JP2021000594A - Agitator - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an agitator which can suppress effect of heat generated by a light source on a sample, and can evenly irradiate a fluid in a container with light.SOLUTION: An agitator comprises: a cylindrical casing 10 which stores a container S infused with a sample a and comprises a high thermal conductive member; a stirrer 20 which is loaded into the container and rotates, thereby stirring the sample; a stirrer drive part 30 which is positioned directly below the container, and rotationally drives the stirrer by magnetic force; and an LED 40 which irradiates the sample in the container with light. Plural casings can be freely installed on the same circumference on a base 50 comprising a high thermal conductive member on the stirrer drive part. According to such installation, each stirrer is positioned on a revolution locus of a driving magnet of the stirrer drive part, LED drive substrates, which have the LEDs at the same intervals, are provided around the container in the casing, and the substrate is additionally provided with cooling function 53 comprising a Peltier element.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a stirring device that agitates a fluid such as a liquid or a gas injected into a container by rotating a stirring magnet.

In laboratories, laboratories, laboratories, etc. of biochemistry, pharmacy, agricultural chemistry, etc., the liquid injected into the container is irradiated with light, and changes in microorganisms in the liquid due to the light, reactions of chemical substances, etc. are observed. When measuring, the liquid may be agitated.
As the stirring device, a tubular casing for accommodating a container in which a liquid is injected, a stirrer for agitating the liquid by being loaded in the container and rotating, and the stirrer located directly below the container. There is a device including a stirrer drive unit that is rotationally driven by magnetic force and an LED that irradiates the liquid in the container with light (Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-1323133 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-254073

In the above-mentioned agitator, even if it is called an LED, it generates a considerable amount of heat. The heat generation has a considerable adverse effect on the sample, but conventionally, no cooling means has been taken. In addition, the LED is installed near the bottom surface of the container (see Patent Document 2, reference numeral 17 in FIG. 1), and there is a problem that the light from the LED may not reach the entire area of the liquid (sample) in the container. ..

Under such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to suppress the influence of the heat generation and to allow light to reach the fluid in the container evenly.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a tubular casing made of a heat-highly conductive member for accommodating a container in which a fluid (sample) has been injected, and stirring that is loaded in the container and rotated to stir the fluid. A stirring device including a child, a stirrer driving unit that is located directly below the container and rotationally drives the stirrer by magnetic force, and an LED (light emitting diode) that irradiates the fluid in the container with light. A plurality of the casings can be freely installed on the same circumference on a base made of a heat-highly conductive member on the stirrer drive unit, and in each of the installation states, the swirling trajectory of the drive magnet of the stirrer drive unit. An LED drive substrate having the LED is provided on the stirrer at equal intervals around the container in the casing, and the substrate is provided with a cooling function.

In the stirring device having this configuration, a fluid as a sample is injected into a container, the container is housed in a casing, and the casing is installed on the base of the stirrer drive unit. When the stirrer drive unit is driven in this state, the stirrer is positioned on the swirling trajectory of the drive magnet, so that the stirrer rotates in the container at its center (center of gravity) due to the magnetic force from the drive magnet. , The sample is stirred and the sample is irradiated with the light from the LED, and the change of the sample due to the stirring and the irradiation of light is measured.

At this time, since a plurality of casings can be freely installed on the same circumference on the base on the stirrer drive unit, the wavelength of the LED (emission light, etc.) in each casing can be changed or the type of sample can be changed. For example, in each casing, it is possible to measure a change in a sample due to LED light of a different sample or wavelength. That is, a single stirring device having this configuration can inspect a plurality of fluids (samples) and light having different wavelengths.
Further, if a plurality of the LEDs are provided around the container and in the length direction (vertical direction) of the substrate, the light irradiation range thereof is widened to the periphery and upward, and the sample is injected into an elongated container like a test tube. In that case, the sample can be evenly irradiated with light. The numbers around the LEDs and in the vertical direction are appropriately set by experiments or the like so that the entire sample is irradiated with light.

