JP2001264339A - Blood dispensing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a structure capable of providing flexibility for child containers into which blood serum is dispensed and taking out the child containers in a state directed in the same direction at all times. SOLUTION: In this blood dispensing device, blood serum separated from specimen blood is dispensed into the child containers for analysis for transferring the blood serum to an analyzing stage. The blood dispensing device is provided with a housing chamber 4 to house a plurality of child containers 1, a discharging means 5 to individually discharge the child containers 1 from the housing chamber 4, distinguishing means 20 and 21 to distinguish the directions of the discharged child containers 1, a supplying means 6 to supply the child containers 1 for a receiving member after uniformly directing the child containers 1 by information from the distinguishing means 20 and 21, and a control means 22 to control the operation of the discharging means 5 and supplying means 6 on the basis of information from the distinguishing mans 20 and 21.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blood dispensing apparatus used in the field of clinical tests and the like, and more particularly, to a blood dispensing apparatus having a mechanism for supplying a child container for subdividing serum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A clinical laboratory is provided with a blood dispensing apparatus for dispensing serum into a child container in order to analyze supernatant serum obtained by centrifugation of blood. In this blood dispensing device, serum is dispensed from a blood collection tube filled with centrifuged blood to a child container using a pipette nozzle or the like, and the child container is dispensed in order to automate the dispensing operation. A child container supply device for automatically supplying the stage is incorporated.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-234228.
Is a conventional blood dispensing device described in
A supply portion of the child container 110 and a pipette nozzle (hereinafter, referred to as a nozzle) 120 is shown. As shown in FIG.
Above the supply unit 100, a child container storage unit 111 for storing the child container 110 for dispensing and a nozzle storage unit 121 for storing the nozzle 120 are provided. The nozzle 120 is used when dispensing serum or the like to the child container 110,
It is paired with the child container 110. Inside the supply unit 100, receiving members 112 and 121 such as racks for receiving the child container 110 and the nozzle 120 in an upright state are provided to be vertically movable. And these receiving members 1
Blood collection tube 130 filled with serum is provided between 12, 121.
Is arranged.

FIG. 7 shows the container housing 111 in FIG. 6 from the side. The child container 110 is formed in a cross-sectional shape in which the lower portion is tapered, and a certain number (for example, 5
In the axial direction in a lightly press-fitted state. Thereby, the volume efficiency is improved. The child container 110 is a wide tape 1 in this laminated state.
13 is held by the tape 113. The tape 113 is wound in a roll shape around a shaft portion 114, and the tape 113 is pulled out by the rotation of a feed roller 115 and a take-up roller 116. By pulling out the tape 113, the child containers 110 are sequentially placed at a supply position 117.
Will be introduced. At the supply position 117, the upper part is fixed by the grip 131, the child container is gripped by the grip 132, and the child container is pulled out of the storage part 111 by a processing operation. Thereby, the child container 110 is held upright by the receiving member 112 located immediately below.

[0005]

The child container 110 used in the conventional apparatus has a special shape tapered, and is supplied in a laminated state in order to improve the volumetric efficiency. Containers need to be dedicated. On the other hand, a versatile child container that is not tapered has the inconvenience that it cannot be used in the above-described conventional device because it cannot be formed into a laminate. Further, in order to supply the child container 110, it is necessary to use a roll-shaped tape 113.
In this case, there is a problem that the operation of replacing the tape 3 is required, and that it takes time to replace the tape.

The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and can use a child container having a versatile shape and supply the child container in a form that does not require a tape. It is an object of the present invention to provide a blood dispensing device that can perform the blood dispensing.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a blood dispenser for dispensing serum separated from a sample blood into a child container for analysis in order to send the serum to an analysis stage. A storage device for accommodating a plurality of child containers, discharging means for individually discharging the child containers from the storage room, determining means for determining the direction of the discharged child containers, and A child container supply device comprising: a supply unit for supplying a receiving container with a predetermined orientation based on information, and a control unit for controlling operations of the discharge unit and the supply unit based on information from the determination unit. It is characterized by having.

