CN220300744U

CN220300744U - Culture container carrying piece, carrying module and incubator

Info

Publication number: CN220300744U
Application number: CN202321731230.6U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐涛; 巩卓成; 曹小宝
Original assignee: Guangzhou National Laboratory
Current assignee: Guangzhou National Laboratory
Priority date: 2023-07-03
Filing date: 2023-07-03
Publication date: 2024-01-05
Anticipated expiration: 2033-07-03

Abstract

The application provides a cultivate container transport spare, transport module and incubator, cultivate container transport spare and include drive division and get material portion, drive division extends in vertical direction, and the axial of drive division is on a parallel with vertical direction, and the one end of drive division is used for connecting first drive assembly, gets material portion and connects the other end at drive division, gets material portion and lie in one side of drive division in radial, radial perpendicular to is axial, gets material portion and is used for the bearing cultivate container. The first drive assembly drives the transmission portion to move to control and get material portion transport culture vessel, through setting up the transmission portion that extends, make first drive assembly can be in keeping away from the position of getting material portion and control getting material portion, consequently, when culture vessel transport piece was applied to the incubator, first drive assembly can set up in the outside of cultivateing the room, avoided first drive assembly to set up in the health dead angle that inside brought, thereby culture vessel transport piece helps reducing the health dead angle of internal environment.

Description

Culture container carrying piece, carrying module and incubator

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of cell culture, in particular to a culture container carrying piece, a carrying module and an incubator.

Background

The cell culture process is environmentally demanding. The contamination source of the cells may come from the inside or the outside of the culture chamber, for example, when the culture chamber is opened to take and put the culture container, the gas exchange between the inside and the outside allows the outside microorganisms to enter the culture chamber; for another example, the interior of the culture chamber is not thoroughly sterilized, and microorganisms remaining during the previous use are present. In the related art, the culture chamber is generally subjected to final sterilization by adopting modes such as disinfectant wiping, steam wet sterilization at 90 ℃, dry heating sterilization at 140 ℃ and vaporized hydrogen peroxide sterilization corresponding to the used culture chamber.

Generally, an automatic incubator is required for large-scale cell culture, and the automatic incubator transfers culture containers through an internal automatic conveying module, but on the other hand, the automatic conveying module also increases sanitary dead angles which are difficult to disinfect in culture chambers such as gaps, so that the difficulty and cost of final disinfection are increased, and meanwhile, as components such as a motor in the incubator cavity are required to have stronger high-temperature resistance, high-humidity resistance and corrosion resistance, the cost of equipment is obviously increased along with the improvement of the severe environment resistance level of a device.

Disclosure of Invention

The present application aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art. Therefore, the application provides a culture container carrying piece, a carrying module and an incubator, wherein the culture container carrying piece is beneficial to reducing the sanitary dead angle of the internal environment.

According to the culture container handling piece that this application provided, include drive division and get material portion, drive division extends in vertical direction, the axial of drive division is on a parallel with vertical direction, the one end of drive division is used for connecting first drive assembly, it connects to get material portion the other end of drive division, it is located in radial direction to get material portion one side of drive division, radial perpendicular to the axial, it is used for the bearing culture container to get material portion.

According to the culture container handling member provided by the application, at least the following technical effects are achieved: the drive assembly drives the transmission portion to move to control and get material portion transport culture vessel, through setting up the transmission portion that extends, make drive assembly can be in keeping away from the position of getting material portion and control getting material portion, consequently, when culture vessel transport piece was applied to the incubator, drive assembly can set up in the outside of cultivateing the room, avoided drive assembly to set up the sanitary dead angle of bringing in inside, thereby cultivate the health dead angle that vessel transport piece helps reducing internal environment.

According to some embodiments of the application, the transmission is a cylinder.

According to some embodiments of the application, the surface of the transmission member is smooth.

According to some embodiments of the application, the material take-out comprises a projection for holding the culture container.

According to some embodiments of the application, the projection extends in the vertical direction, the projection comprising a bearing surface for bearing the culture container, the bearing surface facing the vertical direction.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the material taking part comprises a connecting section, the connecting section extends in a horizontal direction, two ends of the connecting section are respectively connected with the protruding block and the transmission part, and the protruding block protrudes from the surface of the connecting section in the vertical direction.

According to the transport module provided by the application, the culture container transport member comprises a first driving assembly and the culture container transport member provided by the application, wherein the first driving assembly is used for driving the culture container transport member to move.

According to some embodiments of the application, the first drive assembly comprises a first driver for driving the transmission part to move in the vertical direction.

According to some embodiments of the application, the first driving assembly includes a second driver, and the second driver is used for driving the transmission part to rotate by taking an axis of the transmission part as a rotating shaft.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the first driving assembly comprises a mounting table, a screw and a slider, the screw extends in the vertical direction, an output end of the first driver is connected with the screw in a transmission manner, the slider is mounted on the screw, and the mounting table is mounted on the slider.

