CN111575171A

CN111575171A - PCR workstation

Info

Publication number: CN111575171A
Application number: CN202010630144.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐建刚; 朱滨
Original assignee: Shanghai Hongtan Biotechnology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Hongtan Biotechnology Co ltd
Priority date: 2020-07-03
Filing date: 2020-07-03
Publication date: 2020-08-25

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of gene detection equipment, and discloses a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) system, which comprises: a cabinet; the PCR instruments are arranged in the cabinet; the feeding port is formed in the surface of the cabinet and used for placing materials; the material carrying assembly is arranged in the cabinet and is used for carrying materials placed from the material inlet to the multiple PCR instruments or moving the materials out of the multiple PCR instruments; and the control unit is in communication connection with the multiple PCR instruments and the material handling assembly. According to the PCR workstation provided by the invention, multiple groups of PCR experiments are integrated in the cabinet for parallel processing, and through automatic material feeding/discharging and detection, on one hand, the automation degree of the PCR experiments can be improved, the detection efficiency is improved, and on the other hand, the processing efficiency of nucleic acid product aerosol is improved by carrying out centralized processing on nucleic acid product aerosol of multiple PCR instruments.

Description

PCR workstation

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of gene detection equipment, in particular to a PCR workstation.

Background

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), is a molecular biology technique for amplifying specific DNA fragments, and is used for amplifying specific DNA fragments. PCR can be regarded as special DNA replication in vitro, and the biggest characteristic is that a trace amount of DNA can be greatly increased.

A plurality of PCR instruments are usually purchased in the existing PCR laboratory, and an operator manually puts the prepared materials into each PCR instrument, records data after running a PCR program and takes out the materials. The operation mode needs to depend on operators to comprehensively schedule the operation of each PCR instrument, and complete the material transportation and data recording work, so that the automation degree is low. Once the traffic is increased, the personnel are not equipped sufficiently or the personnel skills are not sufficient, so that the detection capability is limited by the personnel condition of the detection team, and the detection efficiency is influenced.

In addition, since an aerosol of a nucleic acid product is generated in a PCR experiment, it is necessary to quickly treat the aerosol after the aerosol is generated in order to prevent contamination caused by diffusion of the aerosol containing the nucleic acid product, and the aerosol generated by a plurality of dispersedly placed PCR instruments is difficult to be effectively treated, which easily causes contamination of the aerosol of the nucleic acid.

How to consider the detection efficiency of a plurality of PCR instruments and the processing efficiency of nucleic acid product aerosol is a technical problem to be solved urgently in the field.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a PCR workstation capable of performing experiments using a plurality of PCR instruments, maintaining high operation efficiency, and effectively processing nucleic acid product aerosols, and particularly to provide a PCR workstation that can solve the above problems.

Specifically, the present invention provides a PCR workstation comprising:

a cabinet;

the PCR instruments are arranged in the cabinet;

the feeding port is formed in the surface of the cabinet and used for placing materials;

the material carrying assembly is arranged in the cabinet and is used for carrying materials placed from the material inlet to the multiple PCR instruments or moving the materials out of the multiple PCR instruments;

and the control unit is in communication connection with the multiple PCR instruments and the material handling assembly.

Compared with the prior art, the PCR workstation provided by the invention integrates multiple groups of PCR experiments into the cabinet for parallel processing, and can improve the automation degree of the PCR experiments and the detection efficiency through automatic material feeding/discharging and detection, and can also improve the processing efficiency of nucleic acid product aerosols by carrying out centralized processing on the nucleic acid product aerosols of multiple PCR instruments.

Through the action of the control unit control material handling subassembly, the material handling subassembly shifts out material handling to in the inside many PCRs of rack or from many PCRs appearance, need not artifical transport material and transport the material to PCR appearance inside, reduces the inside and outside gas circulation of rack, also reduces the contact of experimenter and rack inside, further increases the security of PCR experiment. The material is put into through the intensive pan feeding mouth, can also reduce experimenter's the operation degree of difficulty, further reduces PCR experiment to personnel's technical requirement, improves the operating efficiency.

Preferably, the PCR instrument includes:

a housing;

the material carrier can move out of or enter the shell in a reciprocating manner and is used for feeding the material; and

the carrier driving part is in transmission connection with the material carrier and is in communication connection with the control unit, and the carrier driving part can drive the material carrier to move out of or enter the shell under the control of the control unit.

