JPH0350096Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention relates to a thin plate sorting holder, and is particularly applicable to an automatic specimen enclosing device, and is used to control the size of a cover glass attached to a slide glass to which a specimen is attached. This invention relates to a thin plate sorting holder that can be pulled out according to the size of the specimen.

Note that the thin plate piece described herein refers to a plate that is thin, hard, and easily damaged like a cover glass.

(Prior art and its problems) Tissue specimens for microscopy, which are generally used for pathology and cell tissue examination, are first cut out from the material to an appropriate size, and then dehydrated with alcohol, etc. After embedding in paraffin, slicing, and slicing, a thin section of this specimen is attached onto a slide glass, and after undergoing treatment steps such as staining, it is stored in a bath such as a xylene bath. These specimens are generally removed from the xylene bath in bulk;
Only after it is sealed using adhesive and a cover glass of approximately 0.09 to 0.1 mm is it in a condition suitable for preservation.

When creating such specimens, it is necessary to prevent the tissue from being destroyed and the inclusion of air bubbles, which could lead to erroneous judgments, and it must also be 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, when attaching a cover glass, the cover glass used for encapsulation is expensive when conventional manual methods are used, and in general, a cover glass of an appropriate size is used depending on the size of the specimen. but,
When using an automatic specimen enclosing device, it is desirable to have a device that selects thin plate pieces according to the size of the specimen and transports them to the bonding position, especially when specimens are prepared in units of several hundred sheets. Considering this, it is not economically advisable to use cover glasses of the same size for all of these, so a device is needed that selects a cover glass that is even more appropriate for the size of the specimen.

(Purpose of the invention) The purpose of the invention is to develop a cover that can hold multiple sizes of cover glasses and provide a cover glass according to the size of the specimen, in order to achieve complete automation in such an automatic specimen enclosing device. An object of the present invention is to provide a thin plate sorting holder (hereinafter referred to as a sorting device) suitable for a glass sorting and supplying device.

(Key points of the invention) In other words, the present invention has a plurality of sorting sections each surrounded on three sides by a plurality of pins set upright on the floor surface, and thin plate pieces of different sizes are placed in the sorting sections. A weir plate that separately sorts and cumulatively stores the thin plate pieces and regulates the pulling direction of the thin plate pieces that have the same direction in each of the sorting sections, and a thin plate piece that is common between the sorting sections and is stored in contact with the floor surface. of the thin plate pieces accumulated from the gap between the lower edge of the weir plate and the floor surface, and only one of the lowest thin plate pieces is placed on the floor surface. Furthermore, drawer grooves parallel to each other are arranged on each floor surface of the sorting section, and the drawer can be drawn out from a selected sorting section of the sorting section through the gap. It is characterized in that a thin plate piece of a corresponding size can be pulled out along the groove.

(Embodiment of the invention) An embodiment of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an automatic specimen enclosing device to which the thin plate piece sorting holder of the present invention is applied. Here, 100 is a slide glass shooter that supplies slide glasses 110 one by one to a conveying device 200 at predetermined time intervals. It is transported from the right side to the left side.

300 is a discrimination device, and the slide glass 110 on the conveyance device 200 is first transferred to the discrimination device 30.
0 determines the size of the specimen attached to the top surface. FIG. 2 shows an overview of the discrimination device 300. Here, 310 is a sensor array in which a plurality of photo sensors are arranged, and 320 is a printed circuit board connected to the sensors.

The sensor array 310, the printed circuit board 320, and the lens box 330 in which the lens assembly is housed are all fixed above the transport device 200 and set on the transport circuit below 210. Reference numeral 340 denotes a light projection box provided on the lower side of the conveyance path 210. The light projection box 340 has a slit 341 on the side in contact with the conveyance path 210, and a vertical plate 34 at the bottom position directly below the slit 341.
A light shielding member 342 having a diameter of 2A and a vertical plate 342A
Line filament lamps 34 placed before and after
3 is 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. Since the configuration is such that only the black top surface 342B is visible and the lamps 343 are not visible, the light emitted directly upward from each lamp 343 is directed upward from the light shielding member 342, as shown by the broken line in the figure. and slit 3
41, and the light is not received by the sensor group of the sensor array 310 via the lens box 330.

