JP3494695B2 - Homogenizer - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention puts a sample in a storage bag and presses it from the outside with two paddles that alternately repeats reciprocating motion to mechanically crush and disperse and suspend tissue such as living cells. More particularly, the present invention relates to a homogenizer that prevents a sample in a storage bag from escaping by a pressing operation of a paddle, enhances a crushing force, and can sufficiently crush and disperse the sample.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional homogenizer of this type has a main body having a drive mechanism inside and two paddle rooms formed on the front side of the main body in parallel on the left and right, and alternated by the drive mechanism in the main body. A pad-shaped paddle that repeats reciprocating motion, and a pad bag room that covers the paddle room on the front side of the paddle room and that holds the sample bag between the two paddle front surfaces and seals and fixes the bag. And a door that can be opened and closed, and a storage bag containing a sample interposed between the two paddles and the door is reciprocated alternately by the two paddles and pressed against the back surface of the door. The sample was crushed, dispersed, and suspended.

That is, FIG. 11 shows the main part of the drawing.
As shown in FIG. 2, a storage bag 1 containing a sample together with a diluting liquid is placed in the paddle room 3 on the front side of the main body 2 to cover the paddles 4a and 4b provided in parallel on the left and right and the paddle room 3 described above. Set between door 5 and above two paddles 4
a and 4b are alternately reciprocated as shown by arrows A and B to press the storage bag 1 containing the sample against the back surface of the door 5,
The sample inside was crushed and dispersed. The sample in the storage bag 1 was rapidly pressurized / decompressed by the physical pressure and the water pressure acting at the same time, and was crushed and dispersed into a suspension.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional homogenizer, the above two paddles 4 are used.
Since the front side of a and 4b and the back side of the door 5 were both formed in a flat shape, when the storage bag 1 was pressed between the paddle 4a and the door 5, the sample in the storage bag 1 was When the storage bag 1 is pressed by the other paddle 4b that has not been pressed yet without receiving much resistance and then the other paddle 4b is pressed, the sample in the storage bag 1 moves backward, contrary to the above. One paddle 4a side escaped without receiving much resistance, and then this state was repeated. That is, according to the alternating reciprocating motion of the two paddles 4a and 4b, the sample in the storage bag 1 alternately escapes in the left-right direction. Therefore, the sample in the storage bag 1 may not be sufficiently crushed and dispersed, and may not be suspended. Alternatively, it took time to crush and disperse the sample to suspend it. From this, the efficiency of the required food inspection or bacteria inspection may not be improved.

Therefore, the present invention deals with such a problem, and prevents the sample in the storage bag from escaping by the pressing operation of the paddle, enhances the crushing force, and sufficiently homogenizes and disperses the homogenizer. The purpose is to provide.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a homogenizer according to the present invention comprises a main body having a drive mechanism inside, and two left and right sides in parallel in a paddle room formed on the front side of the main body. A sample storage bag is provided between a plate-shaped paddle that is provided and repeats reciprocating motion alternately by a drive mechanism in the main body, and the front side of the paddle room covers the paddle room and the front surfaces of the two paddles. And a door that can be opened and closed to seal and fix the storage bag, and the storage bag containing the sample interposed between the two paddles and the door is reciprocally moved alternately between the two paddles. In the homogenizer which crushes and disperses and suspends the sample inside by pressing it against the back surface of the door, either one of the front side of the above two paddles or the back side of the door, or two paddles On both side and back side of the door, in which the surface is formed over substantially the entire surface irregularities that vary in a smooth curve, respectively.

Further, an observation window made of a transparent plate for observing the storage bag containing the sample interposed between the two paddles and the back surface of the door may be provided in a part of the door.

Further, a concavo-convex shape whose surface changes in a smooth curve may be formed on substantially the entire rear surface of the observation window provided on the door.