According to the preferred scheme, the carrier driving piece, the material carrier and the material carrying assembly are matched, the material is carried to the material carrier before the experiment starts and when the material carrier moves out of the shell, and the material is carried away from the material carrier after the experiment is finished and when the material carrier moves out of the shell, so that the automatic feeding and discharging of the material are realized, and the manual participation is reduced.

Further, as preferred, the PCR workstation still includes high-efficient filter unit, has seted up the air outlet at the top of rack, and high-efficient filter unit fills in air outlet department.

According to this preferred scheme, through setting up high efficiency filter unit, the inside air that has harmful substance such as aerosol of rack reaches the air outlet and discharges after high efficiency filter unit filtration purification, and harmful substance is by the high efficiency filter unit filtering to make the gas of discharging to the rack outside clean, made things convenient for to carry out the PCR experiment under the condition of no special PCR laboratory.

Preferably, the PCR workstation further includes a blower disposed inside the cabinet, and the blower is configured to form a one-way air path that passes through the plurality of PCR instruments and travels toward the air outlet. The fan is communicatively coupled to the control unit to responsively turn on prior to removal of the material carrier from the housing.

According to this preferred scheme, utilize the fan can promote the inside circulation of air of rack to adjust the route of circulation of air, make the air current remove many PCR appearance with harmful substance such as the aerosol that produces in the experiment and take away from PCR appearance and reach air outlet department, improve high-efficient filter unit and to the inside filtration of rack. And, through configuring the fan to the removal of responding to the material carrier, open in advance, can be so that, when the material carrier was removed and is gone out the operation of getting on/off the same sample at every turn, all be in the middle of the air current to sweep material and material carrier surperficial nucleic acid product aerosol clean, keep the cleanness of material carrier, avoid the interference to the experimental result.

Preferably, the material handling assembly comprises a three-axis linkage mechanism and a handling carrier with a plurality of material moving suction cups, the handling carrier can be driven by the three-axis linkage mechanism to perform translation in three orthogonal directions, and the plurality of material moving suction cups are adapted to the shape of the container of the material.

According to the preferred scheme, three-dimensional movement of the carrying carrier in space is realized by arranging the three-axis linkage mechanism, so that the material container is adsorbed by the material moving sucker, and the material is transferred.

In addition, preferably, the control unit comprises a task allocation module, and the task allocation module can specify a corresponding PCR instrument for the current material to be processed according to the task progress information of the multiple PCR instruments.

According to the optimal scheme, the adaptive PCR instruments are distributed through the task distribution module, the sequence, the mode and the like of a plurality of groups of PCR experiments can be freely designed, when a new PCR experiment is inserted, long-time waiting is not needed, and the PCR experiment is flexible and efficient.

In addition, as a preference, the PCR workstation further comprises a camera in communication connection with the control unit, and the camera is used for shooting the label arranged on the container of the material so as to obtain the image information of the label. And the control unit sets the operation mode of the PCR instrument for processing the material according to the image information.

According to the preferable scheme, the camera is matched with the label on the container of the material, the camera sends the shot image information of the label to the control unit, and the control unit selects the PCR instrument, the experiment mode, the subsequent report generation and the like in a linkage manner, so that systematization and programming of material feeding/discharging, monitoring and result generation are realized. The label generally contains information such as the category of materials, and after the system identifies the label information, the system can respectively configure suitable operation modes for the label information according to the characteristics of different types of materials, and grasp the operation progress of each PCR instrument according to the pre-stored time length of different operation modes, thereby efficiently and comprehensively planning the parallel work of each PCR instrument.

In addition, as a preferred option, the PCR workstation further comprises a display for displaying one or more of task progress information, prompt information, detection result information and material information of the PCR instrument.

In addition, as is preferred, the PCR workstation further comprises a printer for printing the detection report, and the printer is in communication connection with the control unit.