According to some embodiments of the application, the second driver is mounted on the mounting table, and the transmission portion is mounted at an output end of the second driver.

According to the incubator that this application provided, including the transport module that this application provided.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the incubator further comprises a case and a culture rack, the interior of the case forms a culture chamber, the culture rack is located in the culture chamber, the culture rack is used for placing a culture container, the culture container handling member is located in part or in whole in the culture chamber, and the first driving assembly is located outside the culture chamber.

According to some embodiments of the application, the transmission part penetrates through the wall surface of the culture chamber in the vertical direction and extends to the outside of the culture chamber, and one side of the transmission part, which is positioned at the outside of the culture chamber, is connected with the first driving component.

According to some embodiments of the application, the incubator comprises a second drive assembly located outside the incubation chamber, the incubation rack comprises a spindle penetrating through a wall of the incubation chamber in the vertical direction, and the second drive assembly is used for driving the spindle to rotate.

According to some embodiments of the application, the box comprises a first guide sleeve and a second guide sleeve, the transmission part is arranged in the first guide sleeve in a penetrating mode, and the main shaft is arranged in the second guide sleeve in a penetrating mode.

According to some embodiments of the application, the first guide sleeve and the second guide sleeve are sealed linear bearings.

According to some embodiments of the application, the interior of the housing further forms a drive chamber, the drive chamber being spaced apart from the culture chamber, the first drive assembly and the second drive assembly being located in the drive chamber.

According to some embodiments of the application, the culture rack comprises a storage seat matched with the culture container, and the storage seat comprises a positioning part for positioning the culture container.

According to some embodiments of the application, the positioning portion comprises a positioning recess, the shape of which matches the shape of the culture container.

According to some embodiments of the application, the storage base is provided with a through groove, the through groove penetrates through the storage base in the vertical direction, and the through groove forms an opening for the inlet and outlet of the culture container carrying piece in the direction perpendicular to the vertical direction.

According to some embodiments of the application, the case is provided with a door and a window, the door and the window are communicated with the incubation chamber, the window is used for accessing the incubation container to the incubation chamber, and the case comprises a cabin door, and the cabin door is used for closing or opening the door.

According to some embodiments of the application, the culture container handling part is switchably mateable with the culture rack or the window, the culture container handling part being for handling the culture container between the holder and the window.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the cultivation rack comprises a transfer layer and a storage layer, the transfer layer is arranged at intervals with the storage layer in the vertical direction, the position of the window is matched with the transfer layer, and the cultivation container handling member is used for handling the cultivation container between the storage layer and the transfer layer.

According to some embodiments of the application, the tank comprises an air inlet channel, wherein the air inlet channel is communicated with the culture chamber and is used for communicating with an air source so that the air pressure of the culture chamber is higher than that of the external environment.

The transport module that this application provided and incubator that this application provided include the culture container transport spare that this application provided, consequently transport module and incubator correspondingly possess the beneficial effect that culture container transport spare provided, and are not repeated here.

Drawings

The foregoing and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present application will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the structure of a culture container handling member according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a handling module according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the structure of the incubator of the embodiment of the present application, in which the incubator is hidden;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the structure of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the structure of an incubator embodying an embodiment of the present application, in which another arrangement of windows is embodied;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the structure of the incubator of the embodiment of the present application, in which the incubator body has a drive chamber;

FIG. 7 is a partial schematic view of region A of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing the structure of a culture rack and a culture container handling member according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing another arrangement of the culture rack and the culture container handling member according to the embodiment of the present application.

Reference numerals:

the box body 100, the first guide sleeve 110, the second guide sleeve 120, the cabin door 130, the main shell 140, the window 141, the protective cover 150, the culture rack 200, the main shaft 210, the object placing seat 220, the positioning recess 221, the through groove 222,

A first driver 310, a second driver 320, a mounting table 330, a slider 340, a protective cover 350,

Culture container carrier 400, transmission part 410, material taking part 420, projection 421, connection section 422,

A third driver 510,

Culture vessel 900.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like or similar reference numerals refer to like or similar elements or elements having like or similar functions throughout. The embodiments described below by referring to the drawings are exemplary only for the purpose of explaining the present application and are not to be construed as limiting the present application.

In the description of the present application, it should be understood that references to orientation descriptions, such as directions of up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, are merely for convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present application.

In the description of the present application, the meaning of a number is one or more, the meaning of a number is two or more, greater than, less than, exceeding, etc. are understood to not include the present number, and the meaning of a number above, below, within, etc. are understood to include the present number. The description of the first and second is for the purpose of distinguishing between technical features only and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated or implicitly indicating the precedence of the technical features indicated.

In the description of the present application, unless explicitly defined otherwise, terms such as arrangement, installation, connection, etc. should be construed broadly and the specific meaning of the terms in the present application can be reasonably determined by a person skilled in the art in combination with the specific contents of the technical solution.