Further, although the LED also generates heat not a little, since the substrate of the LED is provided with a cooling function, it is possible to suppress the temperature rise of the LED due to the heat generation. Therefore, the temperature rise (heat generation) of the LED has very little effect on the measurement of the sample.

The cooling function can be obtained by various means, for example, by a Peltier element.
When a direct current is passed through the Peltier element, a temperature difference is generated on both sides of the element, endothermic heat is generated on the low temperature side, heat is generated on the high temperature side, and heat is pushed up from the low temperature side to the high temperature side of the Peltier element. That is, it acts as a heat pump. At this time, if the polarity of the electric current is changed, the direction of the heat to be pumped can be changed, and the magnitude of the applied current can be changed to change the magnitude of the amount of heat to be pumped. This is called the Peltier effect, and cooling, heating, and temperature control can be performed very easily.

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to smoothly perform inspections such as changing the wavelength (emission light) of the LED and changing the type of sample with a single stirring device, and the LED is used. The adverse effect on the heat-generating sample can be eliminated as much as possible.

Partially cut front view of an embodiment of the stirring device according to the present invention. Top view of the same embodiment Partial removal plan view of the same embodiment Front view of the cut in FIG. An exploded perspective view of the casing of the same embodiment The bottom plate portion of the casing is shown, (a) is a plan view, (b) is a right side view, and (c) is a front view. The casing of the same embodiment is shown, (a) is a cut front view with the lid and the like removed, and (b) is a cut plan view of the same. Operation explanatory diagram of the same embodiment

An embodiment of the stirring device according to the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 8, and the stirring device A is a device called a stirrer, in which a stirrer is rotated by using a magnetic force to rotate a container. The sample consisting of the liquid inside can be agitated automatically for a long time at a constant speed, and is often used when mixing samples in the laboratory or in chemical reaction experiments, for example, by light irradiation. It can also be a photocatalyst reactor or the like.

Similar to the stirrer, the stirring device A of this embodiment is loaded into the cylindrical casing 10 for accommodating the container (glass test tube) S into which the sample a made of liquid is injected and the container S and rotates. A stirrer (stirrer bar) 20 for stirring the sample a, a stirrer driving unit 30 located directly below the container S and rotationally driving the stirrer 20 by a magnetic force, and a stirrer driving unit 30 in the container S. The sample a is composed of an LED 40 that irradiates the sample a with light and a cooling function unit that cools the LED.

As shown in FIG. 5, the casing 10 is composed of a bottom plate 11, left and right side plates 12 and 12, front and rear side plates 13 and 13, and a lid plate 14, which have high thermal conductivity such as aluminum (aluminum or the like). High thermal conductivity member) is adopted. In this embodiment, it is made of aluminum.
The bottom plate 11 has a square shape provided with a bulging square support portion 11b on the square base plate 11a, and a square notch 11c is formed at the center of each of the four sides of the support portion 11b. The left and right side plates 12 also have a square shape having a support portion 12b that bulges above the base plate 12a. The base plate 11a and the support portion 11b of the bottom plate 11 and the base plate 12a and the support portion 12b of the side plate 12 may be integrally molded, but they may be formed of separate members and integrated by screwing or bonding. ..

A spherical concave portion 15 into which the bottom portion of the container S enters is formed in the center of the upper surface of the bottom plate 11, and a circular support hole 16 through which the container S penetrates is also formed in the center of the lid plate 14. A Teflon (registered trademark) rubber holding ring 17 can be fitted into the support hole 16 of the lid plate 14. Therefore, the holding ring 17 is fitted into the container S and inserted into the support hole 16, or the holding ring 17 is fitted into the support hole 16 and then the container S is inserted into the support hole 16 via the holding ring 17. The container S is supported (stored) in the casing 10 by fitting the bottom portion of the container S into the recess 15.

