality of inclined shelves may also include positioning tabs projecting outwardly so as to be inserted into positioning slots in the first and second sidewalls of the storage basket. When the sidewalls and the plurality of inclined shelves are formed by punching sheets of metal material, the positioning tabs may be fastened (such as by spot welding) into position at the positioning slots of the first and second sidewalls to thereby permanently fix the plurality of inclined shelves with the first and second sidewalls. Additionally, the plurality of inclined shelves may include first and second inclined shelves, where the rear wall of the first inclined shelf is in abutting contact with the front wall of the second inclined shelf. In a further aspect, the rear wall of the first inclined shelf may ride over the front wall of the second inclined shelf so as to be located rearward of that front wall of the second inclined shelf. Consequently, the plurality of shelves can effectively hook or latch onto each other with the adjacent front and rear walls, thereby adding to the structural strength and rigidity of the storage basket.
In another aspect, the plurality of air flow apertures includes a first plurality of air flow apertures and a second plurality of air flow apertures defining a shape or size that is different than the shape or size of the first plurality of air flow apertures. The different shape or size of the first plurality of flow apertures provides an indication of receptacle locations that are configured to receive an individual unit of the multiple product units. In other words, an operator should be able to readily identify where to position blood bags or other product units based on the different shape or size of the first plurality of air flow apertures. Advantageously, each of these receptacle locations may be separated from other receptacle locations by one or more of the second plurality of air flow apertures, as this positioning of apertures ensures that the cooling air flow in the cabinet passes between each of the multiple product units positioned on the storage basket.
In the embodiments where bags containing fluid samples are stored in the freezer using the storage basket, the first plurality of air flow apertures are shaped to receive a projecting or bulging portion of the bags when the bags are laid into position on the inclined shelves. When fluid inside the bags freezes, the projecting portion in the shape of the first plurality of air flow apertures becomes visible on the bags when an operator flips the bags over. This frozen projecting portion provides a ready visual confirmation that the fluid inside the bags is frozen.
The storage basket may be resized to fit the preferences of the end operator of the freezer. More specifically, in one embodiment, a storage basket may be sized to completely fill one of the supporting shelves in the cabinet. To this end, the plurality of inclined shelves may be dimensioned with a width substantially equal to a total cabinet width defined by the supporting shelves in the cabinet of the freezer. In an alternative embodiment, more than one storage basket may be configured to be placed side-by-side to fill the supporting shelves in the cabinet. In these embodiments, the plurality of inclined shelves is dimensioned with a width smaller than the total cabinet width. For example, the first embodiment described above of the storage basket may hold up to 12 bags of fluid samples, while the alternative embodiment of the storage baskets may hold up to 6 bags of fluid samples apiece. Again, the particular size of storage baskets and grouping of multiple product units on the storage baskets may be suited in other embodiments for different preferences of the end operator.
As noted above, each of the plurality of inclined shelves may include first and second inclined shelves that each includes an inclined shelf surface with front and rear edges and a front wall. Instead of providing a rear wall on the first inclined shelf and hooking that rear wall into engagement with the front wall of the second inclined shelf (which positions the first inclined shelf entirely in front of the second inclined shelf), the first and second inclined shelves may be at least partially nested to increase the length of storage space available on each of the inclined shelf surfaces. To this end, the front edge and front wall of the second inclined shelf would be positioned underneath the inclined shelf surface of the first inclined shelf and also forward from the rear edge of the first inclined shelf. That positioning enables a portion of the multiple product units stored on the second inclined shelf to be located directly underneath at least a portion of the multiple product units stored on the first inclined shelf. The particular angling and amount of nesting of the inclined shelves may be further modified according to the needs of the end operator of the freezer and storage basket.