Cell culture and similar microbial cultures have stringent requirements on the culture environment, and thorough disinfection and cleaning of the culture chamber is one of the key factors to ensure the culture effect. In the related technology of automatic cultivation, due to the introduction of automatic mechanical parts, the sanitary dead angle in the cultivation room is correspondingly increased, so that the difficulty and the cost of final disinfection are increased, and the use of the incubator is not facilitated.

According to incubator that this application provided, including the transport module that this application provided, the transport module includes first drive assembly and the culture container handling piece 400 that this application provided. The first driving assembly is used to drive the movement of the culture container handling member 400.

Referring to fig. 1, the culture container handling member 400 provided by the application includes a transmission portion 410 and a material taking portion 420, the transmission portion 410 extends in a vertical direction, an axial direction of the transmission portion 410 is parallel to the vertical direction, one end of the transmission portion 410 is used for connecting a first driving assembly, the material taking portion 420 is connected to the other end of the transmission portion 410, the material taking portion 420 is located on one side of the transmission portion 410 in a radial direction, and is perpendicular to the axial direction in a radial direction, and the material taking portion 420 is used for supporting the culture container 900.

Referring next to fig. 2, 3 and 4, the incubator further includes a case 100 and a culture rack 200, the inside of the case 100 forms a culture chamber, the culture rack 200 is located inside the culture chamber, the culture rack 200 is used for placing the culture container 900, the culture container handling member 400 is partially or entirely located inside the culture chamber, the first driving assembly is located outside the culture chamber, and the culture container handling member 400 is used for handling the culture container 900 inside the culture chamber.

It is understood that culture vessel 900 may be a petri dish or other culture vessel 900 as is conventional in the art, and the material being cultured may be cells, fungi, or other materials that are critical to the culture environment in the art. In other words, the incubator provided herein can be used for cell culture as well as for culture of other materials.

The first driving assembly drives the transmission part 410 to move, thereby control and get material part 420 transport culture container 900, through setting up the transmission part 410 that extends, make first driving assembly can be in keeping away from the position of getting material part 420 and control getting material part 420, therefore, when transport module and culture container handling piece 400 are applied to the incubator, first driving assembly can set up in the outside of culture chamber, avoided first driving assembly to set up the sanitary dead angle that brings in inside, thereby culture container handling piece 400 helps reducing the sanitary dead angle of internal environment.

Through using transport module and cultivate container transport 400, the incubator of this application can reduce the quantity of spare part in the cultivateing room, and then has reduced cultivateing room's health dead angle, helps reducing cultivateing room terminal sterile degree of difficulty and cost.

It will be appreciated that some or all of the drive portion 410 is a cylinder extending in an axial direction. With continued reference to fig. 1, to further reduce the dead space, in some embodiments, the transmission portion 410 is a smooth-surfaced cylinder, so that the surface of the transmission portion 410 is not prone to dust contamination and is easy to sterilize. For example, the driving part 410 may employ an optical axis commonly used in the related art, and the material taking part 420 is detachably mounted on the driving part 410.

In some embodiments, the material taking part 420 includes a protrusion 421, and the protrusion 421 is used to support the culture container 900. For example, referring to the embodiment of fig. 1, the projection 421 may be provided to extend in a vertical direction, and the projection 421 includes a supporting surface for supporting the culture container 900, the supporting surface facing in the vertical direction. The supporting surface is in contact with the surface of the culture container 900, that is, the projection 421 can vertically support the culture container 900.

The bump 421 may be directly connected to the transmission part 410, or, in some embodiments, the bump 421 is indirectly connected to the transmission part 410, and referring to fig. 1 in particular, the material taking part 420 further includes a connection section 422, the connection section 422 extends in a horizontal direction, and two ends of the connection section 422 are respectively connected to the bump 421 and the transmission part 410.

In the embodiment of fig. 1, the bumps 421 are also raised in the vertical direction above the surface of the connection section 422. This allows the support surface of the projection 421 to be offset from the surface of the connection section 422, thereby avoiding interference between the connection section 422 and the culture shelf 200 when the culture container 900 is taken and placed.

To meet the movement requirement of the culture container handling member, in some embodiments, the first driving assembly includes a second driver 320, where the second driver 320 is configured to drive the transmission part 410 to rotate around its own axis as a rotation axis. Because the material taking part 420 is eccentric with respect to the axis of the driving part 410, the rotation of the driving part 410 can drive the material taking part 420 to change positions, so that the culture container 900 carried by the material taking part 420 is contacted with or separated from the culture rack 200.

In some embodiments, the first drive assembly further comprises a first driver 310, the first driver 310 for driving the transmission 410 to move in a vertical direction. The combination of the first driver 310 and the second driver 320 allows the material taking part 420 to have a freedom of movement in space, thereby enabling more flexible handling of the culture container 900.

The first driving assembly may drive the culture container handling member 400 by a contact or non-contact transmission.

