JP6119190B2 - Control device for analyzer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a control device for an analyzer.

  There are a wide variety of analyzers, and the user selects the optimal analyzer according to the analysis object and the purpose of the analysis. For example, there is a liquid chromatograph as one apparatus for analyzing components contained in a liquid sample. A spectroscopic measurement device or the like is used as the detection unit of the liquid chromatograph.

  The spectroscopic measurement device is a device that irradiates a sample with light from a light source, thereby wavelength-dispersing light emitted from the sample by a spectroscopic element and detecting the intensity for each wavelength. In the spectrometer, for example, a halogen lamp or deuterium lamp is used as a light source, a diffraction grating is used as a spectroscopic element, and a photodiode array detector (PDA detector) is used as a detector.

  FIG. 1 shows the main configuration of a spectroscopic measurement apparatus provided in a liquid chromatograph. The spectroscopic measurement apparatus includes a light source 1, a lens 2, a sample cell 3, a slit 4, a concave diffraction grating 5, and a PDA detector 6. The light emitted from the light source 1 is collected by the lens 2 and irradiated to the sample cell 3. In the sample cell 3, components in the sample temporally separated in a column (not shown) flow with the mobile phase, absorb light of a specific wavelength, and then are discharged to the drain. The light transmitted through the sample cell 3 passes through the slit 4, is then wavelength-dispersed by the concave diffraction grating 5, enters the PDA detector 6, and the intensity thereof is detected. Thereby, a three-dimensional chromatograph with axes of time, intensity, and wavelength can be acquired, and detailed analysis of components contained in the sample can be performed from the three-dimensional chromatograph (for example, Patent Document 1).

  In the liquid chromatograph, measurement conditions are set before starting measurement. An example of the measurement condition setting screen is shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b). This is an example of a measurement condition setting screen of a spectroscopic measurement apparatus equipped with a PDA detector. The setting items are sampling rate, measurement time (measurement start time and end time), measurement wavelength (measurement start wavelength and end wavelength), and wavelength resolution (spectral resolution) so that the user inputs parameters for each. It has become. The parameters input by the user are stored in the storage unit of the liquid chromatograph control device. When performing the measurement, the control device reads each parameter from the storage unit and operates the liquid chromatograph based on the parameter.

In addition to the parameters, measurement result data acquired by measurement is also stored in the storage unit. Since the storage unit has a physical capacity limit, an upper limit value of the capacity that can store data obtained by one measurement is set in advance for the measurement result data.
The amount of measurement result data can be almost predicted by parameters such as measurement time and sampling rate. When the user inputs parameters for all the setting items, the control device determines whether or not the amount of measurement result data obtained when performing measurement based on those parameters is equal to or less than a preset upper limit value. Judging. When the amount of data exceeds the upper limit value, a warning is given to the user and a screen prompting re-input of parameters (FIG. 2 (c)) is displayed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-326304

  In recent years, in order to perform measurements with higher resolution, for example, the number of light receiving elements in the PDA detector of a spectroscopic measurement device has been increased from 512 to 1024 to improve wavelength resolution or acquire signals from the PDA detector A device has been devised to increase the frequency (sampling rate) to improve the time resolution. As a result, the amount of data acquired by a single measurement increases and often exceeds the upper limit value preset in the storage unit.

  In the conventional control device, when the user inputs various parameters and the measurement result data amount calculated based on the parameter exceeds a predetermined upper limit value, the warning is not received again. It is necessary for the user to calculate the amount of data acquired when the user corrects any of the parameters and performs measurement with those parameters. Therefore, it takes time to set measurement conditions. This is a problem common not only to liquid chromatographs equipped with a spectroscopic measurement device but also to control devices for the entire analysis device.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a control device for an analyzer that can easily set executable measurement conditions.

The control device of the analyzer according to the present invention, which has been made to solve the above problems,
a) a storage unit in which the upper limit of the storable capacity of measured data is set;
b) parameter input means for allowing the user to input parameters regarding at least one of the plurality of setting items for operating the analyzer;
c) When a parameter related to the at least one setting item is input, based on a predetermined mathematical formula including a parameter related to at least some of the setting items and the upper limit value before starting measurement. Calculating the range of parameters that can be entered for the remaining setting items and presenting it to the user in a predetermined format;
It is characterized by providing.