The stirrer 20 is a long (rod-shaped) permanent magnet having both S poles and N poles covered (coated) with Teflon (registered trademark) at both ends, and is placed in a container S and rotated to stir the sample a. To do. The shape of the stirrer 20 is not limited to the rod shape, but an elongated cocoon-shaped one, an octagonal rod-shaped one, a wind turbine blade-shaped one, and the like can be adopted, and the stirrer 20 is used properly depending on the purpose such as stirring efficiency and load amount. When a permanent magnet is used for the stirrer 20, it becomes suitable for stirring the highly viscous sample a.
Incidentally, it is preferable to use stainless steel such as SUS304 and 316, which does not contain iron, for the storage container of the stirrer 20. The Teflon coating aims to improve non-adhesiveness, heat resistance, abrasion resistance, and chemical resistance.

A rectangular substrate 41 having an LED 40 is screwed to the inner wall of the notch 11c of the bottom plate 11 of the casing 10 by lengthening the vertical direction. A drive circuit for the LED 40 is configured on the substrate 41, and power can be supplied from the outside by a lead wire (electric wire) 42 or the like. The number / arrangement of the substrate 41 in the circumferential direction and the number / arrangement of the LEDs 40 are appropriately set by an experiment or the like so as to evenly irradiate the sample a in the container S.

As the LED 40, various LEDs are adopted so that various lights can be irradiated depending on the type of experiment. Each lead wire 42 can be appropriately reconnected to a lead wire (not shown) from the controller unit in the housing 31 below via a connection terminal (not shown) capable of switching the connection.

Various LEDs are adopted in each casing 10 (LEDs having different emission colors are provided) so that various lights (lights of various wavelengths) can be irradiated according to the type of experiment. A casing 10 having an LED 40 that emits light of each wavelength is installed on the support plate 50. In this embodiment, those capable of irradiating each of blue, red, yellow, and UV (ultraviolet) light are adopted.

Here, UV is an electromagnetic wave of invisible light having a wavelength of 10 to 400 nm, that is, shorter than visible light (visible light such as blue, red, and yellow) and longer than soft X-ray, and is classified according to the wavelength: wavelength: 380 to 380 to Divided into near ultraviolet rays (near UV) of 200 nm, far ultraviolet rays or vacuum ultraviolet rays (far UV (FUV) or vacuum UV) with wavelengths of 200 to 10 nm, and extreme ultraviolet rays or extreme ultraviolet rays (extreme UV, EUV or XUV) with wavelengths of 121 to 10 nm. Be done.
Furthermore, near-ultraviolet rays are divided into UV-A (wavelength: 315 to 380 nm), UV-B (wavelength: 280 to 315 nm), and UV-C (wavelength: 200 to 280 nm), and UV-A is the dermatitis of the skin. It acts on the layer to denature proteins, loses the elasticity of the skin and accelerates aging, is involved in the progress of material exchange of cells, and activates cell functions. It also oxidizes the melanin pigment produced by UV-B to turn it brown.
UV-B acts on the epidermal layer, but pigment cells produce melanin and take a protective reaction. This is the so-called sunburn. At this time, vitamin D is produced.
UV-C has a strong bactericidal action and is highly destructive to living organisms. When the ozone layer is destroyed by halon-based substances, there is concern that it will reach the surface of the earth and affect the biota.
As described above, UV has various wavelengths, and each of them has a different action on the sample a and a different current value for that wavelength. Therefore, in this embodiment, four switches UV1, UV2, and UV3 corresponding to them are used. , UV4 is provided. The four are appropriately selected from the above-mentioned near UV, far UV, extreme UV, UV-A, UV-B, UV-C and the like.

In FIG. 1, 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the switch 35 are numbers corresponding to the following recesses 52, and in this embodiment, they are 1, 2, 3, and 4 clockwise in a plan view. 35 correspond to the recesses _{52 1,} 52 _2, 52 3, 53 ₄ Power: ON, an OFF switch, 36 is a ON · OFF switch of the UV light emitting LED 40, _UV 1, UV in the switch 36 _{2, UV} 3, UV _4, the power supply corresponds to the recess _{52 1,} 52 _2, 52 3, 53 ₄ corresponding to the wavelength of the four stages of UV: oN, an OFF switch. Further, 32a is an indicator lamp for the presence or absence of a power supply, 34 is a temperature display panel (hereinafter, also referred to as “control unit”) in the casing 10, and 34a is an ON / OFF switch (electromagnetic switch) for the display.