For example, fig. 2 provides an embodiment of a contact type transmission in which a first driving assembly includes a mounting table 330, a screw extending in a vertical direction, an output end of a first driver 310 connected to the screw transmission, and a slider 340 mounted on the screw, the mounting table 330 mounted on the slider 340, a second driver 320 mounted on the mounting table 330, and a transmission part 410 mounted on an output end of the second driver 320. In this embodiment, the first driver 310 and the second driver 320 are rotation drivers, respectively, the first driver 310 drives the culture container handling member 400 through a screw slider mechanism, and the second driver 320 drives the culture container handling member 400 through a direct connection.

With further reference to fig. 3 and 4, when the carrying module is applied to the incubator, the transmission part 410 penetrates the wall surface of the incubation chamber in the vertical direction and extends to the outside of the incubation chamber, and one side of the transmission part 410 located at the outside of the incubation chamber is connected to the first driving assembly. At this time, a part of the culture container handling member 400 is located inside the culture chamber and another part of the culture container handling member 400 is located outside the culture chamber, thereby allowing the first driving assembly to directly contact the transmission part 410.

It will be appreciated that in some related art, the screw and the slider 340 in the first driving assembly are often directly disposed inside the culture chamber, the culture container handling member 400 is connected with the slider 340 inside the culture chamber, at this time, the screw thread of the screw is easy to form a hygienic dead angle, and in the present application, by providing the transmission part 410 extending out of the culture chamber, the culture container handling member 400 can be connected with the slider 340 outside the culture chamber, thereby achieving the effect of moving the screw and the slider 340 to the outside of the culture chamber.

The screw slider mechanism has a self-locking function, and helps to ensure stable operation of the culture container handling member 400. The culture container handling member 400 is mounted on the second driver 320, that is, the mounting and fixing structure of the culture container handling member 400 is also disposed outside the culture chamber, so that the difficulty and cost of the final sterilization of the culture chamber can be further reduced.

The first driving assembly may further include a protection cover 350, where the protection cover 350 shields internal structures such as a screw rod, so as to improve reliability of the first driving assembly.

In other embodiments, the contact transmission connection may be performed by a gear transmission, a chain transmission, a belt transmission, a link transmission, or the like, and the first driver 310 and the second driver 320 may be linear drivers such as linear motors. Taking gear transmission as an example, a driving gear may be installed on the output shaft of the first driver 310, a rack may be installed on the transmission part 410, and the transmission part 410 may be driven to move through the engagement relationship between the driving gear and the rack; a rack may be installed at the output end of the second driver 320, and a driven gear may be installed at the transmission part 410, thereby driving the transmission part 410 to rotate.

In a contact embodiment, the case 100 may further include a first guide sleeve 110, and the transmission part 410 is disposed through the first guide sleeve 110. The first guide sleeve 110 can play a guiding role on one hand, so that the motion of the transmission part 410 is smoother, and can play a sealing role on the other hand, so that pollutants are prevented from entering the culture chamber through the through holes for penetrating the transmission part 410. In order to enhance the guiding and sealing action of the first guide sleeve 110, the first guide sleeve 110 may employ a sealed linear bearing.

Alternatively, in some other embodiments, the first driving assembly and the culture container handling member 400 are in a non-contact transmission, for example, the first driving assembly includes a driving magnetic wheel, the culture container handling member 400 includes a driven magnetic wheel, the driven magnetic wheel is located on the transmission part 410, and the first driving assembly drives the culture container handling member 400 in a non-contact manner through the magnetic transmission, and when the handling module is applied to the incubator, the driving magnetic wheel and the driven magnetic wheel are coupled with each other through the wall surface of the incubator. In such an embodiment, the transmission part 410 does not need to penetrate through the wall surface of the culture chamber, and the culture container handling member 400 is located in the culture chamber entirely, so that contaminants can be prevented from entering the culture chamber through the through hole for penetrating through the transmission part 410, thereby achieving a better isolation effect.

However, in the non-contact embodiment, the relevant structure for mounting the fixed culture container handling member 400 can be arranged only in the culture chamber, inevitably resulting in a hygienic dead space, whereas in the contact embodiment the relevant structure for mounting the fixed culture container handling member 400 can be arranged outside the culture chamber, and even the culture container handling member 400 can be mounted to the first driving assembly (e.g., the embodiment of fig. 2), further reducing the hygienic dead space in the culture chamber.

It is emphasized that in different embodiments, the vertical direction may correspond to different directions in an absolute coordinate system, and the vertical direction may or may not be parallel to the direction of placement of the culture container 900.

For example, in the embodiment of fig. 2 and 3, the mounting direction of the culture container 900 is the up-down direction, the vertical direction is parallel to the mounting direction, that is, the transmission part 410 vertically penetrates the wall surface of the culture chamber, the culture container handling member 400 is located at one side of the culture rack 200 in the horizontal direction, at this time, the movement of the transmission part 410 in the vertical direction can realize the movement of the culture container handling member 400 along the mounting direction of the culture container 900, and the rotation of the transmission part 410 can realize the movement of the culture container handling member 400 perpendicular to the mounting direction.

