JP3839951B2 - Specimen coating device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically applying a liquid specimen such as urine, blood, secretion, etc. to a medium such as agar contained in a culture container such as a petri dish.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, an attempt to mechanize and automate the operation of manually applying a sample to a culture medium without causing contamination is disclosed in JP-A-63-160576. Many proposals have been made in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2-72898, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-175996, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-66552, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 6-296482, and the like.
[0003]
As one of them, there is a spiral application device that applies a sample to a culture container such as a petri dish rotating in a spiral shape via an application tube, but the application tube needs to be cleaned each time application is performed. Not only was shortening difficult, but there was no risk of contamination.
[0004]
Therefore, if a disposable sterilization tip can be used for application, the time can be shortened without worrying about contamination. However, since the sterilization tip is usually made of a rigid material such as plastic, it rotates as it is. There is a risk of scratching the surface of the culture medium when it is brought into contact with the culture medium. In addition, when coating is performed on a two-fraction medium in which two types of media are separated by a partition in the same petri dish, the tip of the tip with high rigidity collides with the partition, so-called “flying”. ”Occurs and uniform coating cannot be performed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art. That is, the present invention does not damage the surface of the culture medium by allowing the sterile surface to be softly contacted with the surface of the medium even when a disposable, highly rigid sterilized chip is used as the application means. An object of the present invention is to provide a coating apparatus capable of preventing the occurrence of jumping due to partition walls even when coating is performed on a painting medium.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-described problem, the specimen coating apparatus of the present invention has a sterilization chip mounting portion, and is a specimen coating apparatus for coating a liquid specimen on the medium surface via the sterilization chip, A chip mounting nozzle for mounting a sterilized chip, a pipe that is connected to one end of the chip mounting nozzle to support the chip mounting nozzle, has flexibility to supply a sample, surrounds the pipe, and moves along the pipe A rigid cylindrical slider that is freely provided and the tip mounting nozzle is disconnected when the specimen is applied and the tip mounting nozzle is supported by the pipe, and the tip mounting nozzle is held locked when the sterilized tip is attached or detached. The sterilization tip mounting portion and the holder holder fixed to the holder for holding the mounting portion and rotatable with the holder about the holder rotation axis. And an auxiliary link that grips and fixes the tip of the cylindrical slider, is connected to a fixing member via a connecting member, and is pivotable about a base that is eccentrically arranged with the holder rotation shaft of the holder arm. A swivel arm that rotates about the swivel arm axis of the swivel cylinder and contacts the lower end of the holder arm, and a swivel arm provided with a protrusion at the tip, and rotates the swivel arm to move the protrusion of the swivel arm The holder arm and the holder fixed to the holder arm are rotated in contact with the lower end of the holder arm, and as the holder rotates, the cylindrical slider is pulled up by the auxiliary link, and the cylindrical slider and the chip are mounted. The nozzle contact is cut off, and the tip mounting nozzle is supported by the flexible pipe .
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
When applying a liquid sample to a medium such as agar contained in a culture container such as a petri dish, the sample is applied by directly contacting a sterile chip made of a rigid material such as plastic with the medium. The first method is to adopt a method to perform, and to flexibly follow the irregularities on the surface of the medium or the partition walls of the two-fraction medium by supporting the sterilization chip flexibly during application. It is a feature.
[0012]
Furthermore, by contacting the medium surface inclined sterile tip, and the second comprises suppressing as much as possible damage to the media surface.
[0013]
The “sterilization tip” in the present invention is a specimen holding container that is usually manufactured from a high-rigidity material such as plastic on the premise of disposable, and is generally a cone whose mounting side is larger in diameter than the discharge side. It is made into a shape.
[0014]
【Example】
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on examples with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is in no way limited to the examples.
[0015]
FIG. 1 is a front view showing the overall configuration of the coating apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG.
[0016]
FIG.1 and FIG.2 has shown the coating device at the time of non-application | coating. In the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a holder arm that is rotatably supported around a holder rotary shaft 1a, and 2 denotes a swivel arm that is rotatable around a swivel arm shaft 2a by a driving force of a swivel cylinder 12 described later. The holder arm 1 is sandwiched and fixed by a fixing member 3 fixed to the revolving cylinder 12 and a protrusion 2b provided at the tip of the revolving arm 2 except during application.
