JP3283089B2 - Container cleaning device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a container cleaning apparatus provided in an automatic analyzer for automatically cleaning a reaction container used for analyzing a sample or a test solution.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an automatic analyzer is provided with a container washing device 1 as shown in FIG. 4, and this container washing device 1 is a reaction container as a container used for analyzing blood, urine and the like. Is washed in the course of being transported through a predetermined reaction line, so that the reaction vessel can be reused.

[0003] That is, the container cleaning apparatus 1 has a plurality of cleaning units 2 and 2 and a drainage unit 3. Each washing unit 2 includes a suction nozzle 4 as a suction unit, an overflow nozzle 5 as a suction unit, and a discharge nozzle 6 as a discharge unit. The drain unit 3 also includes a suction nozzle 4 ′ as a suction unit. Have. Of these, the suction nozzle 4,
4 ′ and the overflow nozzle 5 are connected to a vacuum bin 8 via a branch pipe 7. The vacuum bottle 8 is hermetically closed by a rubber stopper 9, and a vacuum pump 10 is connected to the vacuum bottle 8.

When the vacuum pump 10 is driven, the vacuum bottle 8
Is sucked in vacuum, and the internal pressure of the vacuum bottle 8 decreases. Also, a discharge pump 11 is connected to the vacuum bottle 8,
The internal pressure of the vacuum bottle 8 is detected by a pressure sensor 12.

The discharge nozzle 6 includes a cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 as a discharge control valve, a Y-shaped pipe 14, and a discharge pump 15.
Is connected to the cleaning liquid tank 16 via the. The cleaning liquid 17 is stored in the cleaning liquid tank 16, and the cleaning liquid 17 is sucked up by driving the discharge pump 15. Also,
The cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is an electromagnetic three-way valve, and its two outlets are connected to the discharge nozzle 6 side and the cleaning liquid tank 16 side.

Further, the switching of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is controlled by a control unit 18. When the discharge nozzle 6 side of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is open, the cleaning liquid 17 is guided to the discharge nozzle 6, and when the discharge nozzle 6 side is closed, the cleaning liquid 17 is returned to the cleaning liquid tank 16.

Here, although not shown, a plurality of reaction vessels are sequentially moved and stopped on a predetermined transport line intermittently by appropriate transport means. Also, the cleaning units 2 and 2 and the drainage unit 3
Is connected to a moving mechanism, moves arbitrarily in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, and performs a suction operation at the same timing in different reaction vessels 19 at different stop positions. Further, a flexible tube is connected to each of the nozzles 4, 5, and 6. The washing of the reaction vessel is performed as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) to 5 (d) and FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 5A, the reaction liquid suction nozzle 22 descends to near the bottom surface of the reaction vessel 19,
After the analysis, the reaction solution 20 is removed by suction. Next, when the reaction container 19 stops at the next stop position, the washing unit 2 descends toward the reaction container 19, and the suction nozzle 4 moves the reaction container 19.
Is inserted into. At the same time, the vacuum pump 10 and the discharge pump 15 are driven. Here, the cleaning liquid is discharged from the discharge nozzle 6 by opening the discharge nozzle 6 side of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13. Further, since the suction nozzle 4 is connected to the vacuum bottle 8, the internal pressure of the vacuum bottle 8 is reduced, and the cleaning liquid 17 in the reaction vessel 19 is sucked as shown in FIG.

When the discharge of the cleaning liquid 17 is continued, the amount of the cleaning liquid in the reaction vessel 19 increases, and most of the contents of the reaction vessel 19 are replaced with the cleaning liquid. Then, the water level of the cleaning liquid 17 gradually rises toward the opening 21 of the reaction vessel 19.

The washing liquid 17 reaches the overflow nozzle 5 slightly before the opening 21 of the reaction vessel 19. Since the overflow nozzle 5 is connected to the vacuum bin 8, the cleaning liquid 17 is sucked by the overflow nozzle 5. Assuming that the suction amount of the suction nozzle 4 is M ₁ , the suction amount of the overflow nozzle 5 is M ₂ , and the discharge amount of the discharge nozzle 6 is M ₃ , these relations are M ₁ <M ₃ <M ₁ + M ₂ . It is controlled to hold. For this reason, as shown in FIG.
Is maintained at substantially the same position as the tip of the.

Here, the tip of the overflow nozzle 5 is located somewhat lower than the tip of the discharge nozzle 6, and the overflow nozzle 5 prevents the cleaning liquid 17 from overflowing from the reaction vessel 19.

