JP2009198227A - Shell-closing force measuring instrument of bivalve - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a shell-closing force measuring instrument of a bivalve that simultaneously opens the mouth of a bivalve such as a pearl oyster to a set dimension with an easy operation and measures the shell-closing force as a load required when the mouth is opened. <P>SOLUTION: This shell-closing force measuring instrument has a pair of grips interconnected rotatably through a fulcrum in order to simultaneously open the mouth of the bivalve to a predetermined dimension and measure the shell-closing force of the shellfish. The grips are formed of grip sections and spatula sections about the fulcrum. The pair of grips have, on a surface part of two grip section sides and its rotation fulcrum, an opening dimension indicator showing the opening dimension of the spatula sections inserted into the mouth of the shellfish using the relative position between the pointer fixed to one grip section and a scale plate fixed to the other grip section, and a load indicator that has a part of low deflection rigidity locally in one grip section and enlargedly displays the bending amount of the grips generated by the load charged on the spatula sections with the shell-closing force of the shellfish. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a device for measuring the closing shell force when a core is placed in a bivalve such as an pearl oyster used for pearl culture.

  In Japan, cultured pearls are mainly produced by using pearl oysters, etc., and artificially produced nuclei are inserted into the gonads of shells to form pearl bags, which are secreted from the mantle into the nuclei. It is done by winding.

  In the case of nuclear insertion, after opening the mouth of the pearl oyster shell to a certain size, the opening holding piece of the shell opener is moved to prevent the shell from closing, or a wooden plug (hereinafter referred to as `` Nucleotomy is performed after the mouth of the shellfish is prevented from closing by inserting a plug. At present, nuclear surgery is performed on the total number of pearl oysters to be cultured.

  By the way, with the current aquaculture technology, it is said that the collection rate of pearls that can be used as products from pearl oysters after intubation is about 40%, and pearls with poor shape and gloss are about 20%, and the remaining 40% The degree is said to die during the cultivation period.

  According to a recent study, the resistance of the shell when opening the mouth of the shell, that is, the shell closing force, is related to the shell mortality rate, and the Akoya shellfish with a small shell closing force is reported to have a high mortality rate (non-patented) Reference 1), the problem of rot of dead shellfish contaminating the aquaculture area is growing.

  In addition, since pearl oysters with too high closing power may spit out inserted nuclei as foreign matter, it is desirable to select only pearl oysters with moderate closing power as the shells to be cultured.

  For this reason, in order to know the shell closing force of the shellfish, conventionally, a method of measuring the force required to open the shellfish by inserting the sheller into the shell mouth and opening the shellfish (Patent Document 1) or a pair A load cell is attached to the front end portion of the clip piece which is coupled so as to be opened and closed and elastic force is applied in the closing direction, and is electrically connected to the closing force indicator, and the clip piece is clamped against the elastic force. A measuring instrument is disclosed that measures the closing force of a bivalve while keeping the opening degree of a predetermined value (Patent Document 2). However, the measuring instruments and methods as described above have problems that they are not easy to use and that the measuring instruments are expensive, such as requiring a power source and a large apparatus.

If only a group of Akoya oysters with appropriate shell strength is subjected to tuberculosis surgery and only that population is cultivated, the operation cost of the tuberculosis surgery can be reduced and the aquaculture area can be effectively used, making it possible to use pearls that can be used as products. The collection rate can be improved. In addition, the number of pearl oysters that die is reduced, which is a countermeasure against pollution in the sea area. For these reasons, further development of a closed shell force measuring device capable of directly reading the closed shell force with simple work at the work site has been desired.
JP 2007-135532 A Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 04-53532 Aquaculture 54 (4) (2006) 525-529, “Differences in the closing power of pearl oysters among families”

  The present invention has been made to address such problems, and aims to improve the collection rate of pearls that can be used as commodities from bivalves such as pearl oysters after cultivation, and to effectively use the aquaculture area during aquaculture. In order to prevent contamination of the sea area, in order to perform tuberculosis surgery only on the pearl oysters with the appropriate shell power at the time of tuberculosis at the work site, at the same time as opening the bivalve mouth to the set size with a simple operation The present invention provides a bivalve shell closing force measuring device that can also measure the shell closing force, which is a load required to open the shell.

The bivalve shell-closing force measuring instrument of the present invention has a pair of clasping force measurement units that are rotatably connected by fulcrums in order to open the bivalve mouth to a predetermined size and simultaneously measure the shell-closing force of the shellfish. The grip is composed of a grip portion and a spatula portion with the fulcrum as a center, and the pair of grip hands is fixed to one of the grip portions and the other grip portion. An opening size indicator indicating the opening size of the spatula portion inserted into the mouth of the shell according to the relative position with the scale plate, and a portion having a small bending rigidity locally at one grip portion, and the spatula force of the shell And a load indicator for enlarging and displaying the amount of bending deformation of the grip caused by the load applied to the portion, provided in the in-plane portion between the two grip portions and its rotation fulcrum.
The pair of grips may be urged in a direction in which the spatula is closed by a return spring provided in the grip.

