JPH0254891B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention relates to a liquid injection device, and is particularly suitable for application to an automatic specimen encapsulation device and for injecting and supplying an adhesive liquid for bonding a cover glass onto a slide glass. This invention relates to a liquid agent injection device.

(Prior art and its problems) Generally, tissue specimens for microscopy used for pathology and cell tissue examination are produced through the process of dehydrating specimen material cut to an appropriate size using alcohol, etc. After starting, embedding with paraffin, etc., and slicing, thin sections of the specimen are attached onto glass slides, subjected to processing steps such as staining, and then placed in a basket and stored in a bath such as a xylene bath. However, specimens that have undergone such processing steps are usually pulled out of the tank all at once and sealed with a cover glass of about 0.09 to 0.1 mm using adhesive, before they become suitable for preservation.

When creating such specimens, it is necessary to prevent tissue destruction and the inclusion of air bubbles, which could lead to erroneous judgments, and to ensure that they are created quickly and accurately. However, in the past, most of the steps were done manually.

In recent years, each of these processing steps has become automated, but most of the coverslipping equipment, which uses adhesive and cover glasses to encapsulate specimens attached to glass slides, is fully automated. However, even those that have been developed still have various problems.

In particular, in the conventional manual method, the cover glass used for encapsulation is relatively expensive, so the appropriate size is selected depending on the size of the specimen. Ta. Therefore, when using an automatic specimen enclosing device, it is desirable to select the size of the cover glass in the same way, especially when this type of specimen is prepared in units of several hundred sheets. Therefore, it is especially not a good idea to use a cover glass with uniform dimensions.

(Objective of the Invention) An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid agent injection device suitable for supplying an adhesive in an automatic specimen encapsulation device that enables selective use of such a cover glass.

(Summary of the Invention) That is, the present invention includes a discriminating device that detects the spread width in a predetermined direction of a membrane piece attached to a flat plate piece being conveyed and outputs a discriminating signal, and a discriminating signal from the discriminating device. A control valve for liquid supply that controls the valve opening time based on the control valve, a pressurized liquid supply mechanism that supplies liquid at a constant pressure to the control valve, and a pressurized liquid supply mechanism that is connected to the control valve and parallel to the surface of the flat plate piece. It has a liquid injection nozzle that is movable in a predetermined direction to detect the spread width of the membrane piece, and a stepping motor that operates the liquid injection nozzle based on a discrimination signal. When it is transported to the injection position,
The present invention is characterized in that the stepping motor is driven to move the liquid injection nozzle to a predetermined position corresponding to the discrimination signal and then stopped, and the control valve is opened only for the time corresponding to the discrimination signal. .

(Embodiment of the Invention) An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an automatic specimen enclosing device to which the liquid agent injection device of the present invention is applied. Here, 100 is a slide glass shooter that supplies slide glasses 110 one by one to the transport device 200 at predetermined time intervals. A slide glass 110 supplied from the shooter 100 is transported from the right to the left in the figure by a transport device 200 that repeatedly moves and stops during a predetermined time interval.

Reference numeral 300 denotes a discrimination device, and the slide glass 110 supplied onto the transport path 210 is first subjected to discrimination by the discrimination device 300 as to the size of a specimen (not shown) attached to its upper surface. Second
The figure shows an overview of the discrimination device 300. Here, 31
0 is a sensor array in which a plurality of photo sensors (not shown) are arranged, and 320 is a printed circuit board to which the sensor group is connected.

The sensor array 310, the printed circuit board 320, and the lens box 330 containing the lens assembly are all fixed above the transport device 200 and set toward the transport path 210 below. 340 is a light projection box provided on the lower surface side of the conveyance path 210, and the light projection box 340 has a slit 341 on the side in contact with the conveyance path 210;
There is a vertical plate 342A at the bottom position directly below 1.
A light shielding member 342 having a vertical plate 342A and line filament lamps 343 arranged before and after the vertical plate 342A are provided.

Therefore, the slit 34 of this vertical plate 342A
The upper surface 342B facing the lens 1 is finished in black to absorb light and not reflect it. , only this black top surface 342B is visible, and the lamp 34
3 is configured so that it cannot be seen, the light emitted straight upward from each lamp 343 is limited by the light shielding member 342 and the slit 341, as shown by the broken line in the figure, and the light emitted from each lamp 343 is limited by the light shielding member 342 and the slit 341. The light is not received by the sensor group of the sensor array 310 via the sensor array 330 .

Therefore, if the slide glass 110 is transported along the transport path 210 and there is no specimen on its upper surface, the sensor array 310 will not be exposed to any light due to the transparency of the glass. is never detected.