[0009]

The homogenizer constructed as described above is provided with either the front side of the paddles or the back side of the doors provided in parallel in the paddle room, or the front side of the two paddles and the back side of the door. When the two paddles alternately repeat the reciprocating motion to press the storage bag containing the sample against the back surface of the door due to the concavo-convex shape that is formed on substantially the entire surface on both sides and the surface changes in a smooth curve,
It operates so as to give a resistance to stop the samples in the storage bag from trying to escape in the left-right direction alternately. This prevents the sample in the storage bag from escaping due to the pressing operation of the paddle, enhances the crushing force, and can sufficiently crush and disperse.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of the appearance of an embodiment of the homogenizer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the inside by removing the front door, FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a right side surface of FIG. It is a figure. 3 and 4, the main body 2
Is a homogenizer of the present invention, which incorporates a power supply intake portion, a control portion, an operation portion, a drive portion, and the like. Although not shown in the drawing, for example, paddles 4a and 4b to be described later are alternately reciprocated. A conventionally known drive mechanism including an electric motor and a mechanism for converting the rotational driving force into a reciprocating linear motion is provided.

In the paddle room 3 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) formed on the front side of the main body 2, as shown in FIG. 2, left and right two paddles 4a and 4b are spaced at appropriate intervals. It is provided in parallel. The paddles 4a and 4b are shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a storage bag 1 containing a sample, which is interposed between a door 5 described later, is pressed against the back surface of the door 5, and is made of, for example, a metal such as stainless steel or a plastic material such as plastic, which is a vertically long flat plate. 5, the driving mechanism (not shown) alternately repeats the reciprocating motion as shown by arrows A and B.

A door 5 is provided on the front side of the paddle room 3 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The door 5 covers the paddle room 3 on the front side of the paddle room 3, and the sample storage bag 1 (see FIG. 9) is interposed between the door 5 and the front surfaces of the two paddles 4a and 4b. The upper opening of the storage bag 1 is hermetically sealed and fixed, and as shown in FIG. 4, arrows C, D centering on the support shaft 6 at the lower end.
It is said that it can be opened and closed. And the door 5
As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the paddle room 3 has a peripheral edge slightly wider than the front opening of the paddle room 3 so as to cover the front side of the paddle room 3, and the back surface of the door is shown in FIG. As shown, a pressing plate 8 formed in a flat plate shape is fixed, and a bar-shaped door knob 7 is horizontally supported on the upper portion of the front surface of the door as shown in FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 6, arms 10, 10 pivotally attached to a support shaft 9 and rotatable as shown by arrows E, F are provided at both ends of the door knob 7, respectively. A hook 11 for locking is provided at the tip of the arm 10, and the door 5 is closed by locking the hook 11 on the fixing shaft 12 by rotating the door knob 7 in the direction of arrow F. It is designed to be fixed in a state. At this time,
A sealing material 13 made of, for example, rubber is provided on the upper end side on the rear surface side of the door 5, and the sealing material 13 is used in FIG.
The upper end opening of the sample storage bag 1 shown in FIG. 2 is pressed against the upper peripheral edge of the paddle room 3 to seal it, and is fixed so as not to move.

In addition, in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG.
Reference numeral 14 indicates a power switch, reference numeral 15 indicates a start switch at the start of operation, and reference numeral 16 indicates a timer for setting an operation time and the like. 1 and 2
In addition, in FIG. 4, reference numeral 17 denotes a non-slip rubber pad or the like provided on the bottom surface of the main body 2.

In the present invention, the two paddles 4a and 4b are provided on the front side thereof with concave-convex shapes whose surfaces change in smooth curves over substantially the entire surface, as shown in FIG. . When the two paddles 4a and 4b alternately repeat the reciprocating movement to press the storage bag 1 containing the sample against the back surface of the door 5, the uneven shape causes the sample in the storage bag 1 to alternate in the left-right direction. As shown in the enlarged cross-sectional view of FIG. 7, it is formed in a continuous corrugated concavo-convex pattern as shown in the enlarged cross-sectional view of FIG. Paddle 4
They are arranged alternately in the vertical direction on the plate surfaces of a and 4b. Further, the uneven shape is formed as a surface that changes in a smooth curve in order to prevent the storage bag 1 from being damaged when the storage bag 1 containing the sample is pressed by the paddles 4a and 4b. Is.

The uneven shape on the front side of the paddles 4a and 4b is not limited to the continuous wave-like uneven shape, and for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), a large number of hemispherical projections 19, 19, ... May be provided on the plate surfaces of the paddles 4a, 4b.
In this case, the hemispherical projections 19, 19, ...
As shown in (b), it is advisable to arrange a large number of paddles 4a, 4b in the vertical and horizontal directions of the plate surfaces at appropriate intervals. By doing so, it is possible to give a resistance to stop the sample in the storage bag 1 from escaping not only in the horizontal direction but also in the vertical direction.

