JP3137413U - centrifuge - Google Patents

Abstract

A centrifuge capable of separating a centrifuged supernatant liquid and a high-density component without mixing and continuously centrifuging a large amount of separated samples is provided.
A separated sample is injected into a sample holder. Centrifugated high-density component 62 accumulates on the outer peripheral side of sample holder 21, and low-density supernatant liquid is composed of a cylindrical hole, a ball, spring 25, and seal portion 26, and is rotated at an excessively high speed. It is discharged out of the rotor 2 through an opening / closing valve that is opened and collected in the sample receiver 41. Therefore, it is possible to reliably separate the centrifuged high-density component 62 and the supernatant without mixing them. Further, a large amount of sample can be continuously centrifuged by additionally injecting the separated sample 61.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a centrifuge used for separating fine particles using centrifugal force.

  The centrifuge includes a drive motor that can rotate at a high speed, a rotor that is driven by the drive motor and rotates at a high speed, and a casing and a lid that hold and seal these. A plurality of cylindrical tubes are formed in the rotor at regular intervals radially from the center thereof. To centrifuge the separated sample, a sample container (centrifuge tube) into which the separated sample is injected is inserted into a cylindrical tube formed in the rotor, and the rotor is rotated at a high speed for a predetermined time. After a predetermined time, the centrifuge tube containing the centrifuged sample is taken out of the rotor, the centrifuge tube is tilted, the supernatant liquid is taken out, and separated from the high-density part accumulated at the bottom.

However, if the specific gravity of the centrifuged high-density part and the supernatant liquid are similar, if the centrifuge tube is subjected to an impact, the centrifuged high-density part and the supernatant liquid mix at the interface. The handling required great care. For this reason, the centrifuge tube provided with the groove | channel for catching a part with high density in the bottom part is provided (for example, refer patent document 1).
JP 2005-147964 A

  Tilt the centrifuge tube containing the centrifuged sample, remove the supernatant, and separate it from the dense part that accumulates at the bottom due to manual dispersion or mixing at the centrifuged interface. It is difficult to completely separate the liquid and the dense part. Moreover, it was difficult to centrifuge a large amount of samples.

  A drive motor, a rotor driven to rotate at a high speed by the drive motor, and a space which is provided in the rotor and has the same rotation axis as the rotation axis of the rotor and which extends radially around the axis. In a centrifuge composed of a sample holder that is accommodated to receive an action and a controller that controls the rotation of the rotor, it branches upwardly between the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side with respect to the rotation axis of the sample holder An opening / closing valve that opens and closes the opening according to the number of rotations of the rotor is provided. The on-off valve includes a moving body that moves according to the number of rotations, and includes a limiting unit that limits a moving range of the moving body. The control unit controls the number of rotations for centrifugation and the duration thereof, and the number of rotations for operating the on-off valve and the duration thereof. The on-off valve is disposed above the sample liquid surface at rest. Therefore, when the separated sample is centrifuged, the high-density component is accumulated on the outer periphery of the sample holding portion, and the supernatant liquid is discharged through the on-off valve disposed in the branch portion.

  The centrifuged supernatant liquid having a low density is discharged from the sample holding part by opening the on-off valve disposed in the branch part, and the high-density component is accumulated on the outer periphery of the sample holding part. Centrifugation can be continued by adding a separated sample until high-density components accumulate in the vicinity of the on-off valve. Moreover, it can isolate | separate reliably, without mixing the supernatant liquid and high-density component which were centrifuged.

  In order to extract as many separation objects as possible from the separated sample, it is desirable that the lid, the rotor, and the like are made of transparent members so that the state of the sample can be viewed from the outside.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a centrifuge according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the outline of centrifugation according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a time chart of centrifugation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a centrifuge according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a motor 1 controlled by a control unit 3, a detachable rotor 2 driven and rotated by the motor 1, and a stationary holding the motor 1. It comprises a part 4 and a lid 5 that can be opened and closed. A disk-like space having the same center as that of the rotor 2 is formed inside the rotor 2 and constitutes a sample holding unit 21. On the upper surface between the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side of the sample holding part 21, a band-like space having the same center as that of the rotor 2 is formed to constitute the branch part 22. A plurality of cylindrical holes 23 are formed radially from the center of the rotor 2 at equal intervals on the outer peripheral side of the branch portion 22, and the tips of the cylindrical holes 23 penetrate the outer periphery of the rotor 2.

  The cylindrical hole 23 enclosing the spring 25 and the ball 24 and the seal portion 26 constitute an on-off valve that opens and closes according to the rotational speed of the rotor 2. The ball 24 is normally brought into close contact with the seal portion 26 by the spring force of the spring 25, and the on-off valve is closed. When the rotation speed of the rotor 2 is increased and the force accompanying the centrifugal force applied to the spring 25 becomes larger than the spring force. The ball 24 is separated from the seal portion 26 and the on-off valve is opened. The maximum distance that the ball 24 moves away from the seal portion 26 is limited by a stopper (not shown). A sample receiver 41 that receives a sample that is centrifuged and discharged from the on-off valve is disposed on the outer periphery of the stationary part 4.

  In the centrifuge according to the embodiment of the present invention, the centrifuge is performed as shown in FIGS. 2 that are the same as those used in FIG. 1 are the same as those in FIG. 1, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. (A) shows the state before operation start T1. The separated sample 61 is injected into the sample holding unit 21, the on-off valve is closed, the high-density component 62 having a high density is evenly distributed in the separated sample 61, and the sample surface 63 is horizontal. (B) shows the state of T2 when the rated operation is reached. The difference from (a) is that the rotation speed is the rated rotation N1 and the sample surface 63 is nearly vertical. (C) shows the state of T3 when the centrifugation is completed. The on-off valve is closed at the rated speed N1, the high-density component 62 having a high density is separated to the outside of the separated sample 61, and the sample surface 63 is nearly vertical.