The predetermined format is as follows. When there is one setting item that has not been input, the inputable range presenting unit presents a range of parameters that can be input for the setting item to the user. For example, when the setting item that has not been input is measurement time, a range of time that can be measured is presented, such as “0 to 60 minutes” or “maximum measurement time: 60 minutes”.
When there are a plurality of setting items that have not been input, the inputable range presenting means presents the range of possible parameters for the plurality of setting items to the user using a relational expression. For example, when the setting items that are not input are the measurement time and the sampling rate, a relational expression such as (measurement time) / (sampling rate) = N (N is a numerical value) is presented to the user.

In the control device of the analyzer according to the present invention, the user can input a parameter related to an unentered setting item by confirming the numerical value range and the relational expression presented by the inputable range presenting means . When parameters are input in accordance with the conditions presented by the inputable range presenting means , measurement conditions that can be executed by the analyzer can be set easily and reliably. Therefore, it is not necessary for the user to calculate the amount of data acquired when the measurement is executed under the input measurement conditions as in the prior art, or to set the measurement conditions by trial and error.

In the chromatograph, components in a sample are temporally separated by a column and detected sequentially. Therefore, the plurality of setting items include measurement time and sampling rate. Parameters input to these setting items greatly increase or decrease the amount of measurement result data. Therefore, the control device for an analyzer according to the present invention can be suitably used as a control device for a chromatograph.
Moreover, in an analyzer equipped with a spectroscopic measurement device as a detection unit, light dispersed in wavelength by a spectroscopic element is detected. Therefore, the plurality of setting items include a measurement wavelength range and wavelength resolution. Parameters input to these setting items also greatly increase or decrease the amount of measurement result data. Therefore, the control device for an analyzer according to the present invention can be suitably used as a control device for an analyzer equipped with a spectroscopic measurement device.

The control device of the analyzer according to the present invention is:
d) an authority determining means for allowing the user to input information on the authority possessed by the user and determining whether the authority satisfies a preset criterion;
e) an upper limit setting unit that causes the user to set the upper limit when the authority determination unit determines that the preset criterion is satisfied;
It is desirable to provide.

  In the above aspect, the authority determining unit causes the user's ID or a password given according to the user's authority to be input as information related to the authority the user has. The authority that satisfies the preset criteria is, for example, an administrator authority of the control device. Thereby, it is possible to prevent a user who does not have the predetermined authority from changing the upper limit value carelessly. In addition, when the analyzer specifications are changed or the capacity of the storage unit becomes large, flexible measures such as increasing the upper limit of the storable data capacity to enable more accurate measurement Can take.

In the control device of the analyzer according to the present invention, the user can input a parameter related to an unentered setting item by confirming the numerical value range and the relational expression presented by the inputable range presenting means . Therefore, executable measurement conditions can be easily set.

The figure which shows the principal part structure of the detection part of a liquid chromatograph. The figure explaining the measurement condition setting screen displayed in the control apparatus of the conventional analyzer. The figure which shows the principal part structure of one Example of the control apparatus of the analyzer which concerns on this invention. The figure explaining the measurement condition setting screen displayed in the control apparatus of a present Example. The figure explaining the authority authentication screen and upper limit setting screen which are displayed in the control apparatus of a present Example. The figure explaining the modification of the measurement condition setting screen displayed in the control apparatus of the analyzer which concerns on this invention.

  An embodiment of a control apparatus (hereinafter referred to as “control apparatus”) for an analysis apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, the analyzer operated by the control device is a high performance liquid chromatograph. Since the principal part structure of the spectroscopic measurement apparatus with which this high-speed liquid chromatograph is provided is the same as FIG. In this embodiment, the PDA detector 6 of the spectroscopic measurement apparatus has 1024 light receiving elements.

  The control device 10 according to the present embodiment is connected to a computer functionally including a storage unit 11, a parameter input unit 12, an inputable range presentation unit 13, an authority determination unit 14, and an upper limit setting unit 15, and the computer. An input unit 20 and a display unit 30 are provided (FIG. 3). A part of the storage unit 11 is allocated to the measurement data storage area 11a. Further, the upper limit value of the storable capacity (PDA data memory size) of data acquired by one measurement is set to 128 MB in advance.