  The load indicator has a mechanism for enlarging the amount of deformation generated in one of the grip portions with a rotating pin. The outer diameter of the rotating pin has a substantially V-shaped spiral groove, and one end is fixed to a tension spring. The drawn yarn is wound around the spiral groove a plurality of times, and the other end is locally bent and fixed to a portion having a small rigidity.

  Further, the opening size indicator is provided with a protrusion or a dent in a part of the scale plate fixed to one grip portion, and when the opening size of the spatula reaches a set value, the protrusion or The concave portion has a structure that transmits a touch of a load change to a pointer fixed to the other grip portion or a hand of a person who directly interferes with the grip portion and grips the grip portion.

  The load indicator has a needle mechanism, and the needle plate for holding the needle is in the shape of a magnet or a disc containing the magnet, and the upper plate facing the needle plate for holding the needle is ferromagnetic. The outer dimension of the driving needle plate for holding the driving needle for driving the placement needle is smaller than the outer dimension of the placement needle plate for holding the placement needle.

  The closed shell force measuring instrument according to the present invention has a pair of gripping hands composed of a gripping part and a spatula part around a fulcrum, fixing a pointer to one gripping part and fixing a scale plate to the other gripping part Then, when this pointer coincides with the position indicated by the scale plate, the mouth of a bivalve such as an pearl oyster can be opened to a predetermined size. At the same time, when a load is applied to the grip part, a structure in which bending is concentrated on one grip part is given, and the amount of bending is mechanically enlarged, and the maximum shell closing force of the shell is also displayed. In addition to being able to know, there is a needle mechanism that holds an indication of the closing shell force even when the force applied to the grip portion is unloaded. Therefore, it does not require a power source, can be grasped with one hand and is easy to use. The treatment for Akoya oysters with a high probability of spitting out can be omitted. As a result, it is possible to reduce the occupation area of the cultured sea area at the time of aquaculture, to prevent contamination of the sea area, and to improve the collection rate of pearls that can be used as commercial products from the cultured pearl oysters.

  An example of the closed shell force measuring instrument of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1A is a plan view of a shell closing force measuring instrument 1 according to the present invention, and FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the closed shell force measuring instrument 1 includes a pair of grips 2 and 3 that are rotatably connected by a fulcrum 6, and the grips 2 and 3 are used around the fulcrum 6. It is composed of grip portions 21 and 31 that are gripped by a person's hand, and spatula portions 4 and 4 that open the mouths of bivalves such as pearl oysters. Further, the grip portions 21 and 31 include a return spring 5 that biases the spatula portion 4 of the closed shell force measuring instrument 1 in a natural state in a closing direction, an opening size indicator 7 that represents the opening size of the spatula portion 4, and a grip The connection spring 8 that connects the grip portions 21a and 21b, in which the portion 21 is cut into two members, and a closed shell that is a load indicator that indicates the load required to open the shell, that is, the magnitude of the shell closing force The force indicator 9 is configured as a basic part.

  The grip parts 21 and 31 are bow-shaped parts, both of which are rotatably fixed to each other at a fulcrum 6, and the spatula part 4 is flat, wide and thin so that it can be inserted into the mouth of the pearl oyster. .

  The return spring 5 is constituted by a torsion spring having fulcrums 2a and 3a in the vicinity of the ends of the two grip portions 21 and 31, and applies a force in the direction of closing the spatula portion 4 to the grip hands 2 and 3 in a natural state.

  FIG. 2 shows a view in which the upper plate 9a of the closed shell force indicator 9 of the closed shell force measuring instrument 1 shown in FIG. 1 is removed. FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view of the vicinity of the closed shell force indicator 9 in FIG. 2 and is shown with a part cut away for easy explanation.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the opening size indicator 7 fixes the pointer 7a to the grip 21b with a screw or rivet 7b, and fixes the scale plate 7c to the other grip 31 with the screw or rivet 7d. 31 and the projection 7e provided on a part of the scale plate 7c coincide with each other so that the spatula 4 has an opening dimension set to a predetermined value in advance. You can know what has been reached. The protrusion 7e provided on a part of the scale plate 7c is not limited to a convex shape but may be a concave shape.

In order to easily know the opening size of the target spatula portion 4, when the pointer 7a and the projection portion 7e coincide with each other with an elastic force, the gripper is gripped when the spatula portion 4 opens to the target size. Since a light shock that is a feeling of a slight load change is transmitted to the hand holding the portions 21 and 31, it is possible to know that the opening size has been reached without looking at the scale plate 7c.
As another example of the opening size indicator 7, the tip of the scale plate 7c of the grip portion 31 interferes with the grip portion 21 and functions as a stopper, so that the opening size of the spatula portion 4 is maintained at a constant value. It may be a structure.