In another embodiment, a storage basket may be used with a freezer including a cabinet communicating with a cooling air flow and having a plurality of supporting shelves configured to enable the cooling air flow to move within and throughout the cabinet. The storage basket includes first and second spaced-apart sidewalls and a plurality of inclined shelves extending between and operatively coupled to the first and second sidewalls. The inclined shelves support the multiple product units thereon and are oriented at an acute (non-zero) angle relative to the horizontal plane, thereby increasing the storage density available on the supporting shelves. The inclined shelves also include a plurality of air flow apertures configured to enable the cooling air flow in the cabinet to move around and through the storage basket and around the multiple product units. The plurality of air flow apertures includes a first plurality of air flow apertures and a second plurality of air flow apertures defining a shape or size that is different than the shape or size of the first plurality of air flow apertures. The different shape or size of the first plurality of flow apertures provides an indication of receptacle locations that are configured to receive an individual unit of the multiple product units. In other words, an operator should be able to readily identify where to position blood bags or other product units based on the different shape or size of the first plurality of air flow apertures. Advantageously, each of these receptacle locations may be separated from other receptacle locations by one or more of the second plurality of air flow apertures, as this positioning of apertures ensures that the cooling air flow in the cabinet passes between each of the multiple product units positioned on the storage basket.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of storing multiple product units inside a freezer is provided. As described above, the freezer includes a cabinet communicating with a cooling air flow and has a plurality of supporting shelves configured to enable the cooling air flow to move within the cabinet. The method includes positioning multiple product units onto a plurality of inclined shelves of a storage basket and moving the storage basket using first and second handles into the cabinet of the freezer. The storage basket is placed onto one of the plurality of supporting shelves such that all of the multiple product units are simultaneously inserted into the freezer. The plurality of inclined shelves of the storage basket is oriented at an acute angle relative to a horizontal plane and this increases the storage density available on the supporting shelf. A door of the cabinet is then closed after the storage basket is placed in the cabinet, thereby enabling the cooling air flow to rapidly cool the multiple product units by flowing through the supporting shelves and the plurality of inclined shelves. Accordingly, more product units may be simultaneously inserted and/or removed from the freezer and rapid and efficient cooling of the cabinet is achieved.
When a preselected one of the multiple product units stored on the storage basket is to be retrieved from the freezer, the method also includes opening the door of the cabinet and moving the storage basket using the first and second handles out of the cabinet. The door of the cabinet may then be re-closed so that the cooling air flow continues to chill the cabinet while the preselected one of the multiple product units is identified and removed from the storage basket. The multiple product units may include bags containing fluid samples, and these bags are positioned onto a first plurality of air flow apertures such that top and bottom sides of the bags are exposed to the cooling air flow. In addition, a projecting portion of the bag that seats into the first air flow apertures will remain visible if the fluid inside the bag is frozen when the bags are flipped over following removal of the storage basket from the freezer. This visual indication may be provided quickly by just flipping over the bags on the storage basket. It will be understood that the storage basket also includes a second plurality of air flow apertures that are left uncovered by the multiple product units so as to enable the cooling air flow to freely flow through the storage basket and around the multiple product units.
The method may also include assembling the storage basket from first and second sidewalls and the plurality of inclined shelves. This assembly includes aligning positioning tabs projecting from front and rear walls of the plurality of inclined shelves with positioning slots formed in the first and second sidewalls. The positioning tabs may then be inserted through the positioning slots. The assembly also includes fixing the positioning tabs to the first and second sidewalls at the positioning slots to couple the plurality of inclined shelves into position so as to extend between the first and second sidewalls. The assembly is then ready for use as the storage basket.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent during the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings herein.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the invention.
