JPH0142043Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention is an automatic sample supply device for sequentially supplying a sample to be measured to an automatic analyzer such as a blood analyzer. This automatic sample is equipped with a sample stirring and suction device that effectively stirs and suctions the sample without causing cross-contamination, and detects the presence or absence of a sample container containing the sample to ensure sample supply operation. This relates to a supply device.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in blood analyzers that analyze samples that have relatively high viscosity and are prone to precipitation, such as blood, stirring has been used to obtain more uniform samples, or to prevent cross-contamination between samples using stirring devices. To avoid this, it is recommended to manually stir the sample containers one by one and then aspirate the sample into the analyzer, or to shake the sample container itself in advance and manually aspirate the sample from each sample container into the analyzer. Methods were used to do so. For this reason, sample dilution,
Despite the automation of reagent addition and analytical measurements, the sample feeding stage still requires manual labor, which can lead to insufficient stirring and sample mix-ups. Particularly in hospitals and testing centers that handle large amounts of samples, there are many relatively automated devices, but the drawback is that they require dedicated testing workers to supply the samples. In addition, insufficient stirring due to inspection worker fatigue, etc.
Alternatively, there was a risk that a sample mix-up could have a serious impact on test results, leading to misdiagnosis or treatment errors. Furthermore, cross-contamination of samples,
In order to prevent so-called contamination,
When using a method in which the previous sample is washed away with the next sample, there are drawbacks such as the need for a large amount of sample.

In addition, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-141691, a table feeding mechanism, a table sliding mechanism,
A colorimetric continuous automatic measuring device has been proposed which is equipped with a test tube lifting mechanism and a test tube shaking means.

Also, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-28390,
A liquid pouring pipe 8 is installed in the hollow part of the rotating suspended hollow pipe 11.
An automatic analyzer has been proposed in which the spouting tube 8 is caused to precess through a precession motion.

[The problem that the idea attempts to solve]

However, the device described in JP-A No. 51-141691 uses a motor and a cam to drive the device, and although the structure is complex, intermittent rotational movement is not reliable, and a suction device with wings is used. Since the pipe is fixed (stationary) and the test tube is shaken, a shaking device is required. Specifically, at the position where the test tube 38 is pushed up, the circulation belt 53 is inserted from the outside of the test tube.
The test tube is rotated and shaken by circulating it with a motor. That is, the suction tube 50 is kept stationary and the test tube 38 is rotated. Therefore, in order to improve the stirring effect, blades 51 are attached to the lower part of the suction tube 50. Therefore, there is a problem in that a highly viscous sample such as blood adheres to the blades 51 and causes sample contamination, so-called contamination.

Furthermore, in the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-28390, stirring is performed by a pouring pipe 8, and a suction pipe 9 is separately provided. Furthermore, since the spouting tube 8 is raised and lowered up and down, replacing the spouting tube 8 with a suction pipe would lengthen the path for the sample to pass, which is disadvantageous in terms of sample contamination, or so-called contamination. .

Also, the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 141691,
-The device described in Publication No. 28390 is not equipped with a means to detect the presence or absence of a sample container.
There are problems such as lack of reliability in sample supply.

This invention was developed in view of the above points, and is an automatic sample supply device that performs agitation in the sample suction pipe itself, thereby preventing contamination, and reliably detecting the presence or absence of a sample container. The purpose is to provide the following.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the automatic sample supply device equipped with the sample agitation suction device of the present invention is designed to fix the sample container 1 by placing a loader 2 on the periphery thereof to hold the sample container 1 in a circular shape, as shown in the drawings. loader stand 5
The upper part of the rotary shaft 10 is fixed to the upper part of the rotary shaft 10, the loader and the loader platform are attached by pins 6, the feed gear 11 is fixed to the lower part of this rotary shaft, and the feed pawl 12 that meshes with this feed gear is connected to the piston rod of the cylinder device 13. 14, and a large number of counter holes 16 are provided in the feed gear 11 at positions corresponding to the sample containers.
A light emitting part 17 and a light receiving part 18 are provided above and below the counter hole,
A loader rotation device 3 is constructed by providing a piston 21 above another counterbore hole for pressing a ball 22 into the counterbore hole, and a sample suction pipe 27 is connected to an outer cylinder 28.
A pulley 30 is fixed to the upper part of this outer cylinder, and a belt 3
Sample agitation suction device 4 configured by connecting with 3.
and a light emitting unit 35 fixed to the device main body base 25.
and the light receiving section 3 fixed to the device main body base 25
6, the light emitting section 35 and the light receiving section 36 are arranged on both sides of the plurality of rows of sample containers so that the optical path is diagonal to the horizontal plane and the vertical plane. It is characterized by containing.