Therefore, if the slide glass 110 is transported along the transport path 210 and there is no sample on its top surface, the sensor array 310 will not be able to detect any of the sensor groups 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. The detected length S3 is compared and determined with lengths of a plurality of set types, so that a determination signal corresponding to the type can be supplied via a control section to be described later.

When the size of the specimen on the slide glass 110 is detected by such a discriminating device 300, in the subsequent process, the liquid injection device 400 drops adhesive liquid in an amount corresponding to the size of the specimen.

500 is a thin plate sorting and supplying device that supplies cover glass as thin plate pieces. Reference numeral 510 denotes the sorting device, and the sorting device 510 has a sorting section 511 that stores cover glasses in the form of thin plate pieces of a plurality of types, four different sizes in this example, stacked up and down. The extraction mechanism 530 can selectively pull out only one cover glass of a size corresponding to the size of the cover glass. Furthermore, the pulled-out cover glass is guided by the mounting change mechanism 550 onto the slide glass that 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 the pedestal of the adhesive device 600, and
The cover glass is gently dropped from above and a slight pressing force is applied to complete the adhesive encapsulation.

The glass slides 110 that have been completely encapsulated are pushed out one after another into the 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 (saucer, etc.) 750 by an extrusion mechanism 730, and with a total of 40 sheets stored in the tray, etc., 1 gigaung of slide glass encapsulation is completed.

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 for when the above occurs, 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.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show details of a thin plate sorting and feeding apparatus 500 equipped with the thin plate sorting and retaining device of the present invention. Here, 501 is a thin plate piece sorting and supplying device 500
The sorter 510 is made to be able to reciprocate along the axis 502 on the substrate 501. 512
is a rack engraved on the top surface of the sorter 510, 5
13 is a pinion gear operated by a drive motor (not shown), and the motor causes the sorter 510 to reciprocate via the pinion gear 513 and the rack 512.

515A and 515B are each rack 51
These limit switches 515A or 51 are located at either end of the sorter 510.
5B, it is detected that the selector 510 is at the starting position or the ending position, and the motor is stopped.

516A, 516B, 516C, and 516
D is a weir plate, and in this example, the size or length is
Cover glasses in the form of four types of thin plate pieces of 24 mm, 32 mm, 40 mm, and 50 mm are attached to these weir plates 516A, 5.
16B, 516C and 516D and surrounding pins 517A, 517B, 5 provided on the back side of these
It is stored in an accumulated state between 17C and 517D. In this way, in this invention,
Instead of storing the cover glasses in a normal box, each of the cover glasses 518A-518D is surrounded by surrounding pins 517A-517D. This is because the cover glass is easily broken. In other words, if the cover glass is stored in a box, it is difficult to remove the pieces when the cover glass breaks. On the other hand, if pins are used, debris can be easily removed from the gaps between the pins. Also, when setting a cover glass, it is easier to set it between the pins than to insert a cover glass that is almost the same size as the box into the box. As for the pin placement,
For each size of cover glass, it is best to arrange one on the opposite side of the weir plates 516A to 516D and two on each side with as much space as possible as shown in Fig. 5. be. From the point of view of removing broken pieces, it is desirable that the number of pins be as small as possible, and that there be spaces between the pins. However, if the pins on both sides are, for example, one on each side at the top in FIG. 5, the cover glass will not be securely fixed. In FIG. 5, 518A, 518B, 518C, and 518D indicate each cover glass housed in this manner. In addition, 510A is the sorter 51
This groove is provided to make it easier to pull up the cover glass 518 from the surface of the sorter 510 when recovering the cover glass 518 from the screen.

In other words, when the cover glass has moisture on its surface, the cover glasses are in close contact with each other, and it is not possible to successfully pull out the bottom one cover glass only by suctioning it with a suction plate, which will be described later, of the extraction mechanism 530. (If two pieces are pulled out together, the top one will get caught on the weir board.) In such a case, for example, insert tweezers having the same width as the groove into the groove 510A,
By slightly deforming the cover glass, the cover glasses can be peeled off from each other.