According to the present invention, since the judging means judges the direction of the child container discharged by the discharging means, and the supply means sets the child container in a fixed direction based on the information of the judging means, for example, the opening is upward. All child containers can be supplied to the receiving member in a state where they are oriented. In this structure, it is only necessary to randomly store the child containers in the storage chamber, and a general-purpose child container having no taper can be used. Further, a tape for holding and supplying the child container is not required, and a troublesome operation caused by the tape is not required.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the supply means includes a rotating plate having an accommodation recess for accommodating a child container, and the rotating plate being controlled by the control means. And a rotary drive source for rotating in forward and reverse directions.

According to the present invention, the rotary driving source rotates the rotary plate accommodating the child containers. Since the rotation direction is controlled by the control means, all the child containers face the same direction.
For example, the opening may be in a state of facing upward.
Therefore, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, the directions of all the child containers can be surely set to the same direction.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the discharging means includes a discharging belt provided with a plurality of concave portions into which the child containers individually fall, and the discharging belt is controlled by the control means. And a traveling drive source for traveling and stopping.

Since the discharge belt according to the present invention has the concave portions into which the child containers individually fall, the child containers can be individually taken out, and there is no need to hold the child containers on tape.

[0013]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the blood dispensing device 31 includes:
The child container 1 includes a serum separating device 32, a child container supply device 2, and a dispensing stage 34, and is provided in a preceding stage of an analysis stage 35 for analyzing serum subdivided into the child container 1.
The serum separating device 32 separates a blood clot, which is a precipitate, from a serum, which is a supernatant, by performing centrifugation or the like on the sample blood collected in a blood collection tube or the like. The child container supply device 2 individually takes out the child containers 1 and supplies the child containers 1 to the dispensing stage 34 while the receiving members 15 such as racks hold the child containers 1. The dispensing stage 34 dispenses serum to the child containers 1 individually supplied from the child container supply device 2.

In this embodiment, FIG. 2 is an overall sectional view, FIG. 3 is a plan view, and FIG.
Next, the supply means of the child container is shown in FIG.

The child container 1 of this embodiment is made of glass, for dispensing serum and analyzing the dispensed serum.
It is formed of resin or the like. As shown in FIG. 5, the child container 1 is closed at the bottom, has an opening 1a at the top, and has a versatility without a tapered portion having a single outer diameter at an intermediate portion therebetween. It has a tube shape.

As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the child container supply device 2 is provided with a storage room 4 supported by a base 3, a discharge means 5 provided in the storage room 4, and an outside of the storage room 4. Supply means 6 provided.

The storage chamber 4 is open at the top, and the child container 1 is filled from the opened top. The child container 1 is filled in the storage chamber 4 in a state of being laid down. A discharge port 7 is formed on one side surface (left side surface) of the storage chamber 4, and the child container 1 in a sideways state is carried out from the discharge port 7.
A plurality of child containers 1 are filled in the storage room 4 so as to be stacked in many stages, and thus the stacked child containers 1 form a child container group 8 in the storage room 4.

The discharge means 5 is arranged near the bottom of the storage chamber 4. The discharging means 5 includes a driving pulley 10 and a driven pulley 11 which are spaced apart from each other, and these pulleys 10 and 11
And a traveling motor 1 as a traveling drive source for traveling and stopping the discharging belt 12 by applying a rotational force to the driving pulley 10.
3 is provided. The traveling motor 13 moves the discharge belt 12 in the direction toward the discharge port 7 (the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3).
Are driven so as to travel, and the driving thereof is controlled by control means 22 described later. The drive pulley 10 is arranged near the discharge port 7.

The discharge belt 12 has a plurality of concave portions 12a in which the child containers 1 fall, in the length direction thereof. The concave portion 12a has a width corresponding to the thickness of the child container 1 so that the child containers 1 individually fall. Therefore, the child container 1 that has fallen into the concave portion 12a is removed from the child container group 8 in the storage chamber 4. It is separated and transported in the direction of the discharge port 7. Such recess 12
As the discharge belt 12 having “a”, a double-toothed belt can be used. In FIG. 2, 9 is a discharge belt 12.
, The weight of the child container 1 makes the discharge belt 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes a loosening prevention plate for preventing loosening.

