Davis Rig Gustometer

Founded in 1991, DiLog Instruments pioneered the way in making a reliable and cost-effective apparatus for taste research studies. This device, known as the Davis Rig, has been used in by researchers all over the world.

We have acquired the Davis Rig product line from DiLog Instruments, and are very excited to carry on its legacy at Med Associates. We look forward to serving your needs in the field of taste research! This transition brings the customer service, breadth of animal behavior expertise, resources, and manufacturing efficiency that comes with being a Med Associates product to the familiar Davis Rig hardware.

In adopting the design to fit into our manufacturing standards and practices, many aesthetic changes took place from the DiLog Instruments version (photo above). However, maintaining as much of the original user experience as possible was paramount in our re-engineering process, and the end result accomplishes that goal. In the course of our development, two notable changes occurred in the shutter and sipper bottle assemblies.

The original shutter mechanism was motor-driven, and would occasionally shut (with force) down on the snout of the rodent test subject. This created the possibility of the animal forming an aversion to normal sipping behavior, negatively impacting the research data. In our adoption we replaced this motor with a solenoid, which presses down on the lever to open the shutter, and is returned to the “closed” position by retracting the solenoid, allowing the shutter to shut by gravity only.