JP2000098254A - Optical path switching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical path switching device which is capable of executing positioning with high accuracy at the time of optical path switching and has excellent cost effectiveness. SOLUTION: A cube 35 formed with a click groove 352 at the base end of a male dovetail 351 is inserted into female dovetails 331 of an optical path switching device body 33. The click groove 352 is engaged by a click mechanism having a ball 43 and compression spring 44 disposed in the prescribed position of the female dovetail 331, by which the cube 25 is positioned to the prescribed position. The male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 is pressed to the wall surface of the female dovetail 331 by a pressing means arranged on the female dovetails 331 on both sides of the click mechanism.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical path switching device used for, for example, an epi-illumination microscope.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an optical path switching device used for an incident light microscope, there is a device configured as shown in FIGS. In this case, the cylindrical light projecting tube main body 1 having a rectangular cross section has through holes 1a and 1b forming optical paths orthogonal to each other on the upper surface and side surfaces, and a plurality of cubes 4 are formed from the open end 1c. The optical path switching device main body 3 is inserted and removed by sliding, and the desired cube 4 is made to coincide with the through holes 1a and 1b of the light emitting tube main body 1 by sliding the optical path switching device main body 3. An optical path condition passing through the through holes 1a and 1b can be switched under a condition corresponding to a cube.

In this case, the light emitting tube main body 1 has a female dovetail 101 along the hollow portion from the opening end 1c, and the optical path switching device main body 3 has a sliding direction of the Alice slider 5 having the male dovetail 501. A plurality of cubes 4 are made detachable by ants 401 and fixing screws 6. Then, the male ant 501 of the Alice slider 5 of the optical path switching device main body 3 is inserted into the female ant 101 of the light emitting tube main body 1 to slide the optical path switching device main body 3. A click groove (not shown) is provided at a position corresponding to 1a and 1b, and the ball 7, spring 8 and push screw 9 provided on the female dovetail 101 side of the light emitting tube main body 1 act on the click groove. This allows positioning.

[0004]

However, according to the above configuration, each cube 4 is mounted on the female dovetail 101 of the light emitting tube main body 1 via the Alice slider 5, so that the configuration is reduced. There was a problem that it became complicated. The positioning of the Alice rider 5 is performed by using a click mechanism ball 7 provided on the female dovetail 101 of the light emitting tube main body 1 with respect to a click groove on the Alice rider 5 side.
The male ant 501 of the Alice rider 5 and the female ant 101 of the light emitting tube body 1
If there is a gap between the optical path switching device main body 3 and the clicked state, it is easy for rattling to occur in the optical path switching device main body 3, and there is a problem that highly accurate positioning on the optical axis cannot be performed. Further, since there is only one click groove formed in the optical path switching device main body 3, the optical path switching device main body 3 to the light emitting tube main body 1 is different between the inverted microscope and the upright microscope.
If the insertion direction is reversed, positioning becomes impossible.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical path switching device which can perform high-precision positioning at the time of optical path switching and is excellent in economy.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In an optical path switching device in which a plurality of optical elements can be selectively inserted into a predetermined optical path, a male dovetail formed on the optical element and having a click groove at a base end thereof, and a male dovetail of the optical element are inserted. A female ant, a click means provided at a predetermined position of the female ant and being engaged with a click groove of the male ant to position the optical element, and disposed on both sides of the click means of the female ant, and pressing the male ant against the female ant wall surface A device main body having a pressing means for applying a force, wherein the optical element is positioned at a predetermined position by the clicking means, and at the same time, a force is applied by the pressing means to press a male dovetail of the optical element against the female dovetail wall surface. It is characterized by.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the pressing means extends along the female ant to one side wall of the female ant,
It is characterized in that it has a pressing member fitted into the elongated hole and coming into contact with the male dovetail, and elastic means for applying a pressing force to the male dovetail side to the pressing member.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the male ants formed on the optical element have click grooves formed on both side surfaces corresponding to the female ants at a base end thereof. And

As a result, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
The optical element is positioned at a predetermined position on the female dove on the main body of the apparatus by the click means, and at the same time, is pressed against the wall of the female dove by the pressing means, so that there is no loose play even when switching the optical path. Can be.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the operation of moving the optical element along the female dove of the apparatus main body can obtain good operability without rattling. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the positioning of the optical element can be performed between the inverted microscope and the upright microscope even if the insertion direction of the optical element into the female dove is reversed. , Can share optical elements.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIGS. 1 and 2 are a plan view and a side view showing a schematic configuration of an inverted epi-illumination microscope applied to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a microscope main body, which has a focusing handle 22, an eyepiece 2
3, and a stage 25 on which the sample 42 is placed via the stage table 24 is integrally provided.