The supply means 6 is provided outside the storage chamber 4 at a position facing the discharge port 7. This supply means 6
Is a support table 15 erected at an interval from the base 3, and a rotating plate 16 supported by the support table 15 so as to face the discharge port 7.
And a shaft mounted on the support base 15 and connected to the rotary plate 16 to rotate the rotary plate 16 in forward and reverse directions (arrows B and C directions in FIG. 5), such as a stepping motor or a servo motor. And a motor 17. In this case, the rotation motor 17 is a rotation drive source for rotating the rotation plate 16 in the forward and reverse directions.
Controls its driving.

As shown in FIG. 5, the rotating plate 16 is formed in a disk shape, and the surface of the storage chamber 4 facing the outlet 7 has
An accommodation recess 16a is formed. The accommodation recess 16 a accommodates the child container 1, and thus has a horizontally elongated slit that matches the external shape of the child container 1. In this case, the housing recess 16a is a simple slit having both ends opened. A pair of discrimination sensors 20, 21 as discrimination means, which will be described later, face the rotating plate 16 so as to be located at both ends of the recess 16a.

As shown in FIG. 5, the rotary plate 16 is inserted into a cylindrical guide tube 18, and the rotary plate 16 rotates while being inserted into the guide tube 18. Thus, the rotating plate 1
6 is rotated in the guide tube 18, so that the accommodation recess 1 is formed.
The child container 1 accommodated in 6a does not jump out. In addition to this, a retaining plate 23 is disposed in front of the rotating plate 16 as shown in FIG. The retaining plate 23 has a horizontally elongated slit similar to the housing recess 16a of the rotating plate 16, and the child container 1 enters the housing recess 16a of the rotating plate 16 after passing through this slit. Thereafter, when the rotating plate 16 rotates, the housing recess 16a
Is relatively displaced with respect to the slit of the retaining plate 23, so that the child container 1 in the housing recess 16 a does not fall out of the rotating plate 16.

A drop hole 18a is formed in the lower part of the guide cylinder 18. When the recess 16a of the rotary plate 16 and the drop hole 18a coincide, the child container 1 housed in the recess 16a drops. It falls from the hole 18a. The receiving member 21 of the child container 1 is disposed below the drop hole 18a so as to be able to advance and retreat, and the child container 1 from the drop hole 18a is accommodated in the receiving member 21.

As shown in FIG. 2, the receiving member 21 is conveyed in a direction penetrating the paper surface while being placed on the conveyer belt 24, and is stopped when the receiving member 21 reaches just below the accommodating recess 16a of the rotating plate 16. , And enters a standby state waiting for the child container 1 to fall. The transport and stop of the receiving member 21 by the transport belt 24 are controlled by the control unit 22.

A pair of discriminating sensors 20 as discriminating means,
Numerals 21 face both ends of the housing recess 16a of the rotating plate 16, and the respective sensor portions 20a and 21a are connected to the housing recess 1a.
6a. Each discrimination sensor 20,
Reference numeral 21 determines the direction (direction) of the child container 1 housed in the housing recess 16a. That is, the discrimination sensors 20 and 21
Determines whether the bottom of the child container 1 is facing or the opening 1a is facing. In order to perform this determination, for example, a photoelectric sensor or another sensor can be used as the determination sensor 20.

As shown in FIG. 3, the discrimination sensors 20 and 21 are connected to the control means 22 and output the discriminated information to the control means 22. Control means 2 based on this information
2 controls the driving of the traveling motor 13 and the rotation motor 17.

The control of the rotation motor 17 by the control means 22 determines the direction of rotation of the rotary plate 16 so that the child container 1 held by the rotary plate 16 is erected.
Specifically, when the discrimination sensor 20 detects the top (opening 1 a) of the child container 1 and the discrimination sensor 21 detects the bottom of the child container 1, the rotating plate 16 rotates so as to rotate in the direction of arrow C. Motor 17 is controlled, and in the opposite case, the rotating plate 16
Is to control the rotation motor 17 to rotate in the direction of arrow B. Thereby, the opening 1a of the child container 1 is always located on the upper side, and the child container 1 can be accommodated in the receiving member 19.