According to this preferred scheme, can print the detection report in real time through setting up the printer to with aforementioned PCR appearance, material handling subassembly and camera cooperation, the automatic work such as the sign indicating number of sweeping of material, the material loading/unloading of PCR appearance, play report, the intermediate process need not manual operation, and intelligence is convenient.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a PCR workstation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a PCR workstation according to an embodiment of the present invention (the front side of the cabinet is hidden for convenience of showing the internal structure of the cabinet);

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a portion A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial enlarged view of portion B of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a partial enlarged view of portion C of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a portion D of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the control end of the PCR workstation in the embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

1. a cabinet; 11. a feeding port; 12. a universal wheel; 13. a support leg; 14. a high efficiency filtration unit; 15. a fan; 2. a PCR instrument; 21. a housing; 22. a material carrier; 23. a carrier drive; 3. a material handling assembly; 31. carrying the carrier; 32. a material moving sucker; 33. an X-direction movement mechanism; 331. an X-direction chain; 332. an X-direction motor; 34. a Y-direction movement mechanism; 341. a Y-direction track; 342. a Y-direction motor; 35. a Z-direction movement mechanism; 351. a Z-direction track; 36. a material moving slide rail; 37. a material moving sliding block; 38. a material moving driving member; 39. a feeding slide rail; 34. a control unit; 5. a PCR bracket; 6. a camera; 7. a task allocation module; 8. a display; 9. a printer.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The structure of the PCR workstation and the like are schematically shown in a simplified manner in the drawings.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", and the like, indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, are merely for convenience in describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Herein, the term "high efficiency filter unit" refers to a filter unit capable of collecting particulate dust and various suspended substances above 0.3um with a collection efficiency of above 99.9%, such as a high efficiency filter of class H12-H14. It should be noted that the term "high efficiency filtration unit" herein shall include "ultra high efficiency filtration unit", such as ultra high efficiency filtration unit above the U15 grade.

The embodiment of the invention provides a PCR workstation, which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and comprises a cabinet 1 and six PCR instruments 2 (three of which are arranged on the upper layer and three of which are arranged on the lower layer, wherein only one of the instruments is marked by a reference numeral for convenience of illustration) arranged in the cabinet 1, and a material handling assembly 3 (see FIG. 4). A feeding port 11 (see fig. 3) is formed in the surface of the cabinet 1, so that the material can enter the cabinet 1 through the feeding port 11. The material handling component 3 is used for carrying the materials entering the cabinet 1 one by one to a corresponding one of the multiple PCR instruments 2, and can move out the waste materials from the corresponding PCR instrument after the experiment is completed. The PCR workstation further comprises a control unit 4 (see fig. 7), to which the plurality of PCR instruments 2 and the material handling assembly 3 are communicatively connected, thereby controlling the operation of the plurality of PCR instruments 2 and the material handling assembly 3.

Compared with the prior art, the PCR workstation provided by the embodiment integrates multiple groups of PCR experiments into the cabinet 1 for parallel processing, and can improve the automation degree of the PCR experiments and the detection efficiency through automatic material loading/unloading and detection; on the other hand, the nucleic acid product aerosols of a plurality of PCR instruments are treated in a centralized manner, so that the treatment efficiency of the nucleic acid product aerosols is improved. Through the action that sets up control unit 4 control material handling subassembly 3, material handling subassembly 3 need not artifical transport material and transport the material to 1 inside many PCRs of rack in, reduce the inside and outside gas circulation of rack 1, also reduce the contact of experimenter and 1 inside of rack, further increase the security of PCR experiment. The material is put in through the intensive single feeding port 11, so that the operation difficulty of experimenters can be reduced, the technical requirement of PCR experiments on personnel is further reduced, and the operation efficiency is improved.

Through the action that sets up control unit 4 control PCR appearance 2, need not artifical 1 inside start PCR appearance 2 that gets into the rack, PCR experiment is carried out to the material to 2 automation, intellectuality ground of PCR appearance, further reduces the inside and outside gas circulation of rack 1, also reduces the contact of experimenter and 1 inside of rack, increases the security of PCR experiment.

The cabinet 1 in the embodiment is a cuboid, and the bottom area of the cabinet 1 is 0.7-1.2m²The occupied area is small. The universal wheels 12 are arranged at the bottom of the cabinet 1, and the cabinet is convenient to move and carry by using the universal wheels 12, and is convenient and labor-saving. The bottom of the cabinet 1 can be further provided with telescopic support legs 13, and after the cabinet 1 is carried to a designated position, the cabinet 1 is supported by the support legs 13, so that the position of the cabinet 1 is fixed.

As shown in fig. 1 and 3, the material inlet 11 is opened at the side of the cabinet 1, preferably near the bottom, and in some embodiments, the material inlet 11 may also serve as an air inlet of the cabinet 1. An air outlet (not shown) is further disposed at the top of the cabinet 1, and the single inlet 11 and the single air outlet define a one-way path for air to circulate inside the cabinet 1.

