JP5874169B2 - Dispensing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a dispensing apparatus suitably used for manufacturing a microorganism culture sheet capable of performing a microorganism test quickly and accurately, for example.

  As a method for confirming the presence of microorganisms or measuring the number of microorganisms, there is an agar plate mixing method. In this method, since an agar medium formed in a petri dish sterilized in advance is used as a medium, an autoclave for high-pressure steam sterilization of the agar medium and a laboratory capable of performing microbial inspection aseptically are required. Moreover, skill is required for the operation of the microorganism test from the sampling of the microorganism to the preparation of the sample solution, dispensing, mixing with the medium, culture, and counting. Therefore, development of a microorganism culture sheet having a dried culture layer that can be easily tested for microorganisms without requiring a high degree of skill has been promoted.

  So far, as a sheet-shaped microorganism incubator reported so far, for example, a water-based adhesive composition layer formed on the upper surface of a support and a gelling agent attached to the adhesive composition layer There is a culture substrate device comprising a cold water-soluble powder containing a cover sheet and a cover sheet covering the cold water-soluble powder (see Patent Document 1). In addition, there is a microorganism incubator in which a circular water-soluble polymer compound layer and a porous matrix layer are laminated on a square pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet, and a square transparent film is disposed on the top (see Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent No. 3383304 International Publication No. 01/044437

  As a method for forming a dried culture layer in such a microorganism culture sheet, various printing methods such as screen printing and the like are considered in consideration of the fact that a certain thickness is required for the culture layer in order to properly grow microorganisms. A coating method is used.

  However, when the medium to be applied is an incompatible dispersion system or a medium with a high viscosity is applied, the printing method or coating method may not be suitable, and the smoothness of the application area may be reduced. There is. The thickness and smoothness of the culture layer in the microorganism culture sheet have a great influence on the test results, leading to a decrease in measurement accuracy.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is a microorganism culture sheet that is necessary and sufficient for the growth of microorganisms, has a culture layer of uniform thickness, and can perform an accurate microorganism test. An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing apparatus that can be manufactured accurately and continuously.

  The present inventors dispense a medium solution containing components necessary for the growth of microorganisms to a predetermined region on the base sheet using a multi-hole nozzle, and when dispensing, By using an indirect transfer method that utilizes the clearance with the substrate and the surface tension of the culture medium, even if the culture medium is an incompatible dispersion or high viscosity, the thickness and smoothness of the culture layer It has been found that the properties can be made uniform and simultaneous dispensing to the coating area is possible, and the present invention has been completed. Specifically, the present invention provides the following.

(1) Dispensing liquid supply means, a dispensing part connected to the dispensing liquid supply means and having a porous nozzle at the end, and an upper and lower dispensing part movable means capable of moving the dispensing part in the vertical direction at least with respect to the substrate surface. With
Furthermore, after the dispensing unit moves downward, the movable unit stops at a position having a predetermined clearance between the perforated nozzle and the substrate surface, holds the predetermined time, and then controls the movable means for moving the upper and lower dispensing units so as to move upward. Movable control means,
A dispensing apparatus comprising: a dispensing control unit configured to control a dispensing liquid supply unit so as to eject a predetermined amount of the dispensing liquid during the predetermined period of time;

  (2) The dispensing apparatus according to (1), wherein the dispensing unit further includes a horizontal dispensing unit movable unit that is movable in a horizontal direction with respect to the substrate surface.

  (3) The dispensing apparatus according to (1) or (2), wherein the discharge control means includes pressure control means capable of controlling a discharge pressure of the dispense liquid.

  (4) The dispensing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the dispensing liquid is a medium for forming a microorganism culture sheet having a dried culture layer in a predetermined region on the substrate surface.

  According to the dispensing apparatus of the present invention, a culture layer having a uniform thickness that is necessary and sufficient for the growth of microorganisms can be formed. It is possible to accurately perform microbiological tests such as measurement of the above.

It is a whole schematic block diagram which shows an example which applied the dispensing apparatus of this invention to the manufacture example of the microorganism culture sheet. It is the schematic which shows the whole operation | movement of the dispensing part in FIG. It is the schematic which shows operation | movement of the up-and-down dispense part moving means in FIG. It is a figure which shows the discharge hole of the porous nozzle in FIG. It is the schematic which shows the detail of operation | movement of the upper-and-lower dispense part moving means in FIG. It is a top view which shows the manufacturing method of a microorganism culture sheet | seat sequentially. It is the partial perspective top view (A) and sectional drawing (B) of a microorganism culture sheet.

  Hereinafter, as a specific embodiment of the present invention, an example of production of a microorganism culture sheet obtained by applying a medium solution, which is an example of a dispensing solution in the present invention, to a predetermined region on a substrate surface and drying it However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications within the scope of the object of the present invention. Specifically, the dispensing liquid in the present invention is not limited to a medium liquid, and can be applied to, for example, an emulsified foundation for cosmetics.