A revolver 27 is rotatably provided on the microscope body 21 via a revolving table 26. A plurality of objective lenses 28 are fixed to the revolver 27 by screwing.
The magnification of the objective lens 28 with respect to the sample 42 on the sample 5 can be changed. In this case, the revolving table 26 moves up and down by the rotation of the focusing handle 22, and the objective lens 28 is focused by the up and down movement of the revolving table 26.

On the other hand, reference numeral 29 denotes an epi-illumination light pipe main body, which is provided with a lamp house 37 having a lamp 39. In this case, the lamp 39 can be moved and adjusted in the up and down direction by the knob 38 and in the left and right direction by the knob 41.

The epi-illumination light projection tube main body 29 is attached to the microscope main body 21 by a support member 31. In addition, the epi-illumination light projection tube main body 29 is provided with an optical path switching device main body 33 via a connecting member 30. The optical path switching device main body 33 has a female dovetail 331, supports a plurality of cubes 35 slidably along the female dovetail 331, and enables a desired cube 35 to be positioned on the optical axis O of the objective lens 28. ing. Here, cube 35
It houses a half mirror 51, an excitation filter 52, an absorption filter 53, and the like, which will be described later.

Thus, the lamp 3 of the lamp house 37
When the illuminating light is emitted from 9, it is turned back by the half mirror in the cube 35 through the illumination optical system (not shown) of the epi-illumination light projection tube main body 29, and is radiated to the sample 42 on the stage 25 via the objective lens 28. The illumination of the sample 42
When more fluorescent light is emitted, the fluorescent light reaches the eyepiece 23 via an absorption filter of the cube 35 via an observation optical system (not shown), and constitutes an inverted epi-illumination microscope for performing fluorescent observation.

FIGS. 3 to 5 show the optical path switching device main body 33.
1 shows a schematic configuration of the embodiment. Here, FIG. 3 is a view of the optical path switching device main body 33 shown in FIG. 2 viewed from the right side, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 3, and FIG.
It is sectional drawing along the line.

In this case, the main body 33 of the optical path switching device is fixed to the connecting member 30 from the main body 29 of the incident light projection tube by a screw 34. This optical path switching device main body 33 is similar to that shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG.
Is formed, and the male ants 351 of the cube 35 are fitted to the female ants 331 to thereby attach the cube 35 to the female ants 3.
The slide operation can be performed along 31. Here, the structure of the cube 35 will be described later. Also,
The middle part of the female ant 331 (the position corresponding to the optical axis), that is, the female ant 3 corresponding to the position along the line XX in FIG.
A hole 332 is formed in the upper wall of the hole 31.
The ball 43 is dropped on the ball 43 and the ball 43 is pressed by a screw 45 via a compression spring 44 to form a click mechanism. In this case, the ball 43 projects slightly from the wall of the female dovetail 331 without the cube 35.

As shown in FIG. 3, the optical path switching device main body 33 has a pair of long holes 333, 3 along the female ant 331 at symmetrical positions on the back of the female ant 331 with respect to the illustrated XX line.
33 are formed. This long hole 333 is a female ant 33
A pressing member 46 made of, for example, polyacetal is inserted while being formed so as to penetrate to one of the side walls. The pressing member 46 contacts the male ants 351 of the cube 35 fitted to the female ants 331 and
This is to prevent backlash during the sliding operation of No. 5. In this case, a portion of the pressing member 46 that contacts the male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 is chamfered (not shown).