The stir bar drive unit 30 is incorporated in a bottomed square housing 31 together with a controller unit (not shown), and has a top plate 31a made of a material that conducts magnetic force on the upper surface of the housing 31, and the housing thereof. The rotation mechanism of the stirrer 20 is incorporated in the body 31. Hereinafter, the stirrer drive unit is also referred to as a rotation mechanism 30.
The rotation mechanism 30 has a well-known configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, FIGS. 1 to 3, patent documents 2 paragraphs 0056 to 0058, and FIGS. 1 to 4) from the 5th line on the lower right column of page 2 of Patent Document 1. Therefore, in this embodiment, N poles, S poles, N poles, S poles, etc., which serve as driving magnets, are alternately arranged on the same circumference around the center of rotation of the disk rotated by the motor. Then, the center and the center of gravity of the magnetic field of the stirrer 20 are located on the swirling orbit of the driving magnet. Therefore, the stirrer 20 rotates in the container S at the center (center of gravity) of the stirrer 20 due to the magnetic force from the swirling drive magnet to stir the sample a. The number of driving magnets is appropriately set by an experiment or the like in consideration of the stirring speed of the stirrer 20 and the like. In this embodiment, the rotation speed can be adjusted by turning the knob (speed adjustment switch) 33 on the front surface of the housing 31. If explosion-proof is required, use a pneumatically operated motor.

The top plate 31a can be made of plastic or non-magnetic metal, but ceramic or corrosion-resistant alloy can be used in consideration of resistance to chemicals. In addition, an edge (bank) can be attached to prevent the sample from flowing out to the surroundings in case of chemical leakage. In this embodiment, the top plate 31a is made of bakelite.

On the top plate 31a, a support plate (base) 50 having a high thermal conductivity and a thickness made of aluminum or the like is provided. The support plate 50 has a planar shape having an arm portion 51 extending into four equal parts on the circumference shown in FIG. 3, and a recess 52 for fitting the casing 10 is formed in the arm portion 51. The number of the arm parts 51 is not limited to the quadruple quantile, but may be any quintile, quintile, and the like.
The reason why the arm portion 51 is made radial from the central portion of the support plate 50 is to reduce the cooling area (volume) of the support plate 50 so that the arm portion 51 can be cooled smoothly. Further, since the top plate 31a is made of bakelite having high insulation (heat insulation) to prevent heat conduction to the top plate 31a, the overall cooling area (volume) is reduced (almost only the support plate 50). , The cooling efficiency is increased.

An embedded portion (hereinafter, also appropriately referred to as “Peltier element”) 53 of the Peltier element is formed in the central portion of each arm portion 51, and when power is supplied to the Peltier element, the embedded portion 53 is cooled. A cooling portion 54 is formed on the upper surface of the embedded portion 53, and the cooling portion 54 is provided with various cooling blades 55 as shown in FIG. 2 (see FIG. 2). Therefore, the heat generated from the Peltier element is dissipated from the cooling unit 54, and the support plate 50 is not heated.

The control unit 34 manages the power supply by the power switch 32 and the like, and adjusts the rotation speed of the motor by the speed adjustment switch 33, as shown in FIG.
The control unit 34 has a circuit that uses a relay (electromagnetic switch 34a) to hold a signal once input until there is a release signal. Furthermore, it has an auto-tuning function (a function that automatically calculates and sets the PID value), and this function sets the rate (%) at which the adjustment output changes with respect to the P (proportional operation) measurement range. , I (Integration time) Corrects the offset (steady state deviation) that occurs in the proportional band, predicts the change in the D (differential time) adjustment output, suppresses overshoot due to integration, and improves the stability of control.
Furthermore, the feedback control keeps the rotation speed of the motor constant, and the rotation fluctuation is detected by the sensor to control the voltage.