(Function) As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, by driving the cylinder device 13 of the loader rotation device 3, the feed gear 11 and the loader 2 are rotated intermittently. Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, when light passes through the counterbore hole 16 and the light receiving section 18 detects the counterbore hole 16, the piston 21 located above the other counterbore hole 16 is actuated. The feed gear 11 is temporarily stopped by pressing the ball 22 into the counterbore, and when the cylinder device 13 is activated, the piston 21 is pushed up.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, whether the sample container detection device 34 is measuring samples in the outer row of the loader 2 or the samples in the inner row of the loader, , the presence or absence of a sample container containing a sample can be detected.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the automatic sample supply device of this example includes a loader 2 that holds a sample container 1 in a circular shape around its periphery, and a loader rotation device 3 that rotates this loader 2 intermittently. , a sample stirring and suction device 4 that stirs and sucks the sample in the sample container, and a sample container detection device 34 that detects the position of the sample container 1 containing the sample. The loader 2 is, for example, a circular plate made of synthetic resin with a diameter of about 30 cm, and has two circular rows of holes near its outer periphery for mounting and holding the sample container 1 thereon. Although the holes may be provided in a circular row in some cases, it is preferable to provide the holes in multiple rows of two or three or more rows because the area occupied by each sample can be reduced. As shown in FIG. 4, the loader 2 is attached to the loader stand 5 and
A pin 6 protruding from the lower surface of the loader 2 is provided so that the loader 2 can be removed from the loader 2 and the loader 2 rotates together with the loader pedestal 5. 7. The legs 8 provided on the loader 2
This is to make it stand on its own when it is removed from the loader platform 5. The loader platform 5 is fixed to the upper part of the rotating shaft 10, and the feed gear 11 is fixed to the lower part of the rotating shaft 10. By driving the cylinder device 13, the feed gear 11 is
The configuration is such that the loader 2 is rotated intermittently by feeding it pitch by pitch. The rotating shaft 10 is rotatably supported on a shift base 15. The feed gear 11 has a large number of counterbore holes 16 bored at positions corresponding to the sample containers 1, and is linked to an optical means for detecting the counterbore holes 16, specifically, a light emitting section 17 and a light receiving section 18. The temporary stop mechanism 20 is configured to be actuated in this manner. This temporary stop mechanism 2
0, when the light beam from the light emitting unit 17 passes through the counterbore hole 16 and the light emitting unit 18 detects the counterbore hole 16, the piston 21 located above the other counterbore hole 16 is
The feed gear 11 is actuated by fluid pressure such as compressed air pressure to press the ball 22 against the counterbore hole 16.
is configured to pause. When the rotating cylinder device 13 operates, the piston 21
With the fluid passage such as compressed air that communicates with the
The piston 21 is pushed up by the return spring of the piston 21, or negative pressure is applied instead of fluid such as compressed air to attract and raise the piston 21, and the temporary stop mechanism 20 is temporarily released. At this time, since no pressing force is applied to the ball 22, the feed gear 11 can rotate freely. Therefore, the loader 2 always stops at a predetermined position, and at the same time, the brake is released when the loader rotates, so the rotating cylinder device 13 can be made extremely compact.

In this embodiment, the loader 2 has 50 mm on the outside.
A total of 100 sample container insertion holes are provided, 50 on the inside and 50 on the inside.As shown in Figure 1, the outer samples are measured one after another, and when 50 are reached, the shift cylinder, which will be described later, is inserted. The device 23 is activated to move the loader 2 together with the shift base 15 on the shift rail 24 and shift it to the position shown in FIG.
The piston shaft of the shift cylinder device 23 is fixed to the shift base 15, and the shift cylinder device 2
The main body side of No. 3 is fixed on the device main body base 25. The remaining 50 inner samples are measured at the positions shown in Figure 2. In addition, one sample container is attached to the loader.
If the rows are held in a circular shape, there is no need to provide the above-mentioned loader horizontal movement device. Reference numeral 26 denotes a sample container elevating device located below the sample container 1, which is, for example, a telescoping mechanism formed by inserting a small diameter rod into a large diameter hollow rod in a retractable and extendable manner. A head for raising and lowering the sample container is fixed to the upper end of a small diameter rod, and the upper end of a spring member having an arc-shaped cross section is fixed to the lower end of the small diameter rod fixed to this head, and the lower end of this spring member is fixed to the upper end of the small diameter rod. is connected to a winding spool, and this winding spool is connected to a cylinder device via a gear mechanism, and by operating this cylinder device, the winding spool is rotated and the spring is released. Move the material forward and backward,
The sample container is configured to be raised or lowered to a predetermined position. This sample container lifting device 2
6 has the advantage that the sample container can be easily stopped at a predetermined position because the vertical limit is regulated by the magnitude of the horizontal movement of the cylinder device.