Next, the use of the homogenizer constructed as described above will be described. First, a sample such as food to be inspected and a diluting liquid are placed in a storage bag 1 having a rectangular shape in front view, for example, a bottom side of which is closed and an upper side of which is open. The storage bag 1 is made of a material having excellent strength and flexibility, and is, for example, a transparent or translucent bag made of polyethylene. The storage bag 1 is not limited to polyethylene,
It may not be transparent or translucent.

Next, in FIG. 4, the operator operates the door knob 7 to rotate it as shown by arrow C to open the door 5, and between the back side of the door 5 and the front side of the paddle room 3. The storage bag 1 described above is arranged along the pressing plate 8 shown in FIG.
Slide in. At this time, the upper end opening of the storage bag 1 is made to protrude upward from the upper end of the door 5 by an appropriate length. Next, the operator operates the door knob 7 to move the arrow D.
The door knob 7 is rotated in the direction of arrow F in FIG.
The hook 11 for locking provided at the tip of the is locked to the shaft 12 for fixing. Thereby, the door 5 is fixed in a closed state, and the upper opening of the storage bag 1 is pinched and sealed by the sealing material 13 on the upper back side of the door 5 and the upper peripheral edge of the paddle room 3, and The pressing plate 8 and the paddle 4
The storage bag 1 is fixed between a and 4b.

Next, the power switch 14 shown in FIG. 1 is turned on, the operation time and speed are set by the operation button of the timer 16, and the start switch 15 is operated to the operation start state. Then, the drive mechanism (not shown) in FIG. 5 starts operation, and the two left and right paddles 4a, 4b alternately repeat the reciprocating motion as shown by arrows A, B. That is,
When one paddle 4a moves forward as indicated by arrow A, the other paddle 4b moves backward as indicated by arrow B, and conversely when the other paddle 4b moves forward as indicated by arrow A, one paddle 4
a moves backward as indicated by arrow B, and thereafter this operation is repeated for a predetermined time.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the storage bag 1 containing the sample interposed between the back surface of the door 5 and the two paddles 4a and 4b is alternately replaced by the two paddles 4a and 4b. Then, press on the back surface of the door 5. In this case, in the present invention,
Since the ridges 18a and the ridges 18b are alternately formed on the front side of the paddles 4a and 4b, for example, by corrugated unevenness, the sample in the storage bag 1 is pressed when the paddles 4a or 4b are pressed. Resistance can be given to stop them from trying to escape to the left and right alternately. Therefore, when one paddle 4a moves forward as indicated by arrow A, the sample on the one half side of the storage bag 1 is pressed against the back surface of the door 5 so as not to escape, and the other paddle 4b is indicated by the arrow. When moving forward as indicated by A, the sample on the other half of the storage bag 1 can be caught so as not to escape so much that the back surface of the door 5 can be pressed. As a result, the sample in the storage bag 1 is prevented from escaping by the pressing operation of the paddles 4a and 4b, the crushing force is increased, and the sample can be sufficiently crushed and dispersed.

However, even if the front surfaces of the paddles 4a and 4b have an uneven shape, a part of the sample in the storage bag 1 may escape to the opposite side. Even at this time, the door 5 having the uneven shape is also used. Due to the state in which the gap between the back surface and the back surface changes repeatedly, the sample passing therethrough can be crushed. By these, the crushing effect of the sample in the storage bag 1 can be enhanced as a whole.

After that, when the operation is stopped after a lapse of a predetermined time, by the operation in the reverse order to the above in FIGS. 6 and 4,
Open the door 5 to unlock the storage bag 1
Take out. Then, the sample inside is sufficiently crushed and dispersed to be suspended, and bacteria are extracted in the state of suspension.