It is preferable that the aluminum parts constituting each of the above parts are subjected to alumite treatment to improve corrosion resistance and wear resistance.

The stirring device A of this embodiment has the above configuration. First, the sample a is placed in each container S, the stirrer 20 is loaded, the container S is fitted in the casing 10, and the container S is supported as shown in FIG. Each casing 10 is placed on the plate 50 (top plate 31a). At this time, the color emitted by the LED 40 of the casing 10, for example, red, green, or UV (wavelength) is selected according to the content to be measured of the sample a, and the container S is stored in the casing 10 having the LED 40. Fit into the recess 52.

In this state, the switches 35 and 36 select the light (wavelength) of the LED (light source) 40 of each casing 10 and drive the rotation mechanism 30 of the stirrer 20 (turn on the power).
Then, the rotating mechanism 30 rotates the stirrer 20 of each container S to stir the sample a. In this state, various measurements are performed by observing the properties of the sample a to be stirred while being irradiated with various kinds of light. For example, by irradiating light having different wavelengths, a reaction corresponding to the light, for example, the action and effect of a photocatalyst is observed (measured).

At this time, in this embodiment, the support plate 50 is cooled by the Peltier element 53, and the casing 10 is also cooled through the support plate 50, so that the temperature inside the casing 10 does not rise. That is, the heat generated by the LED 40 is absorbed and the temperature of the container S is prevented from rising.
Further, since a plurality (two) of the LEDs 40 are provided around the container (test tube) S and in the length direction (vertical direction) of the substrate 41, the irradiation range of the light c from the LED 40 is also as shown in FIG. The sample a, which is widened to the periphery and upward and is injected high (for example, up to the chain line position) into the elongated container S like a test tube S, is evenly irradiated with light.

In the above embodiment, for cooling the support plate 50, the refrigerant from the refrigerator may be circulated around the casing 10 (recessed portion 52). In addition, an ultrasonic generator can be incorporated to increase the stirring efficiency. Further, the casing 10 may not be provided with the LED 40 having one wavelength, but may be provided with LEDs 40 having various wavelengths, and power may be supplied to them individually. Of course, the container S is not limited to a test tube, and various test containers such as a beaker can be used. The sample is not limited to a liquid, but may be a gas or, if possible, a sample such as plasma.
Thus, it should be considered that the embodiments disclosed this time are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the scope of claims, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of claims.

10 Casing 20 Stirrer 30 Stirrer drive unit 40 LED (light source)
41 LED drive board 50 Casing support plate (base)
51 Support plate arm 52, 52 ₁ , 52 ₂ , 52 ₃ , 52 ₄ Casing installation hole (recess)
53 Peltier element (cooling function)
A Stirrer S container (test tube)
a Fluid (sample)
c light

Claims (3)

The tubular casing (10) made of a heat-highly conductive member for accommodating the container (S) into which the fluid (a) is injected and the fluid (a) are agitated by being loaded into the container (S) and rotating. The stirrer (20), the stirrer drive unit (30) located directly below the container (S) and rotationally driving the stirrer (20) by magnetic force, and the fluid (a) in the container (S). A stirrer (A) including an LED (40) that irradiates the light (c).
A plurality of the casings (10) can be freely installed on the base (50) made of a thermally conductive member on the stirrer drive unit (30) on the same circumference, and in each of the installation states, the stirrer The stirrer (20) is located on the swirling track of the drive magnet of the drive unit (30).
A stirring device in which an LED drive substrate (41) having the LED (40) is provided at equal intervals around a container (S) in the casing (10), and a cooling function is attached to the substrate (41). The stirring according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the casings (10) are installed on the base (50) on the same circumference, and a Peltier element (53) exhibiting the cooling function is provided inside the circumference. apparatus. The stirring device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of the LEDs (40) are provided in the length direction of the substrate (41).

Images