Particularly, the cabinet 1 is divided into a front cabinet and a rear cabinet which are spliced, the multiple PCR instruments 2 are arranged in the rear space of the cabinet 1, the material handling assembly 3 is arranged in the front space of the cabinet 1, and the feeding port 11 is formed in the front side wall of the cabinet 1. So set up, 1 internal part of rack is in good order, mutual noninterference, and the front side space of rack 1 provides the activity space of the material on/unloading.

Harmful substances such as aerosol generated in the experimental process flow towards the air outlet along with the circulation of air. If harmful substance such as aerosol discharges to the outside of rack 1 from air outlet department, can cause the pollution to the environment of rack 1 outside. Therefore, referring to fig. 1, the high efficiency filtering unit 14 is filled at the air outlet of the cabinet 1, and the gas flowing to the air outlet and discharged from the air outlet is filtered by the high efficiency filtering unit 14.

Harmful substance such as aerosol that produces in the experimentation is taken away from near PCR appearance 2 by the air current, avoids harmful substance such as aerosol to cause the pollution in rack 1 internal diffusion on the one hand, and on the other hand, the air current reachs the air outlet and discharges after 14 filtration purification of high-efficient filter unit, and harmful substance is by 14 filtering of high-efficient filter unit to make and discharge to rack 1 outside gas clean, made things convenient for and carried out the PCR experiment under the condition of not having special PCR laboratory.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the high efficiency filtration unit 14 may employ a high efficiency filter or an ultra high efficiency filter having a filtration rating of not less than 99.9%. Through research on the existing high-efficiency filtering units 14 of various grades, the high-efficiency filter or the ultra-high-efficiency filter can effectively remove all or most types of harmful substances in PCR experiments, so that an excellent experimental space is provided for the biological experiments, and the biological experiments can be conveniently carried out in the environment without a special PCR biological laboratory.

Also provided within the cabinet 1 is a fan 15, the fan 15 being in communication with the control unit 4 and preferably being responsive to being turned on prior to the material carrier 22 being removed from within the housing 21. After the fan 15 is started, a one-way air path which passes through the plurality of PCR instruments 2 and advances toward the air outlet is formed inside the cabinet 1. Utilize fan 15 can promote the inside circulation of air of rack 1 to adjust the route of circulation of air, make the air current take away from PCR appearance 2 and reach air outlet department with harmful substance such as the aerosol that produces in the experiment through many PCR appearance 2, improve high-efficient filter unit 14 and to the inside filtration of rack 1. Moreover, by configuring the blower 15 to be turned on in advance in response to the removal of the material carrier 22, the material carrier 22 can be in the air flow each time the material carrier 22 is removed for sample loading/unloading operation, so that the material and the nucleic acid product aerosol on the surface of the material carrier 22 are purged, the material carrier 22 is kept clean, and the experimental result is prevented from being interfered.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the position of the fan 15 is not limited, and can be adjusted as needed, for example, the fan can be disposed adjacent to the high efficiency filter unit 14, adjacent to the material inlet 11, or at any other suitable position.

The material in this embodiment is a PCR tube (not shown) loaded with a sample solution, and after the PCR tube is transferred into the PCR instrument 2 by the material transfer unit 3, the PCR instrument 2 adjusts the internal temperature and amplifies DNA in the sample solution.

Generally, a set of experiments needs to detect a plurality of sample solutions simultaneously, so that a plurality of PCR tubes are integrally disposed on the same material container, such as the PCR rack 5 in this embodiment, and the material handling assembly 3 moves the PCR rack 5 and disposes the PCR rack 5 in the PCR instrument 2, i.e. carries a plurality of PCR tubes into the PCR instrument 2.

In particular, the PCR rack 5 or the PCR tubes are provided with a tag (not shown), which may be a two-dimensional code or an RFID tag, and which stores PCR rack 5 information, PCR tube information, or other necessary information.

The PCR workstation also comprises a camera 6 which is in communication connection with the control unit 4, the camera 6 is matched with a label arranged on the PCR bracket 5 or the PCR tube, shoots the label to obtain the image information of the label, and then transmits the image information to the control unit 4. The control unit 4 acquires the material information according to the image information, and further sets the operation mode of the PCR instrument 2 for processing the material.