  Also in the control apparatus of the present embodiment, the measurement conditions are set before the start of measurement, as in the prior art. The parameter input unit 12 displays on the display unit 30 a measurement condition input screen that allows the user to input parameters for a plurality of setting items included in the measurement conditions. The measurement condition setting screen includes a parameter input screen related to the PDA detector shown in FIG. 4A (hereinafter referred to as PDA setting screen) and a parameter input screen related to the data collection time shown in FIG. Data collection setting screen ”).

The setting items related to the PDA detector 6 are the type, polarity, wavelength (measurement start wavelength and measurement end wavelength) of the light source used for the spectroscopic measurement, and spectral resolution.
Polarity is a parameter relating to detection signal processing. This parameter does not affect the amount of data acquired by measurement.
The spectral resolution is a setting item related to processing of signals detected by the light receiving element of the PDA detector 6. As described above, since the PDA detector 6 of the present embodiment includes 1024 light receiving elements, the maximum value of the spectral resolution is 1024. For example, when the spectral resolution is set to 512, detection signals obtained from two adjacent light receiving elements are averaged and handled as one piece of data. Thereby, the amount of data acquired by measurement can be halved.

The setting items related to the data collection time are a sampling period, a measurement time (measurement start time and measurement end time), and a time constant.
The time constant is a parameter of a function for reducing noise by digital filtering of the detector signal. This parameter does not affect the amount of data acquired by measurement.

  Hereinafter, the operation of each part of the control device of the present embodiment will be described using specific parameters of setting items (measurement wavelength, spectral resolution, sampling period, measurement time) that affect the amount of data acquired by measurement. . Note that when the parameter input unit 12 displays the measurement condition input screen, initial values are input as parameters of the respective setting items.

In this embodiment, D2 + W (a combination of a deuterium lamp and a tungsten lamp) is selected as the light source to be used, and “+” is selected as the polarity. As already mentioned, these do not affect the amount of data acquired.
Subsequently, the measurement start wavelength, measurement end wavelength, and spectral resolution parameters are input. In this embodiment, the measurement start wavelength is set to 190 nm, the measurement end wavelength is set to 700 nm, and the spectral resolution is set to 1024.

As described above, when the parameter input unit 12 displays the measurement condition input screen, initial values are input as parameters for each setting item. In other words, the user has just input parameters relating to the PDA detector, but the initial values have already been input for the setting items relating to the data collection time. At this time, the inputable range presenting unit 13 reads the following expression stored in advance in the storage unit 11 and collects the maximum data based on the input parameters (including the initial value parameters in the temporary input state). Calculate time. In this embodiment, the number of light receiving elements in the following formula is 1024. In the following formula, 0.5 is a coefficient reflecting the difference in wavelength of light detected by the adjacent light receiving elements. These are appropriately changed according to the specifications of the apparatus.
Maximum data collection time (min) = {memory size for PDA data ^{(MB) × 1024 2/4} (Byte)}
/ {Measurement end wavelength (nm) -Measurement start wavelength (nm) +1 (nm)}
× {Sampling period (msec) / 60000} × 0.5
× {Number of light receiving elements / Spectral resolution}

  In this example, the sampling period (640 ms), the measurement start time (0.00 min), the measurement end time (60 min), and the time constant (0.640 sec) are input as the initial values of the parameters related to the data collection time. ing. Based on the parameters input by the user himself / herself and these initial values, the input possible range presenting unit 13 inputs each parameter in the above formula and calculates the maximum data collection time. In this embodiment, the maximum data collection time is calculated as 350.21 (min). The inputable range presentation unit 13 displays this numerical value in the maximum data collection time field of the PDA setting screen.