However, if specimen pieces 111A and 111B are placed on slide glass 110 as shown in FIG. 3, when slide glass 110 passes over slit 341, these specimen pieces 111A and 111B are attached. Range S
1 and S2 receive the light from the lamp 343 and generate scattered light.

This scattered light is received by the sensor disposed in this part of the sensor array 310 via the lens group, so that the specimen piece 11
The entire range to which the specimen pieces 1A and 111B are attached, that is, the limit length S3 to which the specimen pieces 111A and 111B are attached in the longitudinal direction of the slide glass 110 is detected.

Next, the procedure for determining the size of the specimen 111 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6G.

Generally, as shown in FIG. 6, a frosted glass-like frosted portion 121 is provided on the end of one side of the slide glass 110, and a specimen number and the like are written on this frosted portion 121. Therefore, in this example, by scanning and detecting this frost portion 121 with the sensor array 310, the discrimination device 30
0, it can be detected that the lamp 343 is reliably lit. Further, in the case of a lamp not having such a frost portion 121, the presence or absence of an abnormality in the lamp 343 can be detected by providing a portion at the end to replace the frost portion 121.

FIGS. 6A to 6G show the case where the frosted portion 121 is provided on the slide glass 110 in this manner. Now, in FIG. 6A, the slide glass 11
0 is conveyed on the conveyance path 210 in the direction of the arrow x, and the scanning lines 311A to 311A when the slide glass 110 is successively scanned using the sensor array 310 shown in FIG. 311F
It is shown in

Here, in this example, there are six scanning lines 311 like this.
However, these scanning lines 311
The larger the number, the higher the resolution of detection in the transport direction.

In FIG. 6A, 123 is the slide glass 11
In this example, this measurement range 123 is equal to the length of the slide glass 110. However, this range 123 is divided into 256-bit detection units, and 2 bits from each bit are detected.
A value signal is input to a memory (not shown). Range 1 of the measurement range 123 excluding the frosted part 121
Assuming that 24 is the effective measurement range used for actual discrimination, while the slide glass is being conveyed in the direction of arrow Assuming that the signal is obtained,
The signal data read out by each of the scanning lines 311A to 311F through the memory is as shown in FIG.
It is expressed as a waveform shown in ~F.

Therefore, by calculating the logical sum of the waveforms thus obtained within the effective measurement range 124 using a memory and a microcomputer (CPU), a waveform as shown in FIG. 6G is obtained. In addition,
In this example, since the sample 111 is separated into two parts 111A and 111B, two pulses 125A and 125B are obtained, but the length 126 obtained from the rising edge of pulse 125A and the falling edge of pulse 125B is The center position of the specimen is calculated from this length 126. Then, adhesive liquid is injected into the determined center position by a liquid injection device 400, which will be described later.

Therefore, when the size of the specimen on the slide glass 110 is detected by such a discriminating device 300, when the adhesive liquid is conveyed to the subsequent liquid injection device 400, the amount of adhesive liquid corresponding to the size of the specimen is only drips.

500 is a cover glass sorting and supplying device. 5
Reference numeral 10 denotes the sorting device, and the sorting device 510 includes a sorting section 5 that stores cover glasses of multiple types, four types of different sizes in this example, stacked one on top of the other.
11, and from this sorting section 511, only one cover glass of a size corresponding to the size of the specimen can be selectively pulled out by an extracting mechanism 530. Further, the pulled-out cover glass is guided by the transfer mechanism 550 onto the slide glass 110, which has finished dropping the adhesive liquid and has been transported to the bonding position.

Below the slide glass 110 at this adhesion position, slide glass 11 is moved up and down at appropriate timing.
Adhesive device 6 for adhering 0 and the cover glass
00 is provided. Therefore, slide glass 110
is placed on a pedestal (not shown) of the bonding device 600, the cover glass is gently dropped from above, and a slight pressing force is applied to complete the bonding and encapsulation.

The glass slides 110 that have been completely encapsulated are pushed out one after another into a product reservoir 710 of the storage device 700. When a predetermined number of glass slides 110 have been sealed in this manner and accumulate in the product reservoir 710 (in this example,
10 sheets) are automatically pushed out to a tray (receiving tray) 750 by an extrusion mechanism 730, and one gigantic slide glass encapsulation is completed with a total of 40 products stored in the tray.