The optical path switching device main body 33 includes a female ant 3
A plurality of (two in the illustrated example, two for each elongated hole 333) holes 334 penetrating to the elongated hole 333 are formed in the upper wall portion 31. A screw 48 is screwed into these holes 334 via a compression spring 47, and the pressing force of the compression spring 47 at this time is applied to the pressing member 46 toward the male dovetail 351 of the cube 35. In this case, a plate member 49 is interposed between the pressing member 46 and the compression spring 47. The plate member 49 is for preventing the pressing member 46 from being deformed by being locally pressed by the compression spring 47. In addition, the pressing member 46 is
In a state where the fifth male dovetail 351 is not fitted to the female dovetail 331, a part thereof slightly projects into the female dovetail 331.

At the back of the optical path switching device main body 33, a cover plate 50 is provided. This cover plate 50 is
3 for closing the opening. The convex portion 3 is formed above the side surface of the optical path switching device body 33 where the female dovetail 331 is formed.
35 are formed. This convex part 335 is
In this case, the distance a from the optical axis M of the cube 35 to the upper end and the distance b from the lower end are set to be different from each other. If the cube 35 is to be inserted upside down, the projection 335 interferes and prevents insertion.

FIGS. 6A and 6B show a schematic configuration of a cube 35 mounted on such an optical path switching device main body 33. FIG. In the figure, 350 is a cube body,
A male dovetail 351 is formed integrally with the cube body 350. The male dovetail 351 can be inserted into the female dovetail 331 of the optical path switching device main body 33 described above, and has click grooves 352 for optical axis positioning formed on both side surfaces corresponding to the female dovetail 331 at the base end thereof. I have. In this case, the width dimension of these click grooves 352 is determined by the diameter of the ball 43 of the above-mentioned click mechanism, but it is not necessary that both width dimensions are the same. You may make it possible to distinguish the upright type, which will be described later.

The cube body 350 is provided with a male ant 3
The half mirror support 353 is formed integrally with the half mirror 51, and the half mirror 51 is provided on the half mirror support 353.
Is provided. Also, the half mirror support 353 has
A frame portion 354 is provided integrally, and an aperture plate 355 is provided so as to cover the frame portion 354. The aperture plate 355 is fixed to the cube body 350 by screws 56. Further, the excitation filter 5 is provided on the frame 354 in correspondence with the half mirror 51.
2. Arrange the absorption filter 53 on the half-mirror support 353 and the through-hole 54 on the aperture plate 355 so that the optical axis M
For the illumination light incident on the excitation filter 52 along
The excitation light of a specific wavelength is taken out, reflected by the half mirror 51 and emitted from the through hole 54, and the fluorescence from the sample incident through the through hole 54 is transmitted through the half mirror 51,
The image is taken out through the absorption filter 53 as an observation image.

Numeral 55 denotes screw holes provided at both ends of the cube body 350. The screw holes 55 are used for connecting the cubes 35 even if a screw or the like is screwed in and used to slide the cubes 35. Can be used. The male dovetail 351 and the half-mirror support 353 of the cube body 350 need to have high precision in order to secure the optical axis of the illumination light. Here, by using the same member, processing precision can be easily obtained and processing can be performed easily. It is easy to do.

When the cube 35 thus constructed is inserted in a correct direction from one end of the female dovetail 331 of the optical path switching device main body 33, the male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 is inserted.
Is brought into contact with the pressing member 46 in the elongated hole 333, and is inserted while pressing the pressing member 46.

In this case, the male ants 351 of the cube 35
Even if there is a slight gap between the male ant 351 and the female ant 331, the pressing force of the pressing member 46
Is pressed against the wall surface of the female dovetail 331 to be in a stable state. Thereby, the operation of moving the cube 35 along the female dovetail 331 of the optical path switching device main body 33 can obtain good operability in which rattle is not felt.

Thereafter, when the cube 35 reaches the middle part of the female dovetail 331 and the end of the male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 contacts the ball 43 of the click mechanism, the compression spring 44
After the ball 43 is once pushed up against the spring force of the above, the ball 43 is dropped into the click groove 352 and engaged, and the cube 35 is positioned on the optical axis.