[0017]
Reference numeral 4 denotes a holder for holding the sterilization tip mounting portion, which is fixed to the holder arm 1. Therefore, the holder 4 is interlocked with the holder arm 1 and is rotatable about the holder rotation shaft 1 a similarly to the holder arm 1.
[0018]
The holder 4 has a sterilization tip mounting portion fixed thereto. In the present embodiment, the attachment portion includes a tip insertion nozzle 5 for mounting a sterilization tip, a flexible pipe 6 connected to one end of the tip insertion nozzle 5 and supplying a specimen, and a pipe 6 is composed of a rigid cylindrical slider 7 that surrounds the pipe 6 and is movable along the pipe 6. The pipe 6 is fixed to the holder 4 by a pipe fixing bracket 8. In the drawing, reference numeral 13 denotes a sterilization tip, which is attached to the tip insertion nozzle 5 via an attachment mechanism (not shown).
[0019]
Reference numeral 9 denotes an auxiliary link that is supported so as to be rotatable about the auxiliary link shaft 9a and holds and fixes the tip of the cylindrical slider 7. As shown in FIG. 1, the auxiliary link shaft 9a is eccentrically disposed at a position different from the holder rotation shaft 1a. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the auxiliary link 9 is connected to the fixing member 3 via a connecting member 10, while the fixing member 3 is a turning cylinder in which driving means such as an electric motor is built in by a flange 11. It is fixed to 12 casings.
[0020]
Hereinafter, the operation of the coating apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.
[0021]
At the time of non-application, the turning cylinder 12 is stopped, and the holder arm 1 is held between the protrusion 2b at the tip of the turning arm and the fixing member 3, and the position thereof is fixed. That is, the holder 4 fixed to the holder arm 1 is fixed in a state where the tip insertion nozzle 5 is directed vertically downward as shown in FIG. In this state, the sterilized chip 13 is mounted on the chip insertion nozzle 5 by a mounting mechanism (not shown).
[0022]
In the state shown in FIG. 3A, the tip of the cylindrical slider 7 extends to the taper portion of the tip insertion nozzle 5 attached to the pipe 6, and the tip insertion nozzle 5 is held in contact and brought into a locked state. Yes. Therefore, in this state, since the tip insertion nozzle 5 is not held by the flexible pipe 6 but is held by the rigid cylindrical slider 7 and its position is fixed, the sterilization tip 13 can be securely and easily attached. be able to.
[0023]
After the sterilization chip 13 is mounted, a predetermined specimen is selected from a group of test tubular containers containing liquid specimens, and the entire coating apparatus is moved to insert the sterilization chip 13 into the test tube. The desired specimen is held in the sterilization chip 13 by aspiration. Note that the sample in the sterilization chip 13 is not released to the outside by maintaining the suction pressure applied to the sample via the pipe 6.
[0024]
On the other hand, at the time of application, a petri dish containing a medium such as agar is placed on the application table by a petri dish supply device (not shown), and the petri dish lid is opened. In parallel with this, on the coating apparatus side, the turning cylinder 12 is driven, and the turning arm 2 rotates around the turning arm shaft 2a in the direction of the arrow in FIG. Then, as the rotation of the swivel arm 2 progresses, the protrusion 2b of the swivel arm 2 comes into contact with the lower end 1b of the holder arm 1, but further rotating here causes the holder arm 1 to center on the holder rotation shaft 1a. And tilted as shown in FIG. The tilt angle of the holder arm 1 can be arbitrarily adjusted by controlling the rotation angle of the swing arm 2.
[0025]
By the way, since the holder 4 is interlocked with the holder arm 1 as described above, as the holder arm 1 is tilted by the rotation of the swivel arm 2, the holder 4 is also tilted around the holder rotation shaft 1a. At this time, the auxiliary link 9 also rotates about the auxiliary link shaft 9a in accordance with the change in the position of the cylindrical slider 7 disposed on the holder 4, but the holder rotation shaft 1a and the auxiliary link shaft 9a are not coaxial and are not aligned. Therefore, as the holder 4 rotates, the cylindrical slider 7 is pulled up by the auxiliary link 9 along the slide guide 7a by the distance i shown in FIG. The contact of the insertion nozzle 5 is cut off. Therefore, the tip insertion nozzle 5 is supported by the flexible pipe 6 simultaneously with the inclination of the holder 4.