Next, regarding the sample agitation suction device 4, Fig. 6~
This will be explained based on FIG. In this example, air was blown into the sample as in the conventional method,
Alternatively, instead of stirring by inserting a propeller-like stirring rod, stirring is performed by rotating the sample suction pipe 27. The sample suction pipe 27 is made of a fluororesin having excellent chemical resistance and abrasion resistance, and is connected to a quantitative determination section of the automatic analyzer main body. On the outside of the sample suction pipe 27, as shown in FIG. 8, an outer cylinder 28 having an eccentric hole for holding the sample suction pipe 27 is provided. That is, the sample suction pipe 27 is eccentrically inserted and held in the outer cylinder 28. A pulley 30 is fixed to the upper part of this outer cylinder 28, and this pulley 30 and a pulley 32 connected to the rotating shaft of a motor 31 are connected by a belt 33. When the motor 31 is operated, the pulleys 30 and 32 rotate, causing the outer cylinder 28 to rotate and the sample suction pipe 27 to eccentrically rotate. The rotational speed of the pulley 30 is 2000 to 3000 rpm, and even a highly viscous sample such as blood can be stirred instantly and uniformly. Reference numeral 34 denotes a sample container detection device for detecting the position and presence of the sample container 1 containing a sample, and is composed of a light emitting section 35 fixed to the device main body base 25 and a light receiving section 36 fixed to the device main body base 25. The light emitting unit 35 and the light receiving unit 36 are arranged on both sides of the plurality of rows of sample containers 1 so that the optical path is diagonal to the horizontal and vertical planes, and are used to measure the samples in the outer rows of the loader 2. The present invention is configured to detect the presence or absence of a sample container containing a sample, even when the loader 2 is measuring samples in the inner row of the loader 2. Therefore,
Accidental empty measurements can be prevented and can be configured to deactivate the device or issue an alarm.

[Effect of idea]

As explained above, according to the device of the present invention,
By eccentrically rotating the sample suction pipe, a stirred and homogeneous sample can be aspirated in an extremely short period of time, eliminating the need for a device to previously stir or shake the sample. In addition, since the sample suction pipe itself directly stirs the sample, it is compact and requires less space, and it is also easy to clean, so that contamination between samples can be extremely reduced. Furthermore, in the event that the sample suction pipe should be replaced, it is possible to easily remove only the sample suction pipe, and even a highly viscous sample can be easily homogenized by stirring at high speed. Furthermore, it has the advantage of being able to reliably supply a sample by detecting the presence or absence of a sample container containing a sample.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a partial cross-sectional front view showing one embodiment of the automatic sample supply device of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is the automatic sample supply device showing a state in which the loader has been moved horizontally by one row of sample containers. 3 is a bottom view showing the main parts of the automatic sample supply device, FIG. 4 is a partially sectional explanatory view of the loader rotation device, FIG. 5 is a plan view of the loader rotation device, and FIG. 6 is a bottom view showing the main parts of the automatic sample supply device. A plan view showing one embodiment of the sample agitation suction device, FIG. 7 is a front view of the same, and FIG.
The figure is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line A-A in FIG. 7. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Sample container, 2...Loader, 3...Loader rotating device, 4...Sample stirring and suction device, 5...Loader mounting stand, 6...Pin, 10...Rotating shaft, 11...
Feed gear, 12... Feed pawl, 13... Cylinder device, 14... Piston rod, 15... Shift base, 16... Counterbore hole, 17... Light emitting part, 18...
...Light receiving part, 20 ... Temporary stop mechanism, 21 ... Piston, 22 ... Ball, 23 ... Shift cylinder device, 24 ... Shift rail, 25 ... Device main body base, 26 ... Sample container lifting device , 27...
...sample suction pipe, 28...outer cylinder, 30...pulley, 31...motor, 32...pulley, 33...
Belt, 34... sample container detection device, 35... light emitting section, 36... light receiving section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A loader 2 that holds the sample container 1 in a circular manner around its periphery.
The rotary shaft 1 is mounted on a loader platform 5 for mounting and fixing the
0 is fixed, the loader and the loader platform are attached by pins 6, a feed gear 11 is fixed to the lower part of this rotating shaft, and the feed pawl 1 meshes with this feed gear.
2 is fixed to the tip of the piston rod 14 of the cylinder device 13, and a large number of counter holes 16 are provided in the feed gear 11 at positions corresponding to the sample containers, and a light emitting section 17 and a light receiving section 18 are provided above and below the counter holes. A loader rotation device 3 is provided with a piston 21 above the counterbore hole for pressing a ball 22 into the counterbore hole, and a sample suction pipe 27 is eccentrically inserted and held in an outer cylinder 28. Pulley 3 on the top of
0 is fixed, and a pulley 30 and a pulley 32 connected to a rotating shaft of a motor 31 are connected by a belt 33 to form a sample agitation suction device 4, a light emitting unit 35 fixed to a device main body base 25, and a device main body. Consists of a light receiving section 36 fixed to a base 25,
The light emitting section 35 and the light receiving section 36 include a sample container detection device 34 arranged on both sides of the plurality of rows of sample containers so that the optical path is diagonal to the horizontal and vertical planes. An automatic sample supply device equipped with a characteristic sample stirring and suction device.