With particular reference to
The freezer 12 shown in these Figures may include a blood blast freezer 12 in the form of an ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer 12 that is capable of cooling the cabinet 18 to temperatures of −80° C., or lower. This freezer 12 is commercially available, for example, from Thermo Fisher Scientific, of Asheville, N.C., as the products entitled Revco® UxF Series Freezers and Revco® ExF Upright Freezers. As shown in
As mentioned above, the cabinet 18 includes a plurality of supporting shelves 16 that subdivide a storage space within the cabinet 18 into multiple storage compartments. In the illustrated example, there are three supporting shelves 16 for three storage compartments. Each of the storage compartments may be closed individually along the front opening 32 by an inner door 40. Although only the bottom two inner doors 40 are illustrated in
Each of the supporting shelves 16 in this embodiment is formed as a stationary perforated shelf formed from stainless steel or a similar structural material. To this end, the supporting shelf 16 that is visible in
With reference to
In addition to the handles 22, 24, the sidewalls 52, 54, and the inclined shelves 56, 58, the storage basket 10 also includes a plurality of air flow apertures 60a, 60b shown in this embodiment as a first plurality of air flow apertures 60a and a second plurality of air flow apertures 60b. The first plurality of air flow apertures 60a define receptacles configured to receive and support blood bags 14 on the storage basket 10, while the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b provide openings and flow paths for the cooling air flow in the freezer 12 to move freely around the blood bags 14 and through the storage basket 10 to other portions of the cabinet 18. In this regard, the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a indicate where blood bags 14 should be positioned on the storage basket 10. It will be understood that the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a also provides openings and flow paths for the cooling air flow in positions where blood bags 14 are not located during a partial loading of the storage basket 10 with fewer than the maximum capacity, such as the seven blood bags 14 shown in
The first plurality of air flow apertures 60a defines a different shape and size than the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b so as to encourage proper loading of the blood bags 14 onto the intended receptacles of the storage basket 10. For example, the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a defines openings with an elongate oval-shape or a rectangular-shape with rounded corners. These elongate shapes are immediately identified as distinctive from the smaller, generally square-shaped (with rounded corners) openings defined by the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b. As a result, the storage basket 10 will likely not be overloaded by an operator and the air flow through the storage basket 10 and through the cabinet 18 will be maintained at desirable levels. Of course, the first and second pluralities of air flow apertures 60a, 60b may be reshaped and resized from the profiles shown in
In the exemplary embodiment shown in these Figures, the elongate shape of the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a enables multiple advantages as evidenced more clearly from the cross-sectional view taken through one of the blood bags 14 on the first inclined shelf 56 in
Another advantage of the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a does not become evident until the blood bag 14 has been cooled so that the fluid F inside the blood bag 14 is frozen. Once this solidification by freezing occurs, the projecting portion 66 of the blood bag 14 will remain visible or frozen in position even when the blood bag 14 is removed from the storage basket 10. Accordingly, as shown in
In addition, another advantage of providing the first and second pluralities of air flow apertures 60a, 60b is that the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b may be used to separate the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a and receptacle locations from one another. In this regard, the cooling air flow AF is ensured between each pair of product units 14 that is stored on the storage basket 10. As a result, cooling air flow AF passes around all sides of each product unit 14 while flowing throughout the entirety of the cabinet 18. In other non-illustrated embodiments, multiple rows of the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b or more may be positioned between adjacent ones of the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a.