For example, in some embodiments, the vertical direction is along the left-right direction (X direction), the vertical direction is perpendicular to the placement direction of the culture container 900, at this time, the transmission part 410 penetrates through the wall surface of the culture chamber in parallel, the movement of the transmission part 410 in the vertical direction is used to realize the movement of the protrusion 421 out of or into the culture rack 200, the rotation of the transmission part 410 is used to realize the movement of the protrusion 421 to lift or place the culture container 900, and the material taking part 420 enables the protrusion 421 to more efficiently lift or place the culture container 900.

Taking the embodiment of fig. 3 as an example, it will be appreciated that, although more degrees of freedom of movement may be added to the culture container handling member 400, for example, by providing an X-direction and Y-direction (front-rear direction) driver, the culture container handling member 400 may translate on a plane perpendicular to the vertical direction so as to handle the culture container 900, this may result in a case 100 having an escape slot matching with the movement path of the culture container handling member 400, and in order to isolate the culture chamber from the external environment while avoiding the moving culture container handling member 400, the escape slot may also need to be sealed by an organ cover or other similar deformable sealing structure, which may bring new sanitary dead angles and increase the difficulty of disinfection. Therefore, in some embodiments, the transmission part 410 is limited to have only the freedom of movement and the freedom of rotation in the vertical direction, and the movement requirement of the transmission part 410 can be met only by forming the through hole on the box 100, so that the difficulty and cost of the final disinfection of the culture chamber can be better reduced.

In general, a plurality of culture containers 900 need to be placed on the culture rack 200 at the same time, and at this time, different culture containers 900 can be mated with the culture container transporting member by the movement of the culture rack 200, so that the requirement of transporting different culture containers 900 can be satisfied when the transmission part 410 has only the freedom of movement and the freedom of rotation in the vertical direction.

For example, referring to fig. 4, in some embodiments, the incubator includes a second driving assembly located outside the incubation chamber, the incubation frame 200 includes a main shaft 210, the main shaft 210 penetrates a wall surface of the incubation chamber in a vertical direction, and the second driving assembly is used to drive the main shaft 210 to rotate, so that the incubation container handling members 400 are respectively paired with incubation containers 900 located at different positions on the incubation frame 200 by rotation of the main shaft 210. The second driving component is arranged outside the culture chamber, so that the sanitary dead angle of the culture chamber can be reduced, and the difficulty and cost of the final disinfection of the culture chamber are reduced. The culture shelf 200 may be divided into multiple layers in a vertical direction, thereby improving the capacity of accommodating the culture container 900.

The second drive assembly includes a third drive 510, the third drive 510 may drive the spindle 210 via a different transmission, for example in fig. 3, the third drive 510 employs a rotary drive, and the output shaft of the third drive 510 is directly connected to the spindle 210.

In such an embodiment, the case 100 may further include a second guide sleeve 120, and the spindle 210 is disposed through the second guide sleeve 120. The second guide sleeve 120 can play a guiding role on one hand so that the movement of the main shaft 210 is smoother, and can play a sealing role on the other hand so as to prevent contaminants from entering the culture chamber through the through hole for passing through the main shaft 210. In order to enhance the guiding and sealing action of the second guide sleeve 120, the second guide sleeve 120 may employ a sealed linear bearing as the first guide sleeve 110, and the second guide sleeve 120 may employ a rotating bearing, such as a rolling bearing or a sliding bearing, since the main shaft 210 does not need to be moved in the vertical direction.

Of course, the culture rack 200 may be kept stationary, and the placement position of the culture container 900 on the culture rack 200 may be set so that the culture container handling member 400 can be mated with the culture containers 900 at different positions by rotating itself. For example, referring to fig. 9, in some embodiments, the culture container handling member 400 is arranged at the center, the culture containers 900 are arranged on the culture shelf 200 in such a manner as to surround the rotation shaft of the culture container handling member 400, and the culture container handling member 400 pairs and handles the respective culture containers 900 by rotation.

In some embodiments, the incubator 200 includes a docking station 220, wherein the docking station 220 mates with the incubator 900, and wherein the docking station 220 is configured to receive the incubator 900. The storage base 220 further includes a positioning portion for positioning the culture container 900. The holder 220 is in one-to-one correspondence with the culture container 900, so that the culture container 900 can be stably placed on the culture shelf. The positions of the storage holders 220 may be adaptively adjusted according to design requirements, and in the embodiment of fig. 3, a plurality of storage holders 220 are spaced apart in the circumferential direction of the main shaft 210, and in the embodiment of fig. 9, a plurality of storage holders 220 are spaced apart in the circumferential direction of the driving part 410 (i.e., the rotation shaft of the culture container carrier 400).