Furthermore, these cover glasses 518A, 518
Sorting section 511A, 511B, 511C where B, 518C and 518D are stored by sorting
And parallel grooves 519A, 519B, 519C of the same shape are on the sorter 510 on the lower surface of 511D.
and 519D are provided, and each weir plate 516A,
A cover glass 518A is provided between the bottom surface of 516B, 516C and 516D and the top surface of the sorter 510.
A gap 509 is provided through which only one sheet 518D (thickness and width are the same) can pass through.

520A, 520B, 520C, and 520
D is a position detection pin arranged on the outside of each sorting section 511 on the center line of each parallel groove 519A, 519B, 519C, and 519D near the rack 512, and 521 is a limit switch that selects and operates the sorting section 511. This is a selection switch.

The selection switch 521 supplies a selection signal to a drive motor (not shown) that drives a pinion gear 513 to select a cover glass 518 suitable for the specimen on the slide glass 110 being conveyed based on the determination by the discrimination device 300. As the sorter 510 moves through the rack 512, the position detection pins 520A to 520D are detected. That is,
When the sorter 510 is driven by the drive motor via the pinion gear 513 and the rack 512 and moves from the starting position detected by the limit switch 534A, the position detection pins 520A to 52 are connected to the contact roller 521A of the selection switch 521.
0D is pin 520D, 520C, 520B, 52
The selection switch 521 operates by touching 0A in this order. Therefore, depending on the number of operations of the selection switch 521, the position detection pins (i.e., the sorting sections 511A to 511A)
511D) can be detected. The position detection pin 52 corresponds to the sorting section 511 in which the selected cover glass 518 is stored.
0 comes into contact with the contact roller 521A of the selection switch 521, the drive motor is stopped and the sorter 5
10 can be stopped on the spot.

522 is an extraction port provided by cutting out the axis 502 on the near side, and in this example, the sorter 510 is shown stopped at a position where the cover glass 518D is pulled out. 531 is a suction plate of the extraction mechanism 530 that pulls out the cover glass 518 when the sorter 510 is stopped, and the suction plate 531 is provided with a plurality of suction holes 532. The lowest layer of the cover glasses 518 stored in a stacked state can be sucked through the suction hole 532 using a vacuum pump.

Furthermore, the suction disk 531 has an arm (not shown),
The suction disk 531 is connected to the parallel groove 519 through this arm.
(519D in this example), and can be made to protrude to the transfer position 533 outside the shaft 502. 534A and 534B are operated by pins 5311 connected to the arms to move the suction disk 531 to the suction position and to the transfer position 533.
This is a limit switch for positioning.

551 is an arm of the transfer mechanism 550;
It has a suction disc 552 at its tip for repositioning.
The arm 551 having the suction disc 552 constitutes a parallelogram-shaped four-bar mechanism connected with other link members in a circumferential manner as shown in the figure, and the rotation axis 55
5 to move the suction disk 552 from the transfer position 533 in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow, and stop when it reaches a cover glass adhesion position (not shown).

To explain the operation of the cover glass sorting and supplying device configured in this way, first, when the sorter 510 is started by driving the motor via the pinion gear 513 and the rack 512, the selection switch 5 is activated.
The position detection pin 520 is attached to the contact roller 521A of No. 21.
Since D, 520C, 520B, and 520A come into contact in this order, the sorter 510 is stopped when the position detection pins 520A to 520D corresponding to the selected sorting section 511 come into contact with the contact roller 521A.

At the same time, the suction disk 531, which was waiting at the transfer position 533, is moved to the pin 531 connected to the arm.
1 (see Figure 4), the limit switch 534
By moving the arm until A operates, it is guided to the suction position shown in FIG. 4, and through the vacuum pump, only one cover glass 518 at the lowest position is suctioned and placed again. It is returned to position 533. At this time, the weir plate 516 and the sorter 510
Since a gap 509 is provided between the upper surface and the cover glass 518 through which only one cover glass 518 can pass, other cover glass groups stacked above the pulled-out cover glass 518 are blocked by the dam plate 516. They are blocked from being pulled out, and when one cover glass is pulled out, the group of cover glasses sinks under its own weight along the surrounding pins 517 to the lower side of the sorting section 511 in a stacked state.