In FIGS. 5 and 7 and FIGS. 8 and 9, two paddles 4a and 4b are shown to have an uneven shape on the front side, but the present invention is not limited to this. , The front side of the two paddles 4a, 4b remains flat, and the back side of the door 5, for example, the side facing the paddles 4a, 4b of the pressing plate 8 shown in FIG. You may form the uneven | corrugated shape as shown. Further, both of the two paddles 4a and 4b and the back surface side of the door 5 may be formed with an uneven shape as shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. In this case, the convex portion on the paddle side and the concave portion on the door side may be opposed to each other so as to be engaged with each other, or the convex portion and the convex portion, and the concave portion and the concave portion of both may be opposed to each other. Good.

FIG. 10 is a front view of the appearance of the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a transparent plate for observing a sample-containing storage bag 1 interposed between two inner paddles 4a and 4b and the back surface of the door 5 is provided in a part of the door 5 shown in FIG. The observation window 20 composed of is provided. The transparent plate forming the observation window 20 is made of tempered glass, acrylic plate, or the like. The observation window 20 may be provided over substantially the entire surface of the door 5, or may be provided, for example, only in the lower half portion. Further, the shape may be an arbitrary shape such as a quadrangle or a circle. In this way, when the door 5 is provided with the observation window 20, the crushed and dispersed state of the sample in the storage bag 1 can be seen while the door 5 is closed during operation, and the operation can be continued or stopped during the operation. You can judge.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, although not shown, a curve having a smooth surface as shown in FIG. 7 or 8 is formed on the back side of the observation window 20 provided on the door 5. You may form the uneven | corrugated shape which changes with.

[0026]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION Since the present invention is constructed as described above, either one of the front side of the paddles provided in parallel in the paddle room or the back side of the doors, or the two paddles are provided. The two paddles alternately repeat the reciprocating motion on both the front side and the back side of the door, and the surface changes in a smooth curve. A resistance can be given to stop the samples in the storage bag from alternately escaping in the left-right direction when being pressed. This prevents the sample in the storage bag from escaping due to the pressing operation of the paddle, enhances the crushing force, and can sufficiently crush and disperse. Further, the time for crushing and dispersing and suspending the sample in the storage bag can be shortened, and the efficiency of required food inspection or bacteria inspection can be improved.

Further, in the case where a part of the door is provided with an observation window made of a transparent plate, the crushed and dispersed state of the sample in the storage bag can be seen while the door is closed during operation. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether to continue or stop the operation on the way.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of the appearance showing an embodiment of a homogenizer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing the inside by removing the front door.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. 1 viewed from above.

FIG. 4 is a right side view of FIG. 1 viewed from the right side.

FIG. 5 is a plan view in which a front door and a top plate are removed and the inside is partially omitted.

FIG. 6 is a right side view with the side plate removed to show the inside with some parts omitted.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged transverse cross-sectional view showing an uneven shape formed on the paddle.

8 (a) is an enlarged transverse sectional view and FIG. 8 (b) is a front view showing another example of the concavo-convex shape formed on the paddle.

FIG. 9 is a main part schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the homogenizer of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a front view of the outer appearance showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of a main part for explaining the operation of the conventional homogenizer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Storage bag 2 ... Main body 3 ... Paddle room 4a, 4b ... Paddle 5 ... Door 7 ... Door knob 8 ... Pressing plate 13 ... Sealing material 18a ... ridge 18b ... recessed line 19 ... Protrusion 20 ... Observation window

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A main body having a drive mechanism inside, and two right and left in parallel in a paddle room formed on the front side of the main body, and a flat plate-like structure that alternately reciprocates by the drive mechanism in the main body. A paddle and an openable / closable door for covering the paddle room on the front side of the paddle room and interposing a sample storage bag between the front surfaces of the two paddles and sealing and fixing the storage bag. , A storage bag containing a sample interposed between the two paddles and the door
In a homogenizer that alternately reciprocates the paddles and presses against the back surface of the door to crush and disperse the sample inside to suspend, the front side of the two paddles or the back side of the door, Alternatively, on both the front side of the two paddles and the back side of the door, an uneven shape in which the surface changes in a smooth curve is formed over substantially the entire surface of the homogenizer. 2. A part of the door is provided with an observation window made of a transparent plate for observing a storage bag containing a sample interposed between two paddles and a back surface of the door. The homogenizer according to claim 1. 3. The homogenizer according to claim 2, wherein a concavo-convex shape whose surface changes in a smooth curve is formed on substantially the entire rear surface of the observation window provided on the door.