With further reference to FIG. 7, in some embodiments, the positioning portion includes a positioning recess 221, the shape of the positioning recess 221 matching the shape of the culture container 900. Part or all of the culture vessel 900 can be inserted into the positioning recess 221 so that accurate placement is achieved. In addition to the positioning recess 221, the positioning portion may also adopt a positioning manner commonly used in related techniques such as positioning protrusion and magnetic attraction to position the culture container 900.

In some embodiments, the storage base 220 is provided with a through slot 222, the through slot 222 penetrates the storage base 220 in the vertical direction, and the through slot 222 forms an opening for the culture container handling member 400 to enter and exit in the direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. In other words, the through groove 222 serves to avoid the movement path of the culture container handling member 400. For example, in the embodiment of fig. 7, the opening of the through-slot 222 faces away from the main shaft 210, after the protrusion 421 lifts the culture container 900, the transmission part 410 rotates to enable the protrusion 421 to leave the culture medium 200 from the opening, whereas in the embodiment of fig. 9, the opening of the through-slot 222 faces the rotation axis of the transmission part 410, after the protrusion 421 lifts the culture container 900, the transmission part 410 continues to move, so that the material taking part 420 passes through the through-slot 222 to enable the protrusion 421 and the material taking part 420 to be staggered with the placement base 220, and then the transmission part 410 rotates to enable the protrusion 421 to leave the culture rack 200.

In the embodiment of fig. 7, the height difference between the bump 421 and the connecting section 422 is greater than the thickness of the holder 220. Referring to fig. 8, the "height difference between the bump 421 and the connection section 422" refers to the minimum distance between the bearing surface of the bump 421 and the surface of the connection section 422 in the vertical direction, which can be denoted as L ₁ The "thickness of the storage base 220" refers to the maximum distance of each surface of the storage base 220 in the vertical direction, and may be denoted as L ₂ ，L ₁ Greater than L ₂ It can be ensured that when the protrusion 421 supports the culture container 900, the gap between the culture container 900 and the connection section 422 is enough for the storage base 220 to pass through, thereby ensuring that the culture container handling member 400 does not interfere with the storage base 220 during taking and placing of the culture container 900.

In some embodiments, the interior of the housing 100 also forms a drive chamber that is spaced apart from the incubation chamber, and the first drive assembly and the second drive assembly are located in the drive chamber. The drive chamber isolates the first and second drive assemblies from the external environment, reducing contaminants within the drive chamber, thereby further reducing the risk of contaminants entering the culture chamber through the through-holes for passing through the drive 410 or spindle 210. Referring to fig. 6, the case 100 may include a door 130, a main housing 140, and a protective cover 150, the case 100 is provided with a door opening communicating with the incubation chamber, the door 130 is positioned at the right side of the main housing 140, the door 130 and the main housing 140 enclose to form the incubation chamber, the door 130 can open or close the door opening, the first guide bush 110, the second guide bush 120, the first driving assembly, and the second driving assembly are respectively mounted on the main housing 140, and the protective cover 150 is detachably mounted on the main housing 140 to enclose the driving chamber together with the main housing 140. When the incubator is assembled, the first guide sleeve 110, the second guide sleeve 120, the first driving assembly and the second driving assembly are firstly assembled and sterilized, and then the protective cover 150 is covered, so that the components are prevented from being polluted again by the external environment.

The protective cover 150 may include an access door that is opened to service the first and second drive assemblies, avoiding frequent disassembly of the protective cover 150.

It will be appreciated that when the culture chamber is opened to access the culture container 900, the exchange of gas between the inside and outside easily allows outside microorganisms to enter the culture chamber, resulting in contamination of the culture chamber. To this end, in some embodiments, the housing 100 is provided with a window 141, the window 141 being used to access the culture container 900 to the culture chamber. The cross-sectional area of the window 141 is smaller than that of the door, and the access of the incubation container 900 is performed through the window 141 instead of the door, so that the gas exchange between the incubation chamber and the outside during the access can be reduced, and the risk of contamination can be reduced. If desired, the housing 100 may also include a shutter for closing or opening the window 141, thereby further reducing the risk of contaminants entering from the window 141. Referring to fig. 4 and 5, a window 141 may be formed in the main housing 140, and the window 141 is positioned at a front side wall (Y direction) of the main housing 140 and is offset from the door 130, so that access of the culture container 900 through the window 141 is not interfered with an operation of the door 130 by an operator. Of course, in other embodiments, the window 141 may also be formed on the door 130.

The position of window 141 may be adapted according to the manner in which culture vessel 900 is accessed.

For example, in some embodiments, culture container handler 400 can be switchably paired with culture rack 200 or window 141, culture container handler 400 being used to handle culture container 900 between culture rack 200 and window 141. At this time, the position of the window 141 matches the position of the culture container handling member 400.