In this manner, while the reaction vessel 19 is intermittently stopped, the above-described series of cleaning operations are repeated by the plurality of cleaning units 2 to clean the inside of the reaction vessel 19. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5D, when the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is closed, most of the cleaning liquid 17 is sucked, and then the cleaning unit 2 is raised. Finally, the reaction vessel 19 is transported to the next stop position, where the suction nozzle 4 ′
Is inserted into the reaction vessel 19 to suck and drain the remaining washing liquid 17 as shown in FIG. And, again, the reaction vessel 19
Is subjected to the following analysis processing.

In FIG. 4, the flows of the liquid and air are indicated by arrows. The liquid sucked from the reaction vessel 19 is collected in the vacuum bottle 8 through the branch pipe 7. The liquid collected in the vacuum bottle 8 is sucked up by the discharge pump 11 and discharged. Further, the pressure sensor 12 detects the internal pressure of the vacuum bottle 8, and when the negative pressure becomes excessively weak, the vacuum pump 10 is stopped.

[0014]

However, in the conventional cleaning apparatus 1 as described above, when the following occurs, a negative pressure shortage occurs due to these and the suction power is reduced. I do. (1) Deterioration of the performance of the vacuum pump 10 (2) Clogging of the air passage by foreign matter (3) Abnormal piping (bending, disconnection, tearing, etc.) Further, if the negative pressure is insufficient, the following problems occur. .

(I) The effect of washing the reaction vessel 19 is reduced, and the remaining reaction solution reacts with a reagent used for the next analysis.
As a result, data failure occurs, and the reliability of the analysis data is impaired.

(Ii) The relationship between the suction amount and the discharge amount is broken, so that the discharged cleaning liquid 17 cannot be sufficiently sucked, and the cleaning liquid 17 overflows from the reaction vessel 19. Then, for example, in an analyzer of a type in which the reaction vessel 19 is not immersed in a liquid (for constant temperature), an electric short circuit is likely to occur. Therefore, the lack of negative pressure of the cleaning device 1 may cause a failure of the analyzer.

In the conventional cleaning apparatus 1, since the pressure sensor 12 detects the internal pressure of the vacuum bottle 8, it is possible to detect the occurrence of the performance deterioration of the vacuum pump 10 (the above item (1)). There is a clogged air passage (see (2)
) And two of the above (1) to (3) occur in combination, it is not possible to detect all causes.

When (2) occurs due to the adhesion of foreign matter, etc., the fluctuation range of the air pressure is about -10 mmHg, but the pressure fluctuates at about ± 10 mmHg even under normal conditions. . For this reason, even if only the pressure in the air passage is detected, it is difficult to accurately determine the suction abnormality.

Further, when the performance of the vacuum pump 10 is reduced (the above item (1)), the air pressure is increased (the degree of vacuum is reduced) and the air passage is blocked (the above item (2)).
The pressure decreases (the degree of vacuum increases). Further, when a piping abnormality (the above-mentioned item (3)) occurs, the pressure may increase or decrease. When these phenomena occur at the same time, the increase and decrease of the pressure are offset and the output of the pressure sensor 12 may not change. An object of the present invention is to provide a container cleaning device capable of accurately determining the occurrence of a suction abnormality.

[0020]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a discharge means for discharging a cleaning liquid into a container, a suction means for sucking a cleaning liquid in a container, and a flow of the cleaning liquid toward the discharge means. In a container cleaning device having a discharge control valve that opens and closes a passage based on a control signal, a pressure sensor that detects a suction pressure of a suction unit, and discharge control based on a control signal of the discharge control valve and an output signal of the pressure sensor. A control unit is provided for comparing the time from when the valve operates to when the output signal reaches the peak to a predetermined determination reference time to determine a suction abnormality.

By doing so, the present invention is to make it possible to accurately determine the occurrence of a suction abnormality. In the present invention, the term “washing” means not only washing of the container after the entire analysis is completed, but also washing for B / F separation performed each time the reaction with various reagents is completed during one analysis step. Means washing of various containers.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The same parts as those described in the section of the related art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. Further, various numerical values described in the following embodiments are merely examples, and it goes without saying that various values can be taken in a method for implementing the technical concept of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a container cleaning device provided in an automatic analyzer. The container cleaning device 31 includes cleaning units 2 and 2, and each cleaning unit 2 includes a suction nozzle 4 and an overflow nozzle 5 as a suction unit, and a discharge nozzle 6 as a discharge unit. The suction nozzle 4 sucks the reaction liquid in a reaction vessel (not shown), and the discharge nozzle 6 discharges the cleaning liquid 17 into the reaction vessel. The cleaning liquid 17 in the reaction vessel is sucked by the suction nozzle 4 and the overflow nozzle 5, and the water level of the cleaning liquid 17 is kept constant by the overflow nozzle 5.

