JP2017042057A - Upper lid structure of culture apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an upper lid structure of a culture apparatus to overcome disadvantages of the conventional upper lid structure having the complicated fitting mechanism of electrodes including a screw cap and packing, the mechanism thus extending out of the diameter of the electrode and occupying a large space of the upper lid, and causing a need of reducing the number of electrodes or enlarging the culture vessel itself if it is not desired to reduce the number of electrodes.SOLUTION: The present invention provides a culture apparatus comprising a culture vessel and a lid. The lid retains a stirring device and provided with an insertion opening for an in-tank component and an electrode. A cap is fitted between the upper lid and the culture vessel and is provided with through holes for holding the in-tank component and the electrode. The through holes have the diameter smaller than that of the in-tank component and the electrode and are provided on the same axis as the insertion opening.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an upper lid and a cap structure of a culture apparatus that can contribute to microbial culture, animal and plant cells, gene recombinants, biochemical research and the like. In particular, the present invention relates to an upper lid and a cap structure for efficiently placing parts in the tank and electrodes in a limited space in the culture apparatus.

In culture devices such as microorganisms, animals, plants, etc., the stirring mechanism consists of a motor, stirring shaft, stirring blade, shaft seal device, bearing, seal material, and a cylindrical container that houses these. Are attached by welding or screws.

In addition, various electrodes, heat exchangers, stirring shafts, sampling pipes, aeration pipes, and other in-vessel parts, chemical solution addition pipes, and the like are attached to the upper lid using a fitting device or the like.

The tank parts and electrodes need to be easily detached from the top lid because they need to be cleaned, calibrated, and replaced, and must be completely sealed so that outside air does not enter the tank during installation.

For this reason, conventionally, the parts in the tank and the electrodes are fixed and placed on the fitting device of the upper lid with a screw cap using packing.

JP2008-206469

The upper lid has an exhaust cap member for exhaust, four cap members that can be detachably mounted with various culture means, an inoculation cap, a sensor mounting cap member for attaching a temperature sensor, and an air intake for taking in air A base member, a sampling pipe for taking out a sampling culture, and the like are fixed in a form protruding from the upper surface of the upper lid.

A tube member communicating with the inside and outside of the culture tank is attached to a cap member provided on the upper lid of the culture tank via an adapter having a conical outer peripheral surface, and a washer that allows the tube member to pass through is seated on the upper end surface of the adapter. In the tube member mounting apparatus of the culture apparatus that covers the washer and screwes a cap nut into the base member to attach the tube member to the upper lid, the tube member is made of a glass material,
A tube member mounting apparatus for a culture apparatus, wherein the adapter is formed of a metal material, and at least one O-ring means is provided between the tube member and the base member.

JP2015-128381

Since the top of the culture device is equipped with a stirrer and a large number of sensors are installed, because of the lack of space to install the components in the tank, install the components in the tank with a through hole in the main body of the culture tank instead of the top cover. Things have been done. Therefore, the present inventor has paid attention to the gasket installed between the upper lid and the culture tank main body, and increased the thickness in the vertical direction, so that the horizontal through-hole is not formed in the gasket or the packing itself but the culture tank main body. A culture apparatus in which one or more are provided and a part of the in-vessel part is fitted in the through-hole.

However, as shown in the conventional electrode placement method of FIG. 3, the conventional upper lid structure has a complicated electrode fitting mechanism, and the electrode fitting mechanism has a screw cap and packing, so that the electrode It will occupy a large space on the top lid.

And securing the mounting space at the upper lid of the fitting device such as the in-bath components and electrodes has been a problem.

Specifically, it is necessary to reduce the number of electrodes or to enlarge the culture vessel itself when it is not desired to reduce the number of electrodes. There is also a method for obtaining a more compact electrode, but there is still a problem in that the connector portion is the same size as the conventional one.

In order to solve the above problems, one aspect of the present invention provides:

A culture apparatus having a culture container and an upper lid,
The upper lid holds a stirring device, and is provided with a tank internal part and an electrode insertion port,
A cap is fitted between the upper lid and the culture vessel,
The cap has a through hole for holding the in-bath component and the electrode, and the diameter of the through hole is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component and the electrode, and the position of the through hole Is provided on the same axis as the insertion port.

The second aspect of the present invention is

A culture apparatus having a culture container and an upper lid,
The upper lid holds a stirring device, and is provided with a tank internal part and an electrode insertion port,
A cap is fitted between the upper lid and the culture vessel,
The cap has a through hole for holding the in-bath component and the electrode, and the diameter of the through hole is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component and the electrode, and the position of the through hole Is provided on the same axis as the insertion port,
There is provided a culture apparatus characterized in that at least one of the in-vessel part or the electrode is airtightly held by the through hole of the cap.

According to the present invention, since the in-vessel parts and the electrodes are only held by the cap, they can be easily detached from the upper lid during cleaning, calibration, and replacement.

In addition, since it is held by the cap at the time of installation, it is completely sealed so that outside air does not enter the tank.