  The connecting spring 8 cuts the grip portion 21 at a portion close to the fulcrum 6, and connects the grip portion 21b on the fulcrum 6 side and the grip portion 21a on the side gripped by the user with a screw or a rivet 7b. The magnitude of the force applied to 21 is converted into a deflection amount.

When force is applied to the grip portions 21 and 31, the force concentrates on the leaf spring portion 8a of the coupling spring 8, and the grip portion 21a on the side gripped by the user as the leaf spring portion 8a is bent as shown in FIG. The grip part 31 is closer to the side than the extension line of the grip part 21b on the side.
The structure where the deflection is concentrated in the above structure is not limited to a structure in which one grip part is cut and reconnected by a leaf spring or the like, but a structure in which stress is concentrated, such as a part of the grip part is thinned, etc. Any structure that reduces the bending rigidity of the gripping hand may be used.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the closing force indicator 9 has a screw or a rivet 7b or the like on the grip 21b on the fulcrum 6 side with an appropriate distance between the upper plate 9a shown in FIG. 1 and the lower plate 9b shown in FIG. Secure with. A fixing pin 9c and a rotating pin 9d are mounted between the upper plate 9a and the lower plate 9b, a hook 9f of a tension spring 9e is hooked on the fixing pin 9c, a pulling thread 9g is connected to the other hook, and the pulling thread 9g is attached. After winding the rotary pin 9d a plurality of times, the end of the pulling thread 9g is fixed with a set screw 8b provided in the connection spring 8 through a hole 21c provided in the grip portion 21a on the side gripped by the user.

  When the pulling thread 9g is fixed to the set screw 8b, if the tension is applied to the tension spring 9e, the rotary pin 9d rotates in response to the force applied to the grip portions 21 and 31. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, which is a detailed view of the placing needle mechanism of the shell closing force measuring device, a driving needle plate 9i having a driving needle 9h whose tip is bent with respect to the rotating pin 9d is press-fitted, bonded or screwed. In addition to fixing with a stopper or the like, a placement needle plate 9k provided with a placement needle 9j is loosely fitted to the rotation pin 9d.

  In this case, the outer diameter of the rotary pin 9d has a substantially V-shaped groove, that is, a screw-like groove, so that the rotary pin 9d rotates without slipping due to the movement of the pulling thread 9g. A good shape.

  According to this configuration, when a force is applied to the grip portions 21 and 31, the pulling thread 9g fixed to the set screw 8b also moves due to the bending of the leaf spring portion 8a of the connecting spring 8, so that the rotary pin 9d is pulled. It rotates to the spring 9e side (clockwise direction in FIG. 3). Along with this, the driving needle 9h fixed to the rotating pin 9d rotates while pushing the placing needle 9j, and the tip of the placing needle 9j points to the scale marked on the upper plate 9a, and the closing force of the pearl oyster is increased. Shown (see FIG. 5). Even after the force applied to the grip portions 21 and 31 is removed, the state in which the maximum closing force of the pearl oyster shell to be inserted into the nucleus is displayed is reliably maintained.

  Here, in order to securely hold the position of the placing needle 9j, the placing needle plate 9k is a disk-shaped magnet plate or a composite part incorporating the magnet plate, and the upper plate 9a is made of a ferromagnetic thin plate. The indication of the closing shell force is held by the suction force of the placing needle plate 9k and the upper plate 9a.

In the connecting spring 8, the amount of bending of the leaf spring portion 8a changes depending on the magnitude of the force applied to the spring. For this reason, when the shell closing force of the shell to be opened is large, when the user grips the grip portions 21 and 31 to open the spatula portion 4 to a predetermined size, the leaf spring portion 8a is greatly bent and the user grips it. The grip part 21a and the grip part 31 on the side approach. As a result, the pulling thread 9g moves to rotate the rotating pin 9d so that the placing needle 9j shows a large value on the scale on the upper plate 9a. On the other hand, when the shell closing force is small, the spatula portion 4 opens with a small deflection of the leaf spring portion 8a, so the rotation of the rotary pin 9d is small and the setting needle 9j is a small value on the scale on the upper plate 9a. Indicates.
The coupling spring 8 has a much larger rigidity than the shock at the time of contact between the return spring 5 and the opening size indicator 7, and the influence on the rigidity of the return spring 5 and the opening size indicator 7 is affected by the practical accuracy. Above, it can be ignored.

  Since it is necessary to return the needle 9j to the zero position for the next pearl oyster insertion work, the outer dimension of the needle plate 9k shown in FIG. 4 is the outer dimension of the driving needle plate 9i in order to improve workability. The stopper 9m may be installed on the upper plate 9a so that the placing needle 9j does not return too much from the zero position (see FIG. 1A).