In the container cleaning device 31, pressure sensors 34 are provided on a pipe 32 between the suction nozzle 4 and the branch pipe 7 and a pipe 33 between the overflow nozzle 5 and the branch pipe 7. . Further, a pressure sensor 34 is also provided on a pipe 35 between the suction nozzle 4 ′ of the drainage section 3 and the branch pipe 7.
Is provided. These pressure sensors 34... Separately detect the air pressure in each of the pipes 32, 33, 35 and send the detection results to the control unit 36. Here, the pressure sensors 34 ...
Are attached to the pipes 32, 33, 35 via T-shaped pipes 37.

The control section 36 is also connected to the cleaning liquid discharge valves 13 and 13 and controls the switching of the cleaning liquid discharge valves 13 and 13 in sequence. Further, the control unit 36 reads the time until a predetermined output peak is obtained from the control signal of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 and the output signal of the pressure sensor 34, and compares this time with a preset determination reference time. have.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the control signal 38 (CH 2) of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 and the output signal 3 of one pressure sensor 34.
9 (CH1). In these graphs, the horizontal axis indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates voltage and pressure. Furthermore, the range of the time axis is 1 sec / div, and the range of the voltage axis is 100 mV / div for CH1 and 10 V / d for CH2.
iv. Here, the output signal of the pressure sensor 34 for one suction nozzle 4 is used as an example.

The control signal 38 of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 rises intermittently to open the discharge nozzle 6 side of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13. The cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is opened while the control signal 38 rises, and the cleaning liquid 17 in the cleaning liquid tank 16 is sent to the discharge nozzle 6. At this time, the suction nozzle 4 (and the overflow nozzle 5) continues suction, and the cleaning liquid 17 is discharged into the reaction vessel while being suctioned by the suction nozzle 4. Output signal 39 of pressure sensor 34
In this case, when the discharge nozzle 6 side of the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is closed, the internal pressure of the pipe 32 is about -200 mmHg, but the pressure drops to about -230 mHg after the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is opened. Further, even after the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is closed again, the pressure remains at about -230 mHg, but after a certain period of time, the pressure rises sharply, reaches a peak, and returns to about -200 mmHg.

For example, assuming that the time from when the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is opened to when the pressure reaches a peak is T, T when the cleaning device 31 is operating normally is 2.4 seconds as shown in FIG. It is. However, when foreign matter is present in the pipe 32, as shown in FIG. 3, the rise in pressure is later than in a normal case, and the time T from the opening of the valve 13 to the appearance of a peak is 4.2 seconds. Also, the pressure when the valve 13 is closed drops (about -210 mmHg) as compared with the normal case, and the valve 13
The pressure during the period from when the pressure was released until the pressure rose was unstable (about -255 to -230 mmHg). It is considered that the lengthening of T when the suction abnormality occurs as described above is the same when there is the above-described cause other than the presence of the foreign matter.

That is, the control unit 36 obtains the above-mentioned time T, and compares this T with an appropriate determination reference time T _s (for example, 3 seconds). In the case of T ≦ T _s is determined that the cleaning device 31 is operating normally, in the case of T> T _s, can determine a suction abnormality has occurred. In this manner, abnormality is similarly detected for any of the pipes 32, 33, and 35. Therefore, while the cleaning device 31 is operating normally, the cleaning operation is continued. On the other hand, when the suction abnormality is determined, a signal for notifying the occurrence of the abnormality is output to a display (not shown) or the like. .

The control unit 36 calculates the above-mentioned time T for each of the suction nozzles 4 and 5, and stops the vacuum pump 10 when detecting that a suction abnormality has occurred. Incidentally, since the sensor 34 ... provided in the piping for the individual suction in this embodiment, the case of T> T _s, if caused to identify a pressure sensor which outputs an abnormal signal to the control unit 36, abnormality occurs The piping system can be specified, and maintenance and management are simplified and speeded up.