In addition, since the conventional in-bath components and electrode fitting mechanism have screw caps and packings, the diameter of the electrodes does not protrude and the large space of the upper lid is not occupied. For this reason, the installation space of the conventional fitting apparatus becomes unnecessary.

Further, the conventional complicated upper lid structure is unnecessary, which is advantageous in terms of cost.
Therefore, there is a very effective effect that it is not necessary to reduce the number of electrodes or enlarge the culture vessel itself.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Explanatory drawing of the whole culture tank which is one Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the upper cover structure of the culture apparatus which is one Example of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the conventional electrode mounting method.

Explanatory drawing which shows the whole structure of the culture apparatus which is one Example of this invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, reference numeral 1 is an explanatory diagram of the entire culture tank 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 2 denotes a stirring device 2 having a stirring shaft 21 and a stirring blade 22. 3 is a cylindrical culture vessel 3. Reference numeral 4 denotes a cap 4, which is provided with an insertion port 51 and a through hole 41 for inserting the in-vessel component 8 and the electrode 7 into the culture vessel 1.

  Examples of the tank part 8 include various electrodes, heat exchangers, sampling tubes, baskets and the like in addition to the stirring shaft.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an upper lid 5, which is formed by using, for example, a stainless steel plate, to which a stirring device 2 or the like is attached as shown in FIG.

The upper lid 5 is detachably fixed to the culture vessel 3 by a fixture 6 such as a C-ring.

The stirring device 2 is fixed to the upper lid 5. Further, the upper lid 5 is provided with an insertion port 51 for inserting the in-vessel part 8 and the electrode 7 into the culture vessel 3.

The cap 4 is located between the upper lid 5 and the culture vessel 3, is fitted into the opening of the culture vessel 3, and the upper lid 5 is fixed to the culture vessel 3 by a fixture 6 using a C-ring.

As a material used for the cap 4, a rubber material having heat resistance and elasticity necessary for packing and gaskets is used. A preferred material is silicone. Silicone has heat resistance and rubber-like elasticity to an autoclave.
Since the cap 4 used in the present invention is made of silicone having physical properties that are also used as a gasket or packing, the in-vessel part 8 and the electrode 7 are firmly held by the main body 5 of the culture tank 1 and the main body of the culture tank 1 The inside is kept airtight and liquid tight.

In this embodiment, silicone is used as the cap 4, but the cap material may not be silicone as long as the cap material is a rubber-like material having the same physical properties and gasket function as silicone.

The cap 4 is provided with a through hole 41 for holding the tank component 8 and the electrode 7. The position is on the same axis as the in-bath component 8 provided in the upper lid 5 and the insertion port 51 of the electrode 7.

The through hole 41 has a thickness that can hold the in-bath component 8 and the electrode 7. Moreover, the diameter of the through-hole 41 is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component 8 and is a size in which the in-bath component 8 and the electrode 7 can be inserted. Since the cap 4 has elasticity, even if the diameter of the through hole 41 is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component 8 or the electrode 7, the thickness of the through-hole 41 can be reduced by pushing the in-bath component 8 or the electrode 7. Therefore, the in-bath component 8 and the electrode 7 can be firmly fixed with the cap.

In FIG. 2, the diameter (φA) of the through hole 41 is slightly smaller than the diameters of the in-bath part 8 and the electrode 7 because the in-bath part 8 and the electrode 7 to be inserted are securely held by the cap 4. The diameter (φB) of the insertion port 51 is larger than the diameters of the in-bath part 8 and the electrode 7 so that the in-bath part 8 and the electrode 7 to be inserted can be inserted.

Therefore, the in-vessel component 8 and the electrode 7 are inserted into the culture vessel 3 from the insertion port 51 of the upper lid 5 and are firmly held in the culture vessel 1 by the through-hole 41 of the cap 4, and the conventional fitting as shown in FIG. A combined device is not required. For this reason, since the conventional screw cap and packing are unnecessary, the space of the upper lid 5 can be afforded, and even in the culture tank 1 having the same capacity, it is easy to mount more in-vessel components 8 and electrodes 7.

1 Incubator
2 Stirrer
21 Stirring shaft
22 Stirring blade
23 Shaft seal device
3 Culture vessel
4 cap
41 Through hole
5 Top cover
51 insertion slot
6 Fixing tool
7 electrodes
8 Tank parts

Claims (2)

A culture apparatus having a culture container and an upper lid,
The upper lid holds a stirring device, and is provided with a tank internal part and an electrode insertion port,
A cap is fitted between the upper lid and the culture vessel,
The cap has a through hole for holding the in-bath component and the electrode, and the diameter of the through hole is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component and the electrode, and the position of the through hole Is provided on the same axis as the insertion port. A culture apparatus having a culture container and an upper lid,
The upper lid holds a stirring device, and is provided with a tank internal part and an electrode insertion port,
A cap is fitted between the upper lid and the culture vessel,
The cap has a through hole for holding the in-bath component and the electrode, and the diameter of the through hole is smaller than the diameter of the in-bath component and the electrode, and the position of the through hole Is provided on the same axis as the insertion port,
An culturing apparatus, wherein at least one of the in-vessel part or the electrode is hermetically held by the through hole of the cap.