Specifically, the camera 6 shoots the label on the PCR bracket 5 or the PCR tube to obtain the image information of the label, the camera 6 sends the image information of the shot label to the control unit 4, the control unit 4 obtains the information of the PCR bracket 5 or the PCR tube according to the image information, the material handling assembly 3 and the PCR instrument 2 are controlled in a linkage mode to work, a subsequent detection report is generated, and the like, so that systematization and programming of material feeding/discharging, detection and result generation are realized, manual participation is not needed, and the experiment process is intelligent and convenient. The label, the camera 6 and the control unit 4 form a bar code management system, the detection sample, the PCR tube and the report are correlated, and the whole detection experiment is simple to operate and low in error rate.

In other embodiments, the material may also refer to a PCR tube loaded with a sample solution, or to the PCR rack 5 and a PCR tube thereon. The camera 6 may not collect the tag information, and collects the position information of each part to facilitate fine control.

PCR appearance 2 is provided with many, and many PCR appearance 2 are two rows that equal quantity respectively in rack 1's inside, and many PCR appearance 2 all are located pan feeding mouth 11's top in vertical direction to be in the below of PCR appearance 2 when making the material get into rack 1's inside from pan feeding mouth 11, the motion of material is not blockked by PCR appearance 2. Many PCR appearance 2 all with control unit 4 communication connection to can carry out multiunit PCR experiment in step, the PCR experiment is comparatively high-efficient. The control unit 4 can also be used for intelligently distributing and loading experiments, so that the utilization rate of the PCR instrument 2 is improved.

Referring to fig. 5, the PCR instrument 2 includes a housing 21, a material carrier 22, and a carrier driving member 23 for driving the material carrier 22 to reciprocate. The carrier actuators 23 are communicatively connected to the control unit 4 to act under the control of the control unit 4 to drive the material carriers 22 out of or into the housing 21. The carrier drive 23 is operated under the control of the control unit 4 to drive the material carrier 22 out of or into the housing 21. Before the PCR experiment starts, the carrier driving member 23 drives the material carrier 22 to move out of the housing 21, the material handling assembly 3 carries the material to the upper side of the material carrier 22, the carrier driving member 23 drives the material carrier 22 to enter the housing 21 again, and the internal environment of the PCR instrument 2 is sealed to realize the loading of the material. Before the PCR experiment is finished, the carrier driving member 23 drives the material carrier 22 to move out of the housing 21, and the material handling assembly 3 discharges the material from the material carrier 22.

Through the cooperation of carrier driving piece 23, material carrier 22 and material handling subassembly 3, before the experiment begins, material carrier 22 will carry the material to material carrier 22 when shifting out shell 21 on, after the experiment, material carrier 22 will remove the material from material carrier 22 when shifting out shell 21 to realize the automatic feeding and the unloading of material, reduce artifical the participation, practice thrift the cost.

In the present embodiment, the carrier driving member 23 is not shown, and may be a push rod motor, a screw assembly, an air cylinder, or the like, and is not limited to a specific form thereof as long as the material carrier 22 can be driven to reciprocate on the same straight line.

The material handling assembly 3 comprises a three-axis linkage mechanism and a handling carrier 31, wherein the three-axis linkage mechanism is in transmission connection with the handling carrier 31 and is in communication connection with the control unit 4. The carrier 31 has a plurality of transfer cups 32, which transfer cups 32 are adapted to the shape of the containers of material, i.e. the PCR rack 5. Under the control of the control unit 4, the three-axis linkage mechanism can drive the carrying carrier 31 to perform translation in three orthogonal directions, so that the carrying carrier 31 can move in three dimensions in space, the material moving suction cups 32 are used for adsorbing material containers, and the materials are transferred. The three-axis linkage mechanism is simple in structure and high in integration degree, and can realize three-dimensional accurate positioning.

In the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 4 and 6, the three-axis linkage mechanism includes an X-direction movement mechanism 33, a Y-direction movement mechanism 34, and a Z-direction movement mechanism 35 that move two by two orthogonally. The movement direction of the X-direction movement mechanism 33 is horizontal traverse, the X-direction movement mechanism 33 in this embodiment includes an X-direction chain 331 and an X-direction motor 332 that drives the X-direction chain 331 to move, and the X-direction movement mechanism 33 is provided on the Y-direction movement mechanism 34. The movement direction of the Z-direction movement mechanism 35 is a vertical direction, the Z-direction movement mechanism 35 in the present embodiment includes a Z-direction rail 351 and a Z-direction motor (not shown in the figure) that drives the transport vehicle 31 to move on the Z-direction rail 351, and the Z-direction movement mechanism 35 is provided on the X-direction movement mechanism 33. The movement direction of the Y-direction movement mechanism 34 is orthogonal to the horizontal and vertical directions, and the Y-direction movement mechanism 34 in this embodiment includes a Y-direction rail 341 and a Y-direction motor 342 that drives the entire X-direction chain 331 to move in the Y-direction.