At this optical axis position, the cube 35
Is generated by the pressing force of the pressing member 46 of the elongated holes 333 and 333 symmetrically with respect to the XX axis shown in FIG. 3 together with the pressing force of the ball 43 dropped into the click groove 352.
Positioning can be performed in a stable state. (Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to an inverted epi-illumination microscope has been described. In the second embodiment, the present invention is applied to an upright epi-illumination microscope. An example of application is shown. 7 and 8 show a schematic configuration of an upright epi-illumination microscope. Numeral 61 denotes a microscope main body. The microscope main body 61 has a focusing handle 62 and an eyepiece 63.
, And a stage 66 on which the sample 65 is placed via the stage base 64 is provided integrally.

A revolver 68 is rotatably provided on the microscope main body 61 via a revolving table 67. A plurality of objective lenses 69 are fixed to the revolver 68 by screwing, and the rotation of the revolver 68 enables the magnification change of the objective lens 69 with respect to the sample 65 on the stage 66. In this case, the stage 64 moves up and down by the rotation of the focusing handle 62, and the objective lens 69 is focused by the up and down movement of the stage 64.

On the other hand, reference numeral 70 denotes a light emitting tube main body, which is provided with a lamp house 72 having a lamp 71. In this case, the lamp 71 can be adjusted by moving the knob 73 in the vertical direction and by the knob 74 in the horizontal direction.

The light emitting tube main body 70 is provided with an optical path switching device main body 75. The optical path switching device main body 75 is disposed between the eyepiece 63 and the revolving table 67,
A female ant 331 is provided, and the plurality of cubes 76 are slidably supported along the female ant 331.
A desired cube 76 can be positioned on the optical axis O of the objective lens 69.

Thus, the lamp 7 of the lamp house 72
When the illumination light is emitted from the light source 1, the illumination light is turned back by the half mirror in the cube 76 via an illumination optical system (not shown) of the projection tube main body 70, and the stage 66 is passed through the objective lens 69.
When the sample 65 is illuminated and the sample 65 emits fluorescent light by this illumination, the fluorescent light reaches the eyepiece 63 via an absorption filter of the cube 76 via an observation optical system (not shown), and is an upright type incident light for performing fluorescence observation. Make up the microscope.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 9, the optical path switching device main body 75 has a configuration in which the optical path switching device main body 33 described with reference to FIG. 4 is turned over, and details are the same as those in FIG. The parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. Also,
As for the cube 76 inserted into the optical path switching device main body 75, as shown in FIG. 9, except that the cube 35 described with reference to FIG. 6 is used while being rotated by 180 ° about the M axis. 6 and the same parts as those in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Further, the optical path switching device main body 75 has a step 751 formed below the side surface on which the female dovetail 331 is formed. This step 751 is used to connect the cube 76 to the female ant 3
This is for preventing erroneous insertion when inserting the cube 31. If the cube 76 is to be inserted upside down, the stepped portion 751 interferes and cannot be inserted.

Therefore, the same effects as in the above-described first embodiment can be expected even when the above-described configuration is applied to an upright epi-illumination microscope. (Third Embodiment) FIGS. 10 (a), 10 (b) and 10 (c) show a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device used in a third embodiment of the present invention. The device main body 81 moves along the female ant 811,
A plurality of notches 812 penetrating through one of the side walls are formed, and a pressing member 82 formed of a leaf spring or the like having the shape of the side wall of the female dovetail 811 is fixed in these notches 812 via screws 83. are doing. The pressing member 82 is a male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 fitted to the female dovetail 811.
To prevent backlash when the cube 35 slides.

The optical path switching device main body 8 thus configured
Even if 1 is adopted, the same effect as described above can be expected. (Fourth Embodiment) FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, and 11D
Shows a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body used in the fourth embodiment of the present invention. In this case, the optical path switching device main body 91 forms a pair of long grooves 912 along one side wall of the female dovetail 911. A pressing member 92 having the shape of a side wall of the female dovetail 911 is inserted along the long groove 912. Screws 93 are fixed to both ends of these pressing members 92. A counterbore 913 has a gap only in the radial direction with respect to the screw 93.
Can move in the z and y directions, but is restricted in the x direction. A compression spring 94 is disposed between the optical path switching device main body 91 and the pressing member 92.

Thus, the pressing member 92 is attached to the female dovetail 9
It comes into contact with the male dovetail 351 of the cube 35 fitted to 11 so as to prevent backlash during the sliding operation of the cube 35.