<Configuration of dispensing device>
[Overall configuration of dispensing device]
As shown in FIG. 1, the dispensing apparatus 100 is an apparatus for injecting a dispensing liquid 35 serving as a medium for forming the culture layer 30 into a predetermined region on the base sheet 10. The dispensing apparatus 100 includes a dispensing liquid supply unit 110 that supplies the dispensing liquid 35, a dispensing unit 120 that is connected to the dispensing liquid supply unit 110 and has a porous nozzle 125 at the end thereof, and the dispensing unit 120 is connected to the base sheet 10. A Z-direction movable means 130 that can move in the vertical direction (Z direction in FIG. 1) relative to the horizontal plane, and an X that can move the dispensing unit 120 in one direction (X direction in FIG. 1) in the horizontal plane direction of the base sheet 10. The direction movable means 140 and the Y direction movable means 150 capable of moving the dispensing unit 120 in the other direction (Y direction in FIG. 1) in the horizontal direction of the base sheet 10 are provided.

[Dispensing liquid supply means]
The dispense liquid supply means 110 in this embodiment is mainly composed of a hollow cylindrical container body 111 that can store the dispense liquid 35, and a discharge control means 118 that includes a discharge pressure control device 117 and a discharge pressure control unit 116. Has been.

  In the container main body 111, a stirring blade 113 for stirring the dispensing liquid 35 inside the container is disposed at the bottom of the substantially central portion, and a rotating shaft for rotating the stirring blade 113 is connected to the motor 112. Yes.

  The container main body 111 and the discharge pressure control device 117 are connected via a hollow tube 114 capable of feeding liquid, and the discharge pressure control device 117 and the dispensing unit 120 are similarly connected via a hollow tube 115 capable of feeding liquid. It is connected.

  As the discharge pressure control device 117 and the discharge pressure control unit 116, which are examples constituting the discharge control means 118, any known one can be used and is not particularly limited. Further, the discharge control means 118 is not necessarily limited to the pressure control, and may be, for example, a flow metering type flow rate control or a capacity metering type capacity control.

[Dispensing part]
A multi-hole nozzle 125 is disposed at the tip of the dispensing unit 120 to which the other end of the tube 115 is connected. As shown in FIG. 4, the porous nozzle 125 has a circular discharge surface as a whole, and a large number of discharge holes K are formed on the discharge surface. The discharge holes of the nozzles may be arranged at regular intervals or may be arranged partially densely. In the present embodiment, the arrangement density of the discharge holes K of the multi-hole nozzle is partially increased at a location corresponding to the vicinity of the outer periphery of the culture layer 30. According to such an aspect, when the frame layer 20 is formed on the outer periphery of the culture layer 30, the medium solution can be spread without a gap between the frame layer 20 and the culture layer 30.

[X direction / Y direction / Z direction movable means]
The dispense unit 120 is arranged on the Z stage in the XYZ orthogonal space of FIG. 1 and is slidable in the Z direction by the Z direction movable unit 130. This is the upper and lower dispense unit movable unit in the present invention. Equivalent to. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the Z-direction movable means 130 including the dispensing unit 120 itself can be slid in the X direction and the Y direction by the X-direction movable means 140 and the Y-direction movable means 150. As a result, The dispensing unit 120 can move to an arbitrary point on the XYZ space. The movement control means 160 performs this movement control. In this embodiment, not only the Z direction but also the XY direction can be controlled by this movable control means 160. The Z-direction movable means 130, the X-direction movable means 140, the Y-direction movable means 150, and the movable control means 160 can use conventional stage devices, respectively, and are not particularly limited.

[Frame part forming means]
As shown in step S1 of FIG. 2, which will be described later, a circumferential frame layer 20 made of hot melt resin is previously formed on the base sheet 10 in order to delimit the range of the culture layer 30 of the microorganism culture sheet. The For this reason, in the dispensing apparatus 100, a hot melt gun 200 is mounted separately from the dispensing unit 120. The hot melt gun 200 is movable in the X direction / Y direction / Z direction, like the dispensing unit 120, and hot melt resin (HM in FIG. 2) can be supplied from the outside, and a single discharge at the tip. The nozzle 210 is provided, and a hot melt resin can be applied to any location and shape by a gun control unit (not shown), whereby the circumferential frame layer 20 can be formed.

<Operation of dispensing device>
[Preparation stage]
The operation of the dispensing apparatus 100 will be described by taking the production of a microorganism culture sheet as an example. First, a binder, a gelling agent, a nutrient component, a color indicator, a selective agent, etc. are dissolved or dispersed in an alcohol solvent to prepare a dispensing liquid 35 and put into the container body 111, and the stirring blade 113 is rotated. To prevent sedimentation. This is the preparatory stage.