[0026]
And thus the holder 4 is rotated in a state of being inclined with sterile tips 13 attached to the tip insertion nozzle 5 is brought into contact with the medium surface sterilized tip 13 across the coating device is lowered to the medium surface of the petri dish . Next, a liquid specimen is applied evenly on the medium surface from the sterilizing chip 13 by applying air pressure from the inside of the pipe 6 while rotating the application table on which the petri dish is placed in a spiral shape.
[0027]
Thus, when the specimen is applied to the medium surface via the sterilization chip 13 attached to the chip insertion nozzle 5 supported by the flexible pipe 6, the sterilization chip 13 against the unevenness of the medium surface. However, it is possible to prevent the medium surface from being damaged even if the sterilization tip 13 itself has high rigidity. Further, in the case of applying to the two-fraction medium, even if the sterilized chip 13 collides with the partition wall, the chip does not fly, so that uniform application can be performed.
[0028]
Furthermore, when the specimen is applied with the sterilization chip 13 tilted as in the present embodiment, it is possible to more effectively suppress the occurrence of scratches on the medium surface.
[0029]
After the application to the medium surface is completed, the holder arm 1 is fixed upright by rotating the swivel arm 2 in the reverse direction and returning it to the initial position. The holder 4 also returns to the initial position in conjunction with the holder arm 1. At this time, the auxiliary link 9 also rotates to the initial position, so that the cylindrical slider 7 descends and the tip thereof tapers the tip insertion nozzle 5. The chip insertion nozzle 5 is firmly held in contact with the surface.
[0030]
And the sterilization chip | tip 13 is removed from the chip | tip mounting nozzle 5 with the removal apparatus which is not shown in figure, and one cycle of application | coating is complete | finished. Thereafter, the above-described coating operation is repeated until a predetermined number of samples are coated in the same manner.
[0031]
【The invention's effect】
The present invention has the following effects.
[0032]
(1) During application, it is possible to flexibly follow the unevenness of the surface of the medium or the partition walls of the two-fraction medium by applying the sterilization chip in a state where it is flexibly supported, and the surface of the medium is damaged. There is no sticking or uneven application.
[0033]
(2) By inclining the sterilization tip and bringing it into contact with the medium surface, damage to the medium surface can be suppressed as much as possible.
[0034]
(3) upon application by the eccentric and the rotation axis of the auxiliary link and the holder arm only, in the case of adopting the structure for flexibly supporting the chip insertion nozzle mounting sterile tip, a single rotating the holder arm With this driving mechanism, it is possible to appropriately change the support state of the chip insertion nozzle, the structure of the coating apparatus itself can be simplified, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a front view (main part sectional view) of an embodiment of a coating apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1 (main part cross-sectional view).
FIG. 3 is a view showing an operating state at the time of application of the application apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2;
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Holder arm 2 Turning arm 3 Fixing member 4 Holder 5 Tip insertion nozzle 6 Pipe 7 Cylindrical slider 8 Pipe fixing bracket 9 Auxiliary link 10 Connecting member 11 Flange 12 Turning cylinder 13 Sterilization tip

Claims (1)

Has a mounting portion of the sterile tips, a coating apparatus of the analyte to be applied to the medium surface the sample liquid through a sterile tips,
A chip mounting nozzle for mounting a sterilized chip, a pipe that is connected to one end of the chip mounting nozzle to support the chip mounting nozzle, has flexibility to supply a sample, surrounds the pipe, and moves along the pipe A rigid cylindrical slider that is freely provided and the tip mounting nozzle is disconnected when the specimen is applied and the tip mounting nozzle is supported by the pipe, and the tip mounting nozzle is held locked when the sterilized tip is attached or detached. A sterilization tip mounting portion comprising:
A holder arm fixed to the holder for holding the mounting portion, and rotatable with the holder around the holder rotation axis;
An auxiliary link that grips and fixes the tip of the cylindrical slider, is connected to a fixing member via a connecting member, and is rotatable about a base that is eccentrically arranged with the holder rotation shaft of the holder arm;
A turning arm that rotates around the turning arm axis of the turning cylinder and contacts the lower end of the holder arm, and that has a protrusion at the tip;
The swivel arm is rotated to bring the protrusion of the swivel arm into contact with the lower end of the holder arm to rotate the holder arm and the holder fixed to the holder arm. An apparatus for coating a specimen, wherein the cylindrical slider is pulled up, the contact between the cylindrical slider and the chip mounting nozzle is cut off, and the chip mounting nozzle is supported by the flexible pipe .

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