It is understood that the switching pairing means that the culture container handling member 400 is switched between a position paired with the culture shelf 200 (i.e., a position suitable for taking and putting the culture container 900 on the culture shelf 200) and a position paired with the window 141 (i.e., a position suitable for interfacing the culture container 900 with the outside) by moving. The movement first includes movement of the culture container carrier 400 and in some embodiments also movement of the culture rack 200 to mate the different receptacles 220 with the culture container carrier 400.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in which the position of the window 141 is matched with the position of the culture container handling member 400, and in the embodiment of FIG. 4, the culture rack 200 is matched with the culture container handling member 400 by rotating the different storage seats 220, and the culture container handling member 400 is matched with the culture rack 200 or the window 141 by rotating.

The present application also provides a culture container handling method paired with the embodiment of fig. 4, the culture container handling method comprising the steps of:

step S100: in response to the instruction to take out the culture container 900, the culture container handling part 400 is controlled to take out the culture container 900 positioned in the culture rack 200 and to send to the window 141;

step S200: in response to the instruction to store the culture container 900, the culture container handling part 400 is controlled to acquire the culture container 900 located at the window 141 and to send it to the culture shelf 200.

Specifically, step S100 may include:

step S110: the third driver 510 drives the culture rack 200 to rotate so that the culture container 900 to be taken out moves to a position to be mated with the culture container handling member 400.

Step S120: the first driver 310 drives the transmission part 410 to move up and down, and thus the material taking part 420 is moved to a position slightly below the culture container 900 to be taken out (i.e., a gap position between the two culture containers 900).

Step S130: the second driver 320 drives the transmission part 410 to rotate, so that the material taking part 420 is rotated to be right below the culture container 900 to be taken out.

Step S140: the first driver 310 drives the driving part 410 to move upward, so that the taking part 420 lifts the culture container 900 from the culture rack 200 and holds the culture container on the taking part 420.

Step S150: the second driver 320 drives the transmission part 410 to rotate, so that the culture container 900 moves out of the culture rack 200.

Step S160: the first driver 310 and/or the second driver 320 drive the transmission part 410 to move, so that the material taking part 420 carries the culture container 900 to a position matched with the window 141.

Step S170: the manipulator extends into the window 141 and takes out the culture container 900.

It is understood that the specific process of step S200 may be performed reversely with reference to the process of step S100.

In other embodiments, the culture rack 200 includes a middle transfer layer and a storage layer, the middle transfer layer being spaced apart from the storage layer in a vertical direction, the window 141 being positioned to mate with the middle transfer layer, and the culture container handling member 400 for handling the culture container 900 between the storage layer and the middle transfer layer. The transfer layer and the storage layer are respectively provided with a storage seat 220, and the number of the storage seats 220 of the transfer layer can be one or more.

Fig. 3 and 5 show an embodiment in which the position of the window 141 is matched to the position of the storage layer, and in the embodiment of fig. 3 and 5, the transfer layer is positioned at the uppermost layer of the cultivation support 200, and the cultivation support 200 is matched to the different storage base 220 and the cultivation container carrier 400 by rotating on the one hand, and on the other hand, the different storage base 220 and the window 141. The intermediate layer may be positioned at the lowermost layer of the culture rack 200 or between two sets of storage layers, as the case may be.

The present application also provides a culture container handling method paired with the embodiment of fig. 3 and 5, the culture container handling method comprising the steps of:

step S100: in response to the instruction to take out the culture container 900, the culture container handling part 400 is controlled to take out the culture container 900 located in the storage layer and send to the transfer layer;

step S200: in response to the instruction to deposit the culture container 900, the culture container handling part 400 is controlled to acquire the culture container 900 located at the intermediate layer and to send it to the storage layer.

Specifically, step S100 may include:

Step S150: the second driver 320 drives the transmission part 410 to rotate, so that the culture container 900 moves out of the storage layer.

Step S160: the first driver 310 drives the driving part 410 to move upwards, so that the material taking part 420 carries the culture container 900 to a position matched with the transfer layer.

Step S170: the first driver 310 and the second driver 320 drive the transmission part 410 to move, and the culture container 900 is placed in the storage seat 220 positioned on the transfer layer.

Step S180: the third driver 510 drives the culture rack 200 to rotate so that the culture container 900 to be taken out moves to a position to be mated with the window 141.

Step S190: the manipulator extends into the window 141 and takes out the culture container 900.

The incubator provided by the application is used in the method for transporting the culture container, so that the incubator has the beneficial effects, and the detailed description is omitted.

Returning to the incubator, to further reduce the risk of contamination of the culture chamber by gas exchange, in some embodiments, the enclosure 100 includes an air inlet port in communication with the culture chamber for communicating with an air source to raise the air pressure of the culture chamber above the external environment. It will be appreciated that the gas source provides a cleaning gas, such as treated carbon dioxide gas, which causes the incubation chamber to be at a positive pressure relative to the external environment such that gas will only flow outwardly from window 141 and will not enter the incubation chamber from window 141. In embodiments with a drive chamber, the culture chamber should likewise be at positive pressure relative to the drive chamber. The air intake duct may be formed by a terminal pipe joint mounted on the main housing 140, the terminal pipe joint being connected to the gas supply device through a pipe.