The optical path switching device main body 9 configured as described above
Even if 1 is adopted, the same effect as described above can be expected. (Fifth Embodiment) FIGS. 12 (a) and 12 (b) show a schematic configuration of a cube used in a fifth embodiment of the present invention. It is attached.

In this case, the cube 35 is provided with a diaphragm plate 355.
Are omitted, and only the frame portion 354 is provided.
By making the position of the screw 56 for fixing the 54 to the cube body 350 and the screw hole 55 for the knob along the direction of the optical axis M, the whole is made compact.

According to such a configuration, the entire cube 35 can be reduced in size, and the space around the cube 35 can be effectively used. In the above-described embodiment, polyacetal is used as the material of the pressing member 46 that constitutes the optical path switching device main bodies 33 and 75. Instead of this, a plastic material, a metal material, or a metal coated with resin is used. Even if used, the same effects as described above can be obtained.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, the optical element is positioned at a predetermined position on the female dove of the apparatus main body by the click means and simultaneously pressed against the wall of the female dove by the press means. Therefore, high-precision positioning without backlash can be performed even at the time of optical path switching.

Also, with respect to the operation of moving the optical element along the female dovetail of the apparatus main body, good operability without rattling can be obtained. Furthermore, even if the direction of insertion of the optical element into the female ant is reversed between the inverted microscope and the upright microscope, the optical element can be positioned, and the optical element can be shared. It can also be advantageous.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of an inverted epi-illumination microscope applied to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of an inverted epi-illumination microscope applied to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a cube applied to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of an upright epi-illumination microscope applied to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of an upright epi-illumination microscope applied to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to a second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an optical path switching device main body applied to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a cube applied to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional optical path switching device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional optical path switching device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 ... Microscope main body 22 ... Focusing handle 23 ... Eyepiece 24 ... Stage stand 25 ... Stage 26 ... Revo stand 27 ... Revolver 28 ... Objective lens 29 ... Epi-illumination light pipe main body 30 ... Connection member 31 ... Support member 33 ... Device main body 331 ... female ant 332 ... hole 333 ... long hole 334 ... hole 335 ... convex part 34 ... screw 35 ... cube 350 ... cube body 351 ... male ant 352 ... click groove 353 ... half mirror support base 354 ... frame part 355 ... aperture plate 37 ... lamp house 38.41 ... knob 39 ... lamp 42 ... sample 43 ... ball 44 ... compression spring 45 ... screw 46 ... pressing member 47 ... compression spring 48 ... screw 49 ... plate member 50 ... lid plate 51 ... half mirror 52 ... Excitation filter 53 ... Absorption filter 54 ... Through hole 55 ... Screw hole 56 ... Screw 61 ... Microscope body 6 Reference focus handle 63 Eyepiece 64 Stage stage 65 Sample 66 Stage 67 Revolver stage 69 Revolver 69 Objective lens 70 Projector tube 71 Lamp 72 Lamp house 73 Knob 74 Knob 75 Device main body 751 Stepped portion 76 Cube 81 Device main body 811 Female dovetail 812 Notch portion 82 Pressing member 83 Screw 91 Device main body 911 Female dowel 912 Long groove 913 Counterbore hole portion 92 Pressing member 93 Screw 94: Compression spring

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An optical path switching device in which a plurality of optical elements can be selectively inserted into a predetermined optical path, wherein a male dovetail formed on the optical element and having a click groove at a base end thereof; A female ant into which a male ant is inserted, a click means provided at a predetermined position of the female ant and engaged with a click groove of the male ant to position the optical element, and a male ant disposed on both sides of the click means of the female ant, A device main body having a pressing means for applying a pressing force to the female dovetail wall, wherein the optical element is positioned at a predetermined position by the click means, and at the same time, the male dovetail of the optical element is pressed against the female dovetail wall surface by the pressing means. An optical path switching device characterized by acting. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pressing means includes an elongated hole formed along the female ant to one side wall of the female ant.
2. The optical path switching device according to claim 1, further comprising a pressing member fitted into said elongated hole and contacting said male dovetail, and elastic means for applying a pressing force to said male dovetail side to said pressing member. apparatus. 3. A male ant formed on the optical element,
2. The optical path switching device according to claim 1, wherein click grooves are formed at both sides of the base end corresponding to the female dovetail.