The loaded storage basket 10 is also cross-sectioned in a perpendicular direction from the view shown in
In the exemplary embodiment shown in these Figures (and specifically in
Turning to
To assist with the assembly and proper alignment of the elements exploded apart in
The positioning tabs 82 are shaped and sized to fit into corresponding positioning slots 88, which are located in the first and second sidewalls 52, 54. To this end, the positioning slots 88 are also shaped in the exemplary embodiment as rectangular slots configured to closely receive the corresponding positioning tabs 82 on the first and second inclined shelves 56, 58. More particularly, one positioning slot 88 is located at a front end 90 of each of the first and second sidewalls 52, 54 to receive the positioning tabs 82 projecting from the front wall 76 of the first inclined shelf 56. Another positioning slot 88 is located at a rear end 92 of each of the first and second sidewalls 52, 54 to receive the positioning tabs 82 projecting from the rear wall 78 of the second inclined shelf 58. Two more partially co-extensive positioning slots 88 are located in the middle of the first and second sidewalls 52, 54 and are configured to receive the positioning tabs 82 projecting from the rear wall 78 of the first inclined shelf 56 and the adjacent front wall 76 of the second inclined shelf 58. As shown in
Accordingly, the storage basket 10 is assembled as follows. The first and second sidewalls 52, 54 (including the handles 22, 24) and the first and second inclined shelves 56, 58 are manufactured, such as by the molding or punching and bending processes described above, and then positioned relative to one another generally as shown in
To this end, the positioning tabs 82 on the first and second lateral side edges 84, 86 are aligned with the positioning slots 88 located in each of the first and second sidewalls 52, 54. As the sidewalls 52, 54 are operatively coupled to the first and second inclined shelves 56, 58, the positioning tabs 82 are inserted through the positioning slots 88. In this regard, the first and second inclined shelves 56, 58 are accurately positioned and maintained in the correct position by the insertion of the positioning tabs 82 into the positioning slots 88. The positioning tabs 82 are then fixed to the first and second sidewalls 52, 54 at the positioning slots 88 to fix the first and second inclined shelves 56, 58 in position extending between the first and second sidewalls 52, 54. This fixing of the positioning tabs 82 may be conducted by any known method for fixing elements together, including welding, adhesive bonding, etc. Once the positioning tabs 82 are fixed in position in the positioning slots 88, the assembly of the primary components of the storage basket 10 is completed. Consequently, the manufacturing and assembly of the storage baskets 10 is straightforward and cost-efficient.
One additional assembly step may also be required, especially when the storage basket 10 is formed from a metallic material. Although operators of the freezer 12 typically wear protective gloves when handling items from the freezer 12, a handle cover 94 such as a rubberized grip handle cover 94 may be applied to each of the first and second handles 22, 24 to further isolate the operator from the cold storage basket 10. Moreover, the rubberized grip handle cover 94 improves the ability of an operator to reliably and quickly retrieve and place the storage basket 10 into and out of the cabinet 18 of the freezer 12. In embodiments with such handle covers 94, the assembly is completed by pushing those handle covers 94 onto the first and second handles 22, 24 so as to surround those handles 22, 24. It will be appreciated that the handle covers 94 may be formed from various different materials and in different lengths and shapes without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The final assembled version of the storage basket 10 according to this embodiment is shown in various views in
As shown in
Another feature of the finalized storage basket 10 is the ability to fill substantially an entire supporting shelf 16 within the freezer 12 while maintaining substantial cooling air flow AF throughout the cabinet 18. As shown in
Moreover, the cooling air flow AF is maintained throughout the freezer 12 as is evident from the views of the storage basket 10 shown in
As briefly discussed above, the partially coextensive positioning slots 88 in the center of each sidewall 52, 54 are located at slightly different elevations as a result of the rear wall 78 of the first inclined shelf 56 riding over and sitting on top of the second inclined shelf 58 adjacent to the front wall 76 thereof. In this regard, the positioning tabs 82 of the rear wall 78 of the first inclined shelf 56 and of the front wall 76 of the second inclined shelf 58 are located at slightly different elevations when the storage basket is assembled 10. These slightly different elevations of the positioning tabs 82 and the corresponding positioning slots 88 are shown most clearly in
One example of such an alternative design is shown in
As will be readily understood from this alternative embodiment of the storage basket 110, each of the storage baskets 110 now includes six receptacles for product units 14 defined by the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a. The second plurality of air flow apertures 60b may be resized, if necessary, to fit in rows of the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b between each pair of the first air flow apertures 60a and next to the first and second sidewalls 52, 54. It will be appreciated that the basket width BW′ of the storage baskets 110 may be resized to any desirable width (e.g., to provide 3 storage baskets 110 per shelf, in one example) so long as the cooling air flow AF is still enabled throughout the cabinet 18 and so long as multiple receptacles are provided in each storage basket 110 to remove and insert multiple product units 14 at once. Consequently, the benefits of quick cooling and easy retrieval and replacement of product units 14 within a freezer 12 are maintained in this alternative design of the storage basket 110.