Subsequently, when the user selects the data collection setting screen tab by operating the mouse or the like, the data collection setting screen is displayed. As described above, each parameter input at this stage is an initial value. For example, when performing analysis using a high-performance liquid chromatograph, each component in the sample temporally separated in the column passes through the sample cell in a short time, so the sampling period is set shorter than the initial value. There is a need. For high-speed liquid chromatographs, set the sampling period to 5 ms or 10 ms. When the user changes the sampling period from the initial value of 640 ms to 10 ms, the input possible range presenting unit 13 inputs each parameter to the above formula again to calculate the maximum data collection time. Then, a newly calculated value (5.47 (min)) is displayed in the maximum data collection time field of the data collection setting screen (FIG. 4 (b)). The user confirms the value displayed in this column and inputs the measurement start time (0.00 (min)) and the measurement end time (5.00 (min)). That is, the user visually recognizes the time displayed in the maximum data collection time column and sets the measurement time (measurement end time−measurement start time) to be less than that. Therefore, unlike the prior art, it is not necessary for the user to calculate the amount of data acquired when the measurement is executed under the measurement conditions after the input, or to set the measurement conditions by trial and error.
When the user erroneously inputs a parameter that does not satisfy this condition, the input range presentation unit 13 displays an error screen similar to that shown in FIG.

Next, a case will be described in which a user having device management authority changes the upper limit value of the storable capacity of data acquired by one measurement, which is set in advance in the storage unit 11.
First, the authority determination unit 14 displays on the display unit 30 a screen (authorization authentication screen) that allows the user to input information related to the authority that the user has (FIG. 5A). When the user inputs the ID and password, the authority determination unit 14 checks with user authority information stored in advance in the storage unit 11 to determine whether the user has apparatus management authority. . If the user does not have device management authority, the authority determination unit 14 does not permit subsequent operations. This prevents a user who does not have device management authority from inadvertently changing the upper limit value.

  When the user has apparatus management authority, the upper limit value setting unit 15 displays a screen for changing the upper limit value of the storable capacity of data acquired by one measurement (FIG. 5B). )). The user inputs an upper limit value to be newly set on this screen. When the user inputs a new value, the upper limit setting unit 15 sets the input value as a new upper limit. In this way, when the specification of the detection unit is changed or the capacity of the storage unit 11 is increased, the upper limit value of the storable capacity of the data acquired by one measurement is increased, and the measurement is performed with higher accuracy. It is possible to take flexible measures such as enabling

The above embodiment is merely an example, and can be appropriately changed in accordance with the spirit of the present invention. In the above embodiment, the liquid chromatograph provided with the spectroscopic measurement device has been described. However, as described above, the control device according to the present invention solves the problems common to the control devices of the entire analyzer. Therefore, the control device according to the present invention can be used for all analyzers. Naturally, the mathematical formulas stored in the storage unit 11 are different depending on the analysis device to be controlled.
In the above embodiment, the input range display unit 13 displays the maximum data collection time on the screen by inputting the input parameters into a predetermined mathematical expression, but displays the input range of other setting items on the screen. You may make it make it. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, an input possible range regarding a plurality of parameters may be displayed on the screen.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Light source 2 ... Lens 3 ... Sample cell 4 ... Slit 5 ... Concave diffraction grating 6 ... PDA detector 10 ... Control apparatus 11 ... Storage part 11a ... Measurement data storage area 12 ... Parameter input part 13 ... Inputtable range presentation part 14 ... Authority determination unit 15 ... Upper limit setting unit 20 ... Input unit 30 ... Display unit

Claims (5)

a) a storage unit in which the upper limit of the storable capacity of measured data is set;
b) parameter input means for allowing the user to input parameters regarding at least one of the plurality of setting items for operating the analyzer;
c) When a parameter related to the at least one setting item is input, based on a predetermined mathematical formula including a parameter related to at least some of the setting items and the upper limit value before starting measurement. Calculating the range of parameters that can be entered for the remaining setting items and presenting it to the user in a predetermined format;
The control apparatus of the analyzer characterized by comprising.   The control device for an analyzer according to claim 1, wherein the analyzer is a chromatograph.   The control apparatus for an analyzer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the analyzer includes a spectroscopic measurement device. d) an authority determining means for allowing the user to input information on the authority possessed by the user and determining whether the authority satisfies a preset criterion;
e) an upper limit setting unit that causes the user to set the upper limit when the authority determination unit determines that the preset criterion is satisfied;
The control apparatus for an analyzer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:   2. The inputable range presenting means, when there are a plurality of setting items that have not been input, presents the values of parameters that can be input with respect to the plurality of setting items to the user as a relational expression. 4. The control apparatus for an analyzer according to any one of 4 above.

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