  Although it does not specifically limit as a viscosity of the dispensing liquid 35, The thing of the range of 100-2000cp can also be used conveniently. One feature of the present invention is that even with such a high-viscosity dispensing liquid 35, a smooth culture layer 30 having no thickness unevenness can be formed by using the dispensing apparatus 100 of the present invention.

[Frame layer formation]
Next, as shown in step S1 of FIG. 2, a base sheet 10 corresponding to the base in the present invention is placed on the XY plane. The application surface of the base material sheet 10 here corresponds to the base material surface in the present invention. At this time, referring also to FIG. 6, the microorganism culture sheet is in the state of FIG. In addition, the upper stage of each process in FIG. 2 is the front view seen from the X direction, and the lower stage is the top view which looked at the base material sheet 10 from the Z direction. Then, by moving any one or more of the X-direction operation means / Y-direction operation means / Z-direction operation means (not shown) of the hot melt gun 200, the hot melt gun 200 is arranged at a desired position, For example, the circumferential frame layer 20 is formed by rotating the nozzle 210 while discharging hot melt under the control of the gun controller. The microorganism culture sheet is in the state shown in FIG.

  2, after the formation of the one frame layer 20, the X-direction operation means and / or the Y-direction operation means of the hot melt gun 200 is moved so that XY on the base sheet 10 is obtained. A plurality of frame layers 20 may be formed in advance by changing the coordinate position.

[Dispensing]
Next, by moving one or both of the X-direction movable unit 140 and the Y-direction movable unit 150 of the dispensing apparatus 100, the desired XY coordinate position of the frame layer 20 and the XY coordinate position of the porous nozzle 125 overlap each other. Adjust to. Both XY coordinate positions need only overlap, and the desired frame layer 20 may be moved and adjusted. At this time, the position of the dispense portion 120 in the Z direction is sufficiently separated from the base material sheet 10 (the state shown in FIG. 3A).

  At this time, the frame layer 20 on the base sheet 10 and the discharge surface of the porous nozzle 125 are arranged to face each other, and the frame layer 20 on the base sheet 10 as shown in FIG. The recessed area surrounded by the virtual area is divided into a plurality of divided areas P, and the porous nozzles 125 having the discharge holes K assigned to the divided areas P, in other words, the same number of discharges as the divided areas. A multi-hole nozzle 125 having a hole K is disposed.

The diameter of each discharge hole K of the porous nozzle 125 is preferably 0.1 to 3.0 mm / piece, more preferably 0.1 to 2.0 mm / piece, and 0.5 to 2.0 mm. It is most preferable that the number is 1. If it is the said range, it will be hard to produce the sag and clogging of a culture solution. In particular, in the case of a dispersed medium solution, if the pores are too large, liquid sag and unevenness after application are likely to occur, and if the pores are too small, clogging is likely to occur depending on the particle size of dispersed nutrients. The individual hole diameters do not have to be the same size as long as they are within the above range. The arrangement density of the discharge opening K of the porous nozzle 125 is preferably 5 to 20 / cm ^2, more preferably from 5 to 16 pieces / cm ^2, is 8 to 16 / cm ² Most preferred. When the arrangement density is less than 5 pieces / cm ² , the medium solution does not spread sufficiently, and it may be difficult to form a culture layer having a uniform thickness or a culture layer having a thickness. When the arrangement density exceeds 20 pieces / cm ² , the gap between the holes becomes narrow, so that the medium solutions may come into contact with each other at the time of dispensing and cannot be dispensed satisfactorily. As the porous nozzle 125, for example, a commercially available one such as a multi-nozzle MN series manufactured by Musashi Engineering Co., Ltd. can be used.

  In this state, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the Z-direction movable means 130 is controlled to move the dispensing part 120 downward, and as shown in FIG. And stop at a point where the distance to becomes h. The separation distance h corresponds to the clearance in the present invention, and is set in advance by the viscosity of the dispensing liquid 35, the nozzle diameter, and the like. Although it can set suitably, Preferably it is 0.2-2.0 mm.

  Next, the discharge control means 118 is operated, and discharge is started from the porous nozzle 125 as shown in FIG. At the stage shown in FIG. 5B, the discharge amount from the discharge hole K is smaller than the final discharge amount, and the surface tension causes a teardrop-shaped drop body 35b that hangs down from the nozzle tip under its own weight. Thereafter, by continuing the discharge, the dropping body 35c grows to the state of FIG. Around this time, the discharge amount from the discharge hole K becomes close to the final discharge amount. When the discharge is further continued, the dropping body 35d comes into contact with the base sheet 10 as shown in FIG. 5D, and the dropping body moves to the base sheet 10 side due to the wettability with the base sheet 10. It will be transcribed. Thereafter, the porous nozzle 125 is separated upward to be larger than h, so that it diffuses instantaneously through the hemispherical dropping body 35e as shown in FIG. 5 (e) or FIG. 6 (D), and FIG. f) and smoothing by leveling as shown in FIG.