Another alternative embodiment of the storage basket 210 is shown in
In this regard, the rear wall 278 of the first inclined shelf 256 is mostly removed except at the lateral side edges 84, 86 where positioning tabs 282 are located. The modified positioning tabs along this rear wall 278 are inserted into positioning slots (not shown) which are also moved to a different location on the first and second sidewalls 52, 54. This mostly-open rear wall 278 thereby opens access for product units 14 to be positioned between the rear edge 74 of the inclined shelf surface 270 of the first inclined shelf 256 and the inclined shelf surface 270 of the second inclined shelf 258. The inclined shelf surface 270 of the second inclined shelf 258 therefore tucks at least partially underneath the inclined shelf surface 270 of the first inclined shelf 256, thereby providing “nesting” of the first and second inclined shelves 256, 258.
The front wall 276 of the second inclined shelf 258 is located underneath the inclined shelf surface 270 of the first inclined shelf 256. In addition, this front wall 276 is located forward from the rear edge 74 of the inclined shelf surface 270 of the first inclined shelf 256. Unlike the rear wall 278 of the first inclined shelf 256, the front wall 276 of the second inclined shelf 258 remains largely the same as the front wall 76 of the first inclined shelf 256 so that this front wall 276 continues to block sliding movement of product units 14 off of the second inclined shelf 258. The front wall 276 of the second inclined shelf 258 includes some of the second plurality of air flow apertures 60b as well. Optionally, the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a may be divided into pairs for each product unit 14 such that the rigid edge of the front wall 276 of the second inclined shelf 258 is blocked from direct engagement with the product units 14. This division of the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a is shown in
As a result of these modifications to the storage basket 210, product units 14 or blood bags 14 having a longer length may be positioned on the receptacles defined by the storage basket 210. Consequently, storage density of longer product units 14 on the supporting shelves 16 of the freezer 12 is further enhanced in this embodiment. It will be understood that the positioning and nesting of the first and second inclined shelves 256, 258 may be further modified to fit the needs of a particular operator, such as for use with different uniquely-sized product units 14 in different fields. However, each of these alternatives would still enable rapid cooling air flow AF movement throughout a cabinet 18 while increasing the storage density in a freezer 12 and enabling quicker retrieval and replacement of product in the freezer 12. Therefore, the storage basket 210 of this embodiment provides similar advantages as the previously-described embodiments.
In each of these embodiments of the storage basket 10, 110, 210, an operator is able to position multiple product units 14 on the plurality of inclined shelves 56, 58 at the sites denoted as storage receptacles by the first plurality of air flow apertures 60a. The operator then moves the storage basket 10, 110, 210 using the handles 22, 24 into the cabinet 18 of the freezer 12 as a unit, this simultaneous insertion of product units 14 reducing the time that a door(s) 40, 42 of the freezer 12 is opened. Once the operator closes the door(s) 40, 42, the cooling air flow AF generated within the cabinet 18 is able to flow freely through the storage baskets 10, 110, 210 and the supporting shelves 16 to thereby rapidly cool the product units 14 back to a frozen or ultra-low temperature, depending on the particular needs of the operator. Furthermore, the retrieval of a product unit 14 is also simplified by enabling the operator to retrieve an entire storage basket 10, 110, 210 at once rather than search for a particular bag while waiting with the door(s) 40, 42 of the freezer 12 opened. Accordingly, the use of the storage baskets 10, 110, 210 described in connection with the present invention improves the cooling efficiency of known freezers 12 used to store bodily fluids and other types of product units 14.
While the present invention has been illustrated by the description of exemplary embodiments thereof, and while these embodiments have been described in considerable detail, these are not intended to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. For example, more than two inclined shelves may be provided on each storage basket in other embodiments. The present invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and method and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be from such details without departing from the scope or spirit of the general inventive concept.
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