Of course, in some other embodiments of the present invention, the specific structures of the X-direction moving mechanism 33, the Y-direction moving mechanism 34, and the Z-direction moving mechanism 35 may be different, and any structure may be used as long as the transport carrier 31 can be driven to perform translation in three orthogonal directions.

As shown in fig. 5 and 7, the material handling assembly 3 further includes a material moving slide rail 36, a material moving slider 37, and a material moving driving member 38 for driving the material moving slider 37 to slide on the material moving slide rail 36, and the material moving driving member 38 is in communication with the control unit 4. The material moving slide rail 36 extends horizontally inside the cabinet 1, and one end thereof is disposed near the material inlet 11. The material moving slide block 37 is used for bearing the PCR bracket 5, and works under the control of the control unit 4, the material moving driving member 38 drives the material moving slide block 37 to move, and the material moving slide block 37 drives the PCR bracket 5 borne thereon to enter the interior of the cabinet 1 from the material inlet 11.

The material moving driving member 38 may be a push rod motor, a screw rod assembly, an air cylinder, or the like, and the material moving driving member 38 in the present embodiment is a conveyor belt, and is not limited to a specific form thereof, as long as the material moving slider 37 can be driven to reciprocate on the material moving slide rail 36.

The operation of the three-axis linkage mechanism will be described by taking the feeding of the material as an example.

The camera 6 is fixedly disposed on the carrier 31, and the orientation of the camera 6 is vertical downward. After the material moving slide block 37 drives the material to enter the interior of the cabinet 1, the control unit 4 controls the X-direction moving mechanism 33 of the three-axis linkage mechanism to move, so as to drive the carrying carrier 31 to move in the horizontal direction, and/or the control unit 4 controls the movement of the material moving driving member 38, so as to drive the material moving slide block 37 to move in the horizontal direction, until the camera 6 absorbs the label and stops the horizontal movement of the carrying carrier 31 and/or the material moving slide block 37, at this time, the carrying carrier 31 and the camera 6 are located right above the PCR bracket 5.

The Y-direction movement mechanism 34 of the three-axis linkage mechanism acts under the control of the control unit 4, the transport carrier 31 is driven to vertically move downwards until the material moving suction cups 32 are adsorbed on the surface of the PCR bracket 5, then the transport carrier 31 is driven to vertically move upwards, and the PCR bracket 5 and the PCR tubes on the PCR bracket are driven to leave the material moving slide block 37 and move upwards until the height of the PCR bracket is the same as that of the PCR instrument 2 to be used. At the same time, the carrier driving member 23 is operated under the control of the control unit 4 to drive the material carrier 22 out of the housing 21.

The Z-direction movement mechanism 35 of the three-axis linkage mechanism is controlled by the control unit 4 to move the PCR rack 5 and the PCR tubes thereon to the material carrier 22 removed from the housing 21. The carrier drive 23 is again operated under the control of the control unit 4 to drive the material carrier 22 into the housing 21.

Referring to fig. 1 and 3, a feeding slide rail 39 is further disposed outside the cabinet 1, one end of the feeding slide rail 39 is connected to an end of the material moving slide rail 36 at the feeding port 11, and the material moving slide 37 can move on the feeding slide rail 39 and the material moving slide rail 36. So set up, the experimenter can place the material in the top of the material moving slider 37 of pan feeding mouth 11 department, can accomplish the material loading operation, and easy operation is convenient.

Furthermore, in other embodiments of the present invention, the feeding slide rail 39 may be slidably connected to the material moving slide rail 36, and the feeding slide rail 39 can drive the material to slide from the outside of the cabinet 1 into the inside of the cabinet 1 under the driving of the material moving driving element 38. Meanwhile, a door plate is arranged at one end of the feeding slide rail 39, which is far away from the material moving slide rail 36, the outer diameter of the door plate is larger than the inner diameter of the feeding port 11, and after the feeding slide rail 39 slides to enter the cabinet 1, the door plate is abutted to the feeding port 11, so that the feeding slide rail 39 is prevented from further sliding.