Furthermore, 800 is a control unit that controls these series of enclosing operations by a microcomputer (CPU) not shown, and 810 is an operation panel thereof. The operation panel 810 is provided with a display, switches, various display means when an abnormality occurs, etc., and the enclosing device can be operated and its operation can be monitored via the operation panel 810. Note that 820 is a switch box equipped with a button switch for starting and stopping the enclosing device.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a liquid agent injection device 400 of the present invention. Here, 410 and 411 are the conveyance path 210
Liquid injection device 400 installed on both sides along
The support frame 410 and the support frame 411 are connected to each other by a connecting rod 412, and the flange portion 410A of the support frame 410 is fixed onto the base 10 of the enclosure device main body.

420 is a nozzle for injecting the adhesive liquid, 421 is an adhesive liquid supply pipe, and the nozzle 420 and the supply pipe 42
1 through a connector 422. Furthermore, 423 is a control valve for supplying the adhesive liquid, and this control valve 423 controls the opening/closing time for supplying the adhesive liquid, thereby changing the amount of the supplied liquid.
Note that adhesive liquid pressurized to a constant pressure is introduced to the control valve 423 by a device to be described later.
The supply liquid amount can be changed in proportion to the valve opening time of 23.

424 is a threaded rod that is pivotally supported by the support frames 410 and 411. A pinion gear 425 is attached to the threaded rod 424, and the gear 425 is driven via a large gear 427 attached to a stepping motor 426. This causes the threaded rod 424 to rotate.

Reference numeral 428 denotes a nozzle holder that holds the supply pipe 421 together with the nozzle 420. The holder 428 has a threaded hole 428A into which a threaded rod 424 is screwed, and a guide rod 429 passing through its guide hole 428B. Rod 429 and threaded rod 4
24, the nozzle 420 is movably supported in a state where it is always directed downward as shown in the figure. Note that a ball slide (not shown) or the like is provided between the guide rod 429 and the guide hole 428B to ensure smooth movement.

430 is a hole for a screw that fixes the supply pipe 421 to the holder 428, and the height of the nozzle 420 above the slide glass 110 can be adjusted appropriately by using the fixing screw used in this screw hole 430. .

Reference numeral 431 denotes a limit switch attached to the support frame 411, and in this device, the holder 428 is returned to the initial position each time adhesive liquid is injected (hereinafter referred to as liquid injection) onto one slide glass 110. Therefore, when the holder 428 moves to the right in this figure and contacts the limit switch 431, the initial position of the holder 428 is confirmed, and the holder 428 is temporarily stopped at the initial position and the next liquid injection is started. It can be put on standby for operation.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a liquid agent supply device that supplies a liquid agent at a predetermined pressure to the control valve 423. 451 is an air compression pump for pressurizing the liquid;
The pressurized air is led from the tube 452 to the pressure regulator 453 via the air tank 454, and is kept at a constant pressure, for example, 0.1 by the pressure regulator.
The pressure is regulated to Kg/ ^cm2 . 453A is a pressure gauge.

455 is a pressurized tank filled with adhesive liquid, which is connected from the pressure regulator 453 to the tube 45.
The adhesive liquid in the tank 455, which is pressurized to a constant pressure by the pressurized air guided by
The opening and closing time is controlled here, and an amount of adhesive liquid corresponding to the size of the specimen is injected from the nozzle 420. In FIG. 5, other mechanisms belong to the cover glass sorting and supplying device 500.
Since this is not particularly relevant to the gist of the present invention, the explanation will be omitted.

Note that if it is detected that the slide glass 110 is not present at the step position 401 where liquid injection is performed in the conveyance path 210 shown in FIG.
No supply signal is sent from 0 to the control valve 423, and therefore no liquid injection operation is performed.

Next, a liquid injection operation in the liquid injection device configured as described above will be explained.

The control unit 800 shown in FIG. 1 has a storage device (not shown), and each slide glass 110 is
Each time the slide glass 110 is moved one step along the slide 10, the presence or absence of the slide glass 110 at each movement position is stored in the storage device. Therefore, when the control unit 800 confirms that the slide glass 110 has been conveyed to the liquid injection step position 401 by the conveyance device 200, the control unit 800 instructs the stepping motor 426 to operate. A signal is provided.

Thus, the holder 428 is moved from the initial position to the left in FIG. 4 as the threaded rod 424 rotates, while the size of the specimen 111 on the slide glass 110 is determined by the discriminating device 300. Therefore, the control unit 800 determines how many locations the liquid agent should be injected based on the discrimination signal.
In response to the operation signal based on the judgment, the stepping motor 426 stops, or once stops and injects, then moves further and stops.

Furthermore, a liquid injection signal based on the size determination signal of the specimen 111 is sent to the control valve 423 and sent to the stepping motor 4.
26 above-mentioned stops. In addition,
In this example, liquid injection signals are set in the control valve 423 so that four types of liquid injection times can be obtained.