  The operation start timing of the discharge control means 118 is preferably the state of the separation distance h in FIG. 5A, but it may be a slightly lower stage before that. The operation end timing of the discharge control means 118 is preferably the state shown in FIG. The holding time at the separation distance h can also be set as appropriate according to conditions such as the discharge pressure and the viscosity of the dispensing liquid 35, and is 0.2 to 5.0 seconds as an example.

  By controlling the discharge control means 118 in this way, the volume of the drop body can be maintained within a predetermined range by the surface tension of the drop body, and by utilizing the wettability of the dispense liquid 35 to the base sheet 10, This is an excellent method capable of exhibiting excellent transferability to the substrate sheet 10 and subsequent leveling properties.

  As shown in the lower part of step S2 in FIG. 2, after the dispensing to one frame layer 20 is completed, the X-direction movable means 140 and / or the Y-direction movable means 150 are moved so that the XY coordinates on the base sheet 10 It is of course possible to continuously dispense a plurality of frame layers 20 by changing the position. And the culture layer 30 can be formed in the several location on the base material sheet 10 by combining process S1 and process S2 (process S3).

[Post-process]
Then, after a predetermined drying process is performed by a drying device such as hot air (not shown), the dispensing liquid 35 is made into the culture layer 30, and then a cover film 40 such as a biaxially stretched polypropylene film is formed on the base material sheet 10 on which the culture layer 30 is formed. The microorganism culture sheet can be manufactured by laminating on top, adhering one end, and individually cutting with a cutting device (not shown) as necessary.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the microorganism culture sheet manufactured in this way includes a culture layer 30 on a square base sheet 10. A circular frame layer 20 made of a hydrophobic resin is formed on the outer periphery of the culture layer 30, and the culture layer 30 is formed in a recessed region surrounded by the frame layer 20. Further, there is no gap between the frame layer 20 and the culture layer 30, and both layers are in contact with each other. A rectangular transparent cover sheet 40 is provided so as to cover the frame layer 20 and the culture layer 30.

  According to this microorganism culture sheet, since the circular frame layer 20 is formed on the outer periphery of the culture layer 30, it can be reliably expanded within a predetermined range without leaking the test liquid. Moreover, since the frame layer 20 is formed of a hydrophobic resin, the frame layer 20 is not broken by the test solution even when the test solution is inoculated on the culture layer 30. Furthermore, since the frame layer 20 and the culture layer 30 are in contact with each other, the test solution is not stored in the gap, and the test solution can be spread uniformly on the culture layer 30. By using the dispensing apparatus of the present invention, a culture layer having a uniform thickness that is necessary and sufficient for the growth of microorganisms can be formed, so that colonies are difficult to bleed and a difference in colony formation speed is unlikely to occur. In addition, it is possible to accurately perform a microbial test such as measurement of the number of colonies.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Base material sheet 20 Frame layer 30 Culture layer 35 Dispense liquid 40 Cover sheet 100 Dispensing apparatus 110 Dispense liquid supply means 110
118 Discharge Control Unit 120 Dispensing Unit 130 Z Direction Movable Unit 140 X Direction Movable Unit 150 Y Direction Movable Unit 160 Movable Control Unit K Discharge Hole P Divided Area

Claims (4)

Dispensing liquid supply means including a dispensing liquid, a dispensing part connected to the dispensing liquid supply means and having a porous nozzle at the end, and a vertical dispensing part movable means capable of moving the dispensing part in the vertical direction at least with respect to the substrate surface And comprising
Furthermore, after the dispensing unit moves downward, the movable unit stops at a position having a predetermined clearance between the perforated nozzle and the substrate surface, holds the predetermined time, and then controls the movable means for moving the upper and lower dispensing units so as to move upward. Movable control means,
A discharge control means for controlling the dispense liquid supply means to discharge a predetermined amount of the dispense liquid during the predetermined time holding, and
The porous nozzle have a discharge hole at a placement density of 5 to 20 / cm ^2,
The dispensing device is a medium solution for forming a microorganism culture sheet .   The dispensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dispensing unit further includes a horizontal dispensing unit movable unit that is movable in a horizontal direction with respect to the substrate surface.   The dispensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the discharge control unit includes a pressure control unit capable of controlling a discharge pressure of the dispensing liquid.   The dispensing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the dispensing liquid is a medium liquid for forming a microorganism culture sheet having a dried culture layer in a predetermined region on the substrate surface.

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