Referring to fig. 7, the control unit 4 includes a task allocation module 7, and the task allocation module 7 can designate a corresponding PCR instrument 2 for the current material to be processed according to the task progress information of the multiple PCR instruments 2. The adaptive PCR instrument 2 is distributed through the task distribution module 7, the sequence, the mode and the like of a plurality of groups of PCR experiments can be freely designed, long-time waiting is not needed when a new PCR experiment is inserted, and the PCR experiment is flexible and efficient.

The task assignment module 7 may be integrated in the control unit 4 or may be provided separately from the control unit 4.

Referring to fig. 1 and 7, the PCR workstation further includes a display 8, and the display 8 is used for displaying one or more of task progress information, prompt information, detection result information and material information of the PCR instrument 2. The experiment process is displayed in real time through the display 8, so that experimenters can conveniently inquire and know the experiment process of the whole PCR workstation. One side of the display 8 is hinged to the side wall of the cabinet 1, and the height of the display is 1.5-1.7m, so that the experimenter can conveniently check information.

The control unit 4 may be integrated in the display 8 or may be provided separately from the display 8.

Preferably, the display 8 can be a touch screen, which forms a human-computer interaction interface, so that experimenters can conveniently check experiment processes, set working procedures and the like by using the display 8, and the method is simple and convenient.

Referring to fig. 7, the PCR workstation further comprises a printer 9, wherein the printer 9 is connected to the control unit 4 in communication, and is used for printing the detection report under the control of the control unit 4. Can print the detection report in real time through setting up printer 9 to with aforementioned PCR appearance 2, material handling subassembly 3 and the 6 cooperation of camera, the automatic work such as sign indicating number, the last unloading of PCR appearance 2, the play report of sweeping of accomplishing the material, the intermediate process need not manual operation, and intelligence is convenient.

The printer 9 in the present embodiment may be integrated in the display 8, or may be provided separately in the cabinet 1 and the display 8.

It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that in the embodiments described above, numerous technical details are set forth in order to provide a better understanding of the present application. However, the technical solutions claimed in the claims of the present application can be basically implemented without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, in actual practice, various changes in form and detail may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A PCR workstation, comprising:

a cabinet;

the PCR instruments are arranged in the cabinet;

the material carrying assembly is arranged in the cabinet and is used for carrying the materials placed from the material inlet to the multiple PCR instruments or moving the materials out of the multiple PCR instruments;

a control unit in communicative connection with the plurality of PCR instruments and the material handling assembly.

2. The PCR workstation of claim 1, wherein the PCR instrument comprises:

a housing;

the material carrier can move out of or enter the shell in a reciprocating mode and is used for feeding the materials; and

and the carrier driving part is in transmission connection with the material carrier and is in communication connection with the control unit, and the carrier driving part can drive the material carrier to move out of or enter the shell under the control of the control unit.

3. The PCR workstation of claim 2, further comprising:

the efficient filtering unit is arranged at the top of the cabinet and is filled at the air outlet.

4. The PCR workstation of claim 3 further comprising

The fan is arranged in the cabinet and used for forming a one-way air path which penetrates through the PCR instruments and advances towards the air outlet;

the fan is responsively turned on prior to removal of the material carrier from within the housing.

5. The PCR workstation of any of claims 1-4, wherein the materials handling assembly comprises:

a three-axis linkage mechanism; and

the carrying carrier with the plurality of material moving suckers can perform translation in three orthogonal directions under the driving of the three-axis linkage mechanism, and the plurality of material moving suckers are adaptive to the shape of the container of the material.

6. The PCR workstation according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control unit comprises a task allocation module, and the task allocation module can specify the corresponding PCR instrument for the material to be processed currently according to the task progress information of the plurality of PCR instruments.

7. PCR station according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the PCR station further comprises:

the camera is in communication connection with the control unit and is used for shooting a label arranged on a container of the material so as to obtain image information of the label;

and the control unit sets the operation mode of the PCR instrument for processing the material according to the image information.

8. The PCR workstation according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a display for displaying one or more of task progress information, prompt information, test result information, and material information of the PCR instrument.

9. The PCR workstation of any one of claims 1-4, further comprising a printer communicatively coupled to the control unit for printing a detection report.