In this way, the cover glass 518 is carried to the transfer position 533 by the suction plate 531 and its arm. By switching to the changing suction disk 552, it is attracted to the suction disk 552 side, and is conveyed by the arm 551 onto the slide glass 110 (not shown below) that has been guided to a predetermined bonding position. .

(Effects of the invention) As explained above, according to the invention, the sorting sections that can store a plurality of laminated thin plate pieces according to different sizes are arranged in parallel on the same floor surface, and each sorting section has A gap is provided between the lower edge of the wall on the drawer side and the floor surface so that only the lowest one of the stored thin plate pieces can be pulled out, and a gap is provided between the lower edge of the wall on the drawer side and the floor surface where the thin plate pieces are stacked. Since a parallel groove is formed facing in the drawing direction, a drawing means, for example, a suction means that sticks to the lower surface of the lowest thin plate piece is provided in this parallel groove and the suction means is moved along the groove to sort the sheet. It is now possible to pull out desired thin plate pieces from the chamber, and by applying it to the cover glass selection and supply device of an automatic specimen encapsulation device, it is suitable as a sorting store that prepares and pulls out cover glasses of multiple sizes. be.

[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 thin plate piece sorting and holding machine of the present invention is applied;
The figure is a diagram showing the outline of the discrimination device of the automatic specimen enclosing device, Figure 3 is a plan view showing an example of a slide glass with specimen pieces attached, and Figure 4 is an example of the configuration of the thin plate piece sorting holder of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the cover glass sorting and supplying device together with the cover glass sorting and supplying device, and FIG. 5 is a plan view thereof. 100... Shooter, 110... Slide glass, 111A, 111B... Specimen piece, 200...
Transport device, 210...Transportation path, 300...Discrimination device, 310...Sensor array, 320...Printed circuit board, 330...Lens box, 340...Light projection box, 341...Slit, 342...Light blocking member ,
342A...Vertical plate, 342B...Top surface, 343
... Lamp, 400 ... Liquid injection device, 500 ... Thin plate piece sorting and supply device, 501 ... Substrate, 502 ...
Axis, 509... Gap, 510... Sorter, 51
0A... Groove, 511, 511A-511D... Sorting section, 512... Rack, 513... Pinion gear, 515A, 515B... Limit switch, 516, 516A-516D... Weir plate, 51
7,517A-517D... Enclosure pin, 518,
518A to 518D...Cover glass, 519,
519A to 519D...Parallel groove, 520, 520
A~520D...Position detection pin, 521...Selection switch, 521A...Contact roller, 522...
Extraction port, 530... Extraction mechanism, 531... Suction disk, 532... Suction hole, 533... Replacement part,
534A, 534B...Limit switch, 55
0... Transfer mechanism, 551... Arm, 552
... Suction panel, 555 ... Rotating shaft, 600 ... Adhesive device, 700 ... Storage device, 710 ... Product reservoir, 730 ... Extrusion mechanism, 750 ... Receiver, 8
00...control unit, 810...operation panel, 820...
Switch box.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] It has a plurality of sorting sections each surrounded on three sides by a plurality of pins set upright on the floor surface, and the sorting sections have thin plate pieces of different sizes sorted by size. A weir plate for cumulatively storing the thin plate pieces and regulating the pulling direction of the thin plate pieces having the same direction in each of the sorting sections, and a drawer for pulling out the thin plate pieces that are common between the sorting sections and stored in contact with the floor surface. a preliminary groove for pulling out only one of the lowest thin plate pieces among the accumulated thin plate pieces from the gap between the lower edge of the weir plate and the floor surface. If possible, drawer grooves parallel to each other are provided on each floor surface of the sorting section, and the drawer groove is disposed parallel to each other from a selected sorting section among the sorting sections through the gap and along the drawer groove. , a thin plate piece sorting cage characterized in that thin plate pieces of corresponding sizes can be drawn out.