Based on the liquid injection signal, the control valve 423 opens for the corresponding time to perform liquid injection, and when the operation is completed,
A reverse rotation signal is again supplied to the stepping motor 426, and the holder 428 is returned to the initial position together with the nozzle 420. At this time, since the initial position is detected by the limit switch 431, the motor 426
can be stopped at that position. Thus, the series of liquid injection steps is completed, and the slide glass 110 on which liquid injection has been completed is conveyed by the conveyance device 200 along the conveyance path to the next step.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a discriminating device that detects the spread width in a predetermined direction of a membrane piece attached to a flat plate piece being conveyed and outputs a discriminating signal. , a liquid supply control valve that controls a valve opening time based on a discrimination signal from this discrimination device, a pressurized liquid supply mechanism that supplies a constant pressure liquid to this control valve, and a pressurized liquid supply mechanism that supplies a constant pressure liquid to this control valve. A liquid injection nozzle is connected to the membrane piece and is movable in a predetermined detection direction of the membrane piece parallel to the surface of the flat plate piece, and a stepping motor operates the liquid injection nozzle based on a discrimination signal from a discrimination device. When the flat plate piece whose width has been determined by the device comes to the liquid injection position, the stepping motor is driven at this position to move the liquid injection nozzle to a predetermined position and stop, and a discrimination signal is sent. Since the control valve is made to open based on the valve opening operation, it is possible to supply the appropriate amount of liquid to the appropriate position depending on the size of the membrane on the flat plate piece, which is useful when automating the specimen encapsulation device. , suitable as an adhesive supply device when supplying a cover glass of a size corresponding to the size of a specimen,
By applying the present invention, the adhesive may overflow due to the size of the cover glass,
It is possible to prevent adhesion failure due to insufficient amount.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of an automatic specimen enclosing device to which the liquid agent injection device of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a line diagram showing an outline of the discrimination device of the automatic specimen enclosing device as an example, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of a slide glass to which the sample piece is attached; FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the liquid agent injection device of the present invention;
The figure is a perspective view showing an example of the liquid supply mechanism.
FIG. 6A is an explanatory diagram showing, as an example, a state in which the discrimination device scans, and FIGS. 6B to 6G are waveform diagrams for explaining the procedure for discriminating the size of a specimen, respectively. 10... Main body base, 100... Shooter, 1
10...Slide glass, 111, 111A, 1
11B... Specimen piece, 200... Transport device, 210
... Conveyance path, 300 ... Discrimination device, 310 ... Sensor array, 320 ... Printed circuit board, 330 ...
... Lens box, 340 ... Floodlight, 341 ... Slit, 342 ... Light shielding member, 342A ... Vertical plate, 342B ... Top surface, 343 ... Lamp, 40
0... Liquid agent injection (liquid injection) device, 401... Liquid injection position, 410, 411... Support frame, 410A... Flange portion, 412... Connection rod, 420... Nozzle, 421... Supply pipe, 422 ...connector, 42
3... Control valve, 424... Threaded rod, 425... Pinion gear, 426... Motor, 427... Large gear, 428... Nozzle holder, 428A... Threaded hole, 428B... Guide hole, 429... Guide stick, 4
30...hole, 431...limit switch, 45
1...Air compression pump, 452...Tube, 4
53...Pressure regulator, 453A...Pressure gauge, 454...Air tank, 455...Pressure tank, 456...Tube, 500...Cover glass sorting and supply device, 510...Selector, 511...
Sorting section, 530...Extraction mechanism, 550...Transfer mechanism, 600...Adhesive device, 700...Storage device, 710...Product reservoir, 730...Extrusion mechanism, 750...Success tray, 800...Control unit ,810
...Control board, 820...Switch box.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A discrimination device that detects the spread width in a predetermined direction of the membrane piece attached to the flat plate piece being conveyed and outputs a discrimination signal, and a valve opening time is controlled based on the discrimination signal from the discrimination device. a pressurized liquid supply mechanism configured to supply a liquid at a constant pressure to the control valve; and a pressurized liquid supply mechanism connected to the control valve and extending parallel to the surface of the flat plate piece. The flat plate has a liquid injection nozzle that is movable in the predetermined direction for detecting the spread width of the piece, and a stepping motor that operates the liquid injection nozzle based on the discrimination signal, and that has been discriminated by the discrimination device. When the piece is transported to the injection position, the stepping motor is driven to move the injection nozzle to a predetermined position corresponding to the discrimination signal and stop it, and the control valve is activated in response to the discrimination signal. A liquid injection device characterized in that a valve is opened only for a period of time.