In the description of the present specification, reference to the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "illustrative embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present application. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

In some alternative embodiments, the functions/acts noted in the block diagrams may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. Furthermore, the embodiments presented and described in the flowcharts of this application are provided by way of example in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the technology. The disclosed methods are not limited to the operations and logic flows presented herein. Alternative embodiments are contemplated in which the order of various operations is changed, and in which sub-operations described as part of a larger operation are performed independently.

While embodiments of the present application have been shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: many changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the application, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A culture container handling member, comprising:

the transmission part extends in the vertical direction, the axial direction of the transmission part is parallel to the vertical direction, and one end of the transmission part is used for being connected with the first driving assembly;

the material taking part is connected to the other end of the transmission part, the material taking part is located on one side of the transmission part in the radial direction, the radial direction is perpendicular to the axial direction, and the material taking part is used for supporting the culture container.

2. The culture container handling member according to claim 1, wherein the transmission portion is a column.

3. The culture container handling member according to claim 2, wherein the surface of the transmission part is smooth.

4. The culture container handling member according to claim 1, wherein the material taking portion includes a projection for supporting the culture container.

5. The culture container handling member according to claim 4, wherein the projection extends in the vertical direction, the projection including a bearing surface for bearing the culture container, the bearing surface being oriented in the vertical direction.

6. The culture container handling member according to claim 5, wherein the material taking section includes a connecting section extending in a horizontal direction, both ends of the connecting section are respectively connected to the projection and the transmission section, and the projection protrudes from a surface of the connecting section in the vertical direction.

7. A handling module comprising a first drive assembly for driving movement of the culture container handling member of any one of claims 1 to 6 and the culture container handling member.

8. The carrier module of claim 7, wherein the first drive assembly includes a second drive for driving the transmission to rotate about its own axis.

9. The carrier module of claim 8, wherein the first drive assembly includes a first driver for driving the transmission to move in the vertical direction.

10. The carrier module of claim 9, wherein the first drive assembly includes a mounting block, a screw extending in the vertical direction, an output of the first drive in driving connection with the screw, and a slider mounted on the screw, the mounting block being mounted on the slider.

11. The carrier module of claim 10, wherein the second drive is mounted on the mounting table and the transmission is mounted at an output of the second drive.

12. An incubator comprising the handling module of any one of claims 7 to 11.

13. The incubator of claim 12, further comprising a tank and a culture rack, wherein the interior of the tank forms a culture chamber, the culture rack is positioned within the culture chamber, the culture rack is configured to receive a culture vessel, the culture vessel carrier is positioned partially or completely within the culture chamber, and the first drive assembly is positioned outside of the culture chamber.

14. The incubator of claim 13, wherein the transmission part penetrates a wall surface of the culture chamber in the vertical direction and extends to the outside of the culture chamber, and one side of the transmission part located at the outside of the culture chamber is connected to the first driving assembly.

15. The incubator of claim 14, wherein the incubator comprises a second drive assembly located outside the incubator chamber, the incubator frame comprising a spindle extending through a wall of the incubator chamber in the vertical direction, the second drive assembly for driving the spindle to rotate.

16. The incubator of claim 15, wherein the enclosure comprises a first guide sleeve in which the drive section is threaded and a second guide sleeve in which the spindle is threaded.

17. The incubator of claim 16, wherein the first guide sleeve and the second guide sleeve employ sealed linear bearings.

18. The incubator of claim 15, wherein the interior of the enclosure further forms a drive chamber, the drive chamber being spaced apart from the incubation chamber, the first drive assembly and the second drive assembly being located in the drive chamber.

19. The incubator of claim 13, wherein the culture rack comprises a storage seat that mates with the culture vessel, the storage seat comprising a positioning portion for positioning the culture vessel.

20. The incubator of claim 19, wherein the positioning portion comprises a positioning recess having a shape that matches the shape of the culture vessel.

21. The incubator of claim 19, wherein the storage base is provided with a through slot penetrating the storage base in the vertical direction, the through slot forming an opening for the ingress and egress of the culture container handling member in a direction perpendicular to the vertical direction.

22. The incubator of claim 13, wherein the enclosure defines a door and a window, the door and the window being in communication with the incubation chamber, the window being for accessing the incubation container to the incubation chamber, the enclosure including a hatch for closing or opening the door.

23. Incubator according to claim 22, characterized in that the culture container handling member is switchably mateable with the culture rack or the window, the culture container handling member being used for handling the culture container between the culture rack and the window.

24. The incubator of claim 22, wherein the incubator comprises a staging layer and a storage layer, the staging layer being spaced apart from the storage layer in the vertical direction, the window being positioned to mate with the staging layer, the incubation container handling member for handling the incubation container between the storage layer and the staging layer.

25. The incubator of claim 13, wherein the enclosure comprises an air inlet port in communication with the culture chamber, the air inlet port for communicating with an air source to raise the air pressure of the culture chamber above ambient.