That is, the container cleaning device 31 as described above
, The pressure sensors 34... Detect the suction pressure of the suction nozzles (the suction nozzle 4 and the overflow nozzle 5), and the control unit 36 outputs an output signal of the pressure sensors 34. Time T to reach peak
If, compared with the determination reference time T _s which is set in advance, to determine the suction abnormality based on the relationship between T and T _s. Therefore, the abnormality can be accurately detected regardless of the cause. Further, since the suction abnormality can be accurately detected, the reaction container can be reliably cleaned, and the reliability of the analysis data is improved. Further, since the suction abnormality can be accurately detected, the overflow of the cleaning liquid 17 from the reaction vessel can be prevented, and the failure of the analyzer due to the overflow of the cleaning liquid 17 can be prevented.

Further, since the timing for cleaning the nozzles 4 and 5 becomes clear, the operator does not need to clean the nozzles more than necessary. Therefore, maintenance of the cleaning device 31 is facilitated. Further, if the operator is notified of the piping system in which the abnormality has occurred, unnecessary cleaning can be omitted.

In this embodiment, since the cleaning liquid discharge valves 13, 13 are sequence-controlled, the opening time of the cleaning liquid discharge valves 13, 13 is constant. Therefore,
A time T 'from when the cleaning liquid discharge valve 13 is closed to when the output signal 39 of the pressure sensor 34 reaches a peak is obtained.
′ May be used to determine a suction abnormality. Further, the suction pressure of the reaction solution suction nozzle 22 is detected, and the other nozzles 4,
It is also possible to detect a suction abnormality similarly to 4 ′. And this invention can be variously changed in the range which does not deviate from a summary.

For example, when the negative pressure rise at the time of suction is slow, the output signal of the pressure sensor is changed to an appropriate judgment reference time T.
_The control unit 36 may be configured to determine that the peak has not yet been obtained at the point of time exceeding _s , and immediately determine that the suction is abnormal, thereby speeding up the determination. Further, the sensor 34 in the drain section 3 may be omitted in some cases without causing any problem. In addition, if necessary
The sensor 34 may be appropriately shared between the plurality of pipes 32, 33, 35 to reduce the cost and simplify the configuration for abnormality detection.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, the discharging means for discharging the cleaning liquid into the container, the suction means for sucking the cleaning liquid in the container, and the opening and closing of the flow path of the cleaning liquid toward the discharging means based on the control signal. A pressure sensor for detecting the suction pressure of the suction means, and an output signal after the discharge control valve is operated based on a control signal of the discharge control valve and an output signal of the pressure sensor. And a control unit that determines a suction abnormality by comparing the time until the peak reaches a predetermined determination reference time. Therefore, the present invention has an effect that occurrence of a suction abnormality can be accurately determined.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a container cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a relationship between a control signal of a cleaning liquid discharge valve and an output signal of a pressure sensor in a normal case.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a relationship between a control signal of a cleaning liquid discharge valve and an output signal of a pressure sensor when a suction abnormality occurs.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional container cleaning device.

FIGS. 5A to 5D are explanatory diagrams sequentially showing a cleaning operation.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the operation of a drainage unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 suction nozzle (suction means), 5 overflow nozzle (suction means), 6 discharge nozzle (discharge means), 13 ...
Cleaning liquid discharge valve (discharge control valve), 17: cleaning liquid, 31: container cleaning device, 34: pressure sensor, 36: control unit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-16767 (JP, A) JP-A-63-265169 (JP, A) JP-A-3-1722763 (JP, A) JP-A 63-265 138233 (JP, A) JP-A-6-109745 (JP, A) JP-A-61-161669 (JP, U) JP-A-5-94767 (JP, U) JP-B-1-45868 (JP, B2) J-Publication 3-46355 (JP, Y2) J-Publication 2-45820 (JP, Y2) (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01N 35/00-35/10 JICST file (JOIS )

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A discharge means for discharging a cleaning liquid into a container, a suction means for sucking the cleaning liquid in the container, and a discharge control valve for opening and closing a flow path of the cleaning liquid toward the discharge means based on a control signal. A pressure sensor for detecting a suction pressure of the suction means, and the output signal after the discharge control valve is operated based on a control signal of the discharge control valve and an output signal of the pressure sensor. Is bee
A container cleaning device comprising: a control unit that determines a suction abnormality by comparing a time required to reach a predetermined reference time with a predetermined determination reference time.