  (D) shows the state of T4 when the rotor 2 reaches the overspeed operation mode. The number of revolutions reaches the over-rotation N2, the on-off valve opens, the supernatant liquid having a low density inside the seal portion 26 is discharged out of the rotor 2, and the sample surface 63 of the high-density component 62 is nearly vertical. . (E) shows the state of the rotor 2 at the end of the overspeed operation mode T5. The number of revolutions becomes the rated revolution N1, the on-off valve is closed, and the supernatant liquid with low density is collected in the sample receiver 41.

  When centrifuging a large amount of sample, go to (b '). (B ') shows a state in which the separation sample 61 is additionally injected during the rated operation. The on-off valve is closed at the rated speed N1, the high-density component 62 having a high density is evenly distributed in the added separated sample 61, and the sample surface 63 is nearly vertical. Thereafter, the process is repeated in the order of (c), (d), (e), (b ′), (c). Centrifugation can be repeated until the high-density component 62 that has been centrifuged and accumulated in the vicinity of the seal portion 26.

  The on-off valve at the number of revolutions N2 is opened when both the centrifugal force applied to the mass of the ball 24 and the spring 25 and the centrifugal force applied to the mass of the sample act on the spring 25. Thereafter, the centrifugal force applied to the mass of the sample is reduced by discharging the centrifuged supernatant, and the on-off valve is closed. Alternatively, the control unit 3 may control the number of rotations to the over-rotation N2 for the time necessary for discharging the centrifuged supernatant liquid, and open the on-off valve.

  Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, the high-density component 62 that has been centrifuged and collected is collected on the outer peripheral side of the sample holder 21, and the low-density supernatant is discharged out of the rotor 2 and collected in the sample receiver 41. Therefore, it is possible to reliably separate the centrifuged high-density component 62 and the supernatant without mixing them. In addition, a large amount of sample can be centrifuged by additionally injecting the separated sample 61.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the sample holder 21 is a disk-shaped space. Instead, a plurality of cylindrical holes are formed radially from the center of the rotor 2 in the rotor 2 at equal intervals. The present invention can be applied even if a cylindrical branch is formed upward between the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side of the cylinder and an on-off valve that opens and closes according to the number of rotations is provided outside the cylindrical branch. The apparatus is not limited to the illustrated example. The on-off valve is composed of a cylindrical hole 23, a ball 24, a spring 25, and a seal portion 26, but the ball 24, the spring 25, and the seal portion 26 are deleted and the outer peripheral side of the cylindrical hole 23. The present invention can be applied even if an on-off valve is configured by disposing a leaf spring.

Further, in the embodiment, the spring 25 and the seal portion 26 are arranged to face each other with the ball 24 interposed therebetween, and the on-off valve is opened when the centrifugal force is larger than the compression spring force, and is closed at the opposite time. . Unlike this, the spring 25 is disposed on the inner peripheral side, the seal portion 26 is disposed on the outer peripheral side, the outer peripheral side of the spring 25 is fixed to the inner peripheral side of the ball 24, and the centrifugal force is greater than the tension spring force. When the ball is large, the ball 24 comes into close contact with the seal portion 26 and the on-off valve is closed. When the ball 24 is vice versa, the present invention can be applied even if the ball 24 is configured to hit the stopper. In this case, first, the separated sample 61 is injected and centrifuged after reaching the high speed rotation at which the on-off valve is closed, and then the supernatant liquid is discharged by shifting to the low speed rotation at which the on-off valve is opened. By repeating this, a large amount of sample can be efficiently centrifuged. Thus, the apparatus can have various configurations, and the present invention includes these modifications.
In this description, the high-density component 62 is intended to be extracted. However, the present invention can also be applied to a purpose of collecting a low-density component (supernatant liquid) discharged to the sample receiver 41.

  The present invention relates to a centrifuge used for separating fine particles using centrifugal force.

It is a schematic block diagram of the centrifuge by the Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the outline | summary of the centrifugation by the Example of this invention. 3 is a time chart of centrifugation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Motor 2 Rotor 3 Control part 4 Static part 5 Cover 21 Sample holding part 22 Branch part 23 Cylindrical hole 24 Ball 25 Spring 26 Seal part 41 Sample receiver 61 Separated sample 62 High density component 63 Sample surface N1 Rated rotation N2 Overrotation T1 Operation start T2 When rated operation is reached T3 When centrifugation is completed T4 When overspeed operation mode is reached T5 When overspeed operation mode ends

Claims (4)

  A drive motor, a rotor driven to rotate at a high speed by the drive motor, and a space which is provided in the rotor and has the same rotation axis as the rotation axis of the rotor and which extends radially around the axis. In a centrifuge composed of a sample holder that is accommodated to receive an action and a controller that controls the rotation of the rotor, it branches upwardly between the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side with respect to the rotation axis of the sample holder The centrifuge is characterized in that an opening / closing valve that opens and closes the opening according to the number of rotations of the rotor is provided.   2. The centrifuge according to claim 1, wherein the on-off valve includes a moving body that moves according to the number of rotations, and includes a limiting unit that limits a moving range of the moving body.   2. The centrifugal separator according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the number of rotations for centrifugal separation and the duration thereof, and the number of revolutions for operating the on-off valve and the duration thereof. 2. The centrifuge according to claim 1, wherein the on-off valve is disposed above the surface of the sample liquid at rest.

Images