The control of the traveling motor 13 by the control means 22 drives the traveling motor 13 to cause the discharge belt 12 to travel when both the discrimination sensors 20 and 21 do not detect the bottom of the child container 1. Thereby, the child container 1 is taken out from the storage room 4. On the other hand, when one of the determination sensors 20 and 21 detects the bottom of the child container 1, the driving of the traveling motor 13 is stopped, and the traveling of the discharge belt 12 is stopped. Thereby, the child container 1 is not taken out of the storage room 4 extra.

In addition to this control, when one of the discrimination sensors 20 and 21 detects the bottom of the child container 1, the control means 22 causes the conveyor belt 24 to run and the receiving member 21 to move.
Is controlled to wait just below the rotating plate 16.

In the above embodiment, a plurality of child containers 1 are filled in the storage chamber 4 so as to form a multistage. In this state, when the traveling motor 13 is driven and the discharge belt 12 travels in the direction of the arrow A, the child containers 1 individually fall into the concave portions 12a of the discharge belt 12 and are brought into the engaged state with the discharge belt 12. The child container 1 is conveyed to the discharge port 7 by the discharge belt 12 and is stored in the storage recess 16 a of the rotating plate 16. At the time of this storage, the discriminating sensors 20 and 21 discriminate the orientation of the child container 1 and based on the information of the discriminating sensors 20 and 21, the control means 22 controls the rotating plate 16 so that the opening 1 a is always located on the upper side. Control the direction of rotation. Therefore,
The receiving member 19 is supplied with the opening 1a positioned above.

In such an embodiment, the child containers 1 are oriented in the same direction simply by stacking the child containers 1 randomly on the storage room 4 without considering the orientation of the child containers 1. be able to. Therefore, a versatile child container without a tapered portion can be used as the child container 1, and a tape for sandwiching the child container 1 is not required unlike the related art, so that troublesome work caused by the tape is eliminated, and Can be supplied with the child container 1.

[0032]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is only necessary to randomly store the child containers in the storage chamber, a general-purpose child container having no taper can be used, and the child container is held. This eliminates the need for the tape, and eliminates the cumbersome work caused by the tape.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the rotation drive source for rotating the rotary plate is controlled by the control means, all the child containers can be surely oriented in a certain direction.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the discharge belt has the concave portion, the child containers can be individually taken out, and it is not necessary to hold the child containers on the tape.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall cross-sectional view of the child container supply device according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a side view of one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing the supply means, as viewed from the direction of arrows LL in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a conventional blood dispensing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a partially broken side view of a conventional blood dispensing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 child container 2 child container transfer device 4 storage chamber 5 discharge means 6 supply means 7 discharge port 12 discharge belt 12a recess 16 rotating plate 16a storage recess 19 receiving member 20 21 discrimination sensor 22 control means

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on front page F term (reference) 2G058 BA06 CB02 CB11 CB15 CF01 CF16 GB10 3F081 AA04 AA18 BA04 BC01 BD17 BD18 BE02 BE08 CA03 CC08 EA09 EA15 FA01 FA03 FB01 FB03

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A blood dispensing device for dispensing serum separated from a sample blood into a child container for analysis in order to send the serum to an analysis stage, comprising: a storage chamber for storing a plurality of child containers; Discharging means for individually discharging the child containers from the storage chamber; determining means for determining the direction of the discharged child containers; and supplying the supply to the receiving member after the child containers are oriented in a certain direction based on the information of the determining means. A blood container dispensing apparatus, comprising: a child container supply device comprising: means for controlling operation of the discharge means and the supply means based on information from the determination means. 2. The supply means includes a rotary plate having a receiving recess for receiving a child container, and a rotary drive source for rotating the rotary plate in the forward and reverse directions under the control of the control means. The blood dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The discharge means includes a discharge belt provided with a plurality of concave portions into which the child containers individually fall, and a traveling drive source for traveling and stopping the discharge belt under the control of the control means. Blood dispensing device.