  FIG. 5 shows a view for explaining an embodiment of the closed shell force measuring instrument of the present invention. Now, grasp the grip portions 21 and 31 of the closed shell force measuring instrument 1 of the present invention by hand, and insert the spatula portion 4 into the mouth of a bivalve such as the pearl oyster 10 as shown in FIG. In addition, when a force is applied to the hand corresponding to the shell closing force of the shell and the tip opening amount of the spatula portion 4 reaches the set dimension W, it is light to the hand by the interference between the pointer 7a and the projection 7e of the scale plate 7c. Since the shock is transmitted, the closing shell force at the set opening dimension W can be known.

  At this time, put a plug etc. into the pearl oyster shell 10 and pull out the main shell power measuring instrument 1 from the mouth of the pearl oyster shell 10, read the value of the setting needle 9 j, and the shell strength of the pearl oyster shell with the plug inserted is within the acceptable range. If so, it will be sent to the next process of intubation surgery as an oyster shell to be cultured, and if it fails, it will not proceed to the next process. As a result, it is possible to eliminate wasteful work on the pearl oysters that are unlikely to collect pearls, and to prevent the effective use of the cultured sea area and the pollution of the sea area.

  Since the shell closing force measuring device of the present invention can measure the shell closing force of the shellfish at the same time as opening the shell of the shellfish to the set size, the shell opening when the core is put into the shellfish such as Akoya shellfish used for pearl culture and It can be suitably used as a device for measuring the shell closing force.

It is the figure which looked at (a) top view and (b) measuring instrument of the closed shell force measuring instrument of this invention from the side. It is the figure which removed some components of the closed shell force measuring device in FIG. FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view in FIG. 2. It is a detailed view of the placing needle mechanism of the shell closing force measuring instrument. It is a figure explaining embodiment of the closed shell force measuring device of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Close shell force measuring device 2 Grasping hand 2a Support point 21a, 21b Grasping part 21c Grasping part hole 3 Grasping hand 3a Support point 31 Grasping part 4 Spatula part 5 Return spring 6 Support point 7 Opening size indicator 7a Pointer 7b Screw or rivet 7c Scale plate 7d Screw or rivet 7e Protruding part 8 Connection spring 8a Leaf spring part 8b Set screw 9 Shell power indicator (load indicator)
9a Upper plate 9b Lower plate 9c Fixing pin 9d Rotating pin 9e Tension spring 9f Hook 9g Pull thread 9h Driving needle 9i Driving needle plate 9j Placement needle 9k Placement plate 9m Stopper 10 Akoya shellfish

Claims (5)

In order to measure the shell closing force of the shellfish at the same time as opening the mouth of the bivalve shell, a shell closing force measuring instrument having a pair of grips rotatably connected by fulcrums,
The grip hand is composed of a grip part and a spatula part around the fulcrum,
The pair of gripping hands, an opening size indicator that represents the opening size of the spatula portion inserted into the mouth of the shell by the relative position of the pointer fixed to one gripping portion and the scale plate fixed to the other gripping portion; A load indicator that has a portion having a small flexural rigidity locally in one grip portion and that displays an enlarged display of the deflection deformation amount of the grip hand caused by a load applied to the spatula portion by a shell closing force of the shell. A bivalve shell-closing force measuring instrument provided on the in-plane portion of the grip portion side and its rotation fulcrum.   The bivalve shell closing force measuring instrument according to claim 1, wherein the pair of grips is urged in a closing direction of the spatula by a return spring provided in the grip.   The load indicator has a mechanism for enlarging the amount of deformation generated in one of the grip portions with a rotating pin, and the outer diameter of the rotating pin has a substantially V-shaped spiral groove, and one end is fixed to a tension spring. 3. The structure according to claim 1, wherein the drawn yarn is wound around the spiral groove a plurality of times and the other end is locally bent and fixed to a portion having a small rigidity. The bivalve shell closure force measuring instrument.   The opening size indicator is provided with a protruding portion or a recessed portion in a part of the scale plate fixed to one grip portion, and when the opening size of the spatula reaches a set value, the protruding portion or the recessed portion 3. A structure having a structure in which a touch of a load change is transmitted to a hand fixed to the other grip part or to a hand of a person who directly interferes with the grip part and grips the grip part. Or a bivalve shell-closing force measuring instrument according to claim 3;   The load indicator has a needle mechanism, and the needle plate for holding the needle is a magnet or a disc-like disk containing the magnet, and the upper plate facing the needle plate for holding the needle is ferromagnetic. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer dimension of the driving needle plate for holding the driving needle for driving the placing needle is smaller than the outer dimension of the placing needle plate for holding the placing needle. The bivalve closing force measuring instrument according to any one of claims 4 to 4.

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