JPH0373433B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention can be used to extract information from cells in the field of basic medicine or biotechnology such as genetic recombination, which has been actively researched in recent years. The present invention relates to a manipulator that enables remote control of glass electrodes and the like using liquid pressure.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, glass electrodes have a diameter of 1 to 3 mmφ and a length of 50 mm.
It is a ~60 mm needle-shaped glass tube into which an electrolyte such as potassium chloride KCl or sodium chloride NaCl is injected, and one with a tip diameter on the order of 0.1 μ has been developed. It is already known that by inserting this into a cell, it is possible to extract and record various information about a single cell.

By the way, when inserting a glass electrode with a tip of 0.1μ into a single cell, the electrode must be positioned correctly so as not to destroy the cell or the electrode, and must be moved minutely and without wobbling or meandering. .

In order to satisfy this demand, the present applicant proposed a manipulator as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 58-27478 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-153162). The manipulator is
As shown in Fig. 8, a hydraulic type X-axis linear drive mechanism 8
1, the glass electrode A etc. attached to the operation No. 82 will move in the vertical direction (hereinafter referred to as the X-axis direction), and if the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 83 is operated, the glass electrode A etc. will move in the horizontal direction. (hereinafter referred to as the Y-axis direction) and further rotate the tilting lever 85 to operate the Z-axis drive mechanism 84, so that the glass electrode A etc. will move in the height direction (hereinafter referred to as the Z-axis direction). It's getting old. Moreover, if the tilting lever 85 is tilted in any direction, the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 86
As a result, the glass electrode etc. are moved in accordance with the direction and amount of tilting of the lever.

However, in this manipulator, the X-axis linear drive mechanism 81 and the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 83 are formed completely separately from the X-Y-axis in-plane drive mechanism 86, and each is piped between the operation console. Not only are the number of parts extremely large, but also each part incorporated in the operation table 82, the X-axis linear drive mechanism 81, the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 83, the Z-axis drive mechanism 84, and the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 86. Hydraulic cylinders are used with different sizes and shapes depending on the location where they are installed and the mechanical differences in those locations.
The hydraulic cylinders are not compatible with each other, and a dedicated hydraulic cylinder must be used, which is extremely inconvenient. In addition, each hydraulic cylinder 87, 88 in the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 86 is connected not only to the corresponding hydraulic cylinder of the operating table 82 but also to the X-axis linear drive mechanism 81.
It is also connected to the hydraulic cylinder of the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 83 through a tube. Therefore,
Not only does each hydraulic cylinder have to be specially designed depending on where it is installed, but it is also difficult to inject liquid and bleed air, making assembly extremely complicated, and the hydraulic cylinders are connected in advance with tubes. At the same time, after sealing a liquid medium inside and performing various tests such as pressure resistance and leakage,
It is not easy to assemble into each drive mechanism 83, 84 such as the axial linear drive mechanism 81, and the various tests mentioned above are currently conducted after assembly. It lacked convenience as it could not be used as a

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Therefore, in view of the above circumstances, the present invention constructs a hydraulic cylinder unit by connecting hydraulic cylinders with each other through tubes, seals a liquid medium inside, and then conducts various tests such as pressure resistance and leakage. In addition, when it becomes necessary to replace the hydraulic cylinder or hydraulic path from any of the manipulators, you can immediately replace them and use them as a manipulator. It is an object of the present invention to provide a manipulator for glass electrodes, etc., which can be easily attached to all locations regardless of the location.

[Means to be solved by the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a drive unit including an X-axis linear drive mechanism, a Y-axis linear drive mechanism, and a Z-axis drive mechanism, and an X-axis moving unit, a Y-axis moving unit, and a Z-axis moving unit. In a manipulator for glass electrodes, etc., in which operation of a glass electrode, etc. is performed by moving each moving part of the operating part by operating each axis movement mechanism of the driving part. The hydraulic cylinder mounting part of each shaft drive mechanism and the hydraulic cylinder mounting part of each moving part in the operation part are shared, and the two hydraulic cylinders are connected with a tube to form a hydraulic cylinder unit, This is a manipulator for glass electrodes, etc., characterized in that both hydraulic cylinders of the hydraulic cylinder unit are mounted on a mounting part of a shaft drive mechanism in a driving part and a mounting part of each corresponding shaft moving part in an operating part.

〔Example〕

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, one embodiment of a manipulator such as a glass electrode according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings. The present invention includes a drive unit 1 including an X-axis linear drive mechanism 5, a Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6, and a Z-axis drive mechanism 4, an X-axis moving unit 37, a Y-axis moving unit 38, and a Z-axis moving unit 39.
The glass electrode, etc., is operated by moving each moving part 37, 38, 39 of the operating part 2 by operating each axis moving mechanism of the driving part 1. In a manipulator such as an electrode, the hydraulic cylinder mounting part 2 of each shaft drive mechanism 5, 6, 4 in the drive part 1 and each moving part 3 in the operation part
The hydraulic cylinder mounting parts 7, 38, and 39 are shared, and the two hydraulic cylinders are connected by a tube to form a hydraulic cylinder unit 90, and both hydraulic cylinders of the hydraulic cylinder unit U are connected. This is a manipulator such as a glass electrode attached to the mounting portions of the shaft drive mechanisms 5, 6, 4 in the driving section and the mounting portions of the shaft moving sections 37, 38, 39 in the operation section.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a drive unit, and 2 is an operation console. The drive unit 1 includes an X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 3, a Z-axis drive mechanism 4, an X-axis linear drive mechanism 5, and a Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 3 has a fixed base 7 fixed to a base 8 with screws, and
A Y-axis slide table 9 is mounted to be slidable in the lateral direction, that is, in the Y-axis direction. An L-shaped bracket 10 is fixed to the end face of the fixed base 7 with screws, and a main body 11 of the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6 is further fixed to the bracket 10 with screws. A screw shaft 13 of a knob 12 is screwed into the main body 11, and one end of a piston rod 14 is inserted into a hole 13a in the screw shaft 13. On the other hand, a U-shaped bracket 15 is fixed to the Y-axis slide table 9 with screws in correspondence with the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6, and a hydraulic cylinder 16 is further fixed to the bracket 15 with screws 17. As will be described later, the hydraulic cylinder 16 includes a casing 18 having a hydraulic chamber therein, a diaphragm, and a diaphragm attached to the casing 18.
It consists of a cylindrical body 19 for attaching to the bracket 15 and fixing it to the bracket 15. An X-axis slide table 20 is mounted on the Y-axis slide table 9 so as to be able to slide freely relative to the Y-axis slide table 9. The sliding direction of the Y-axis slide table 20 is the vertical direction, that is, the X-axis direction, which is perpendicular to the sliding direction of the Y-axis slide table 9 with respect to the fixed base 7. X-axis slide stand 20
A bracket 21 is screwed to the end face of the bracket 21 in the same manner as described above, and a hydraulic cylinder 22 is fixed to the bracket 21 by screws. Above Y-axis slide table 9
On the end face of the
An axial linear drive mechanism 5 is attached. The X-axis linear drive mechanism 5, like the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6, includes a main body 23, a knob 24 screwed onto the main body 23, and a piston rod with one end inserted into a hole in the threaded shaft of the knob 24. 25, and the main body 23 is screwed to a bracket 26. The bracket 26 is the Y-axis slide base 9
Of course, it is screwed to the A sphere 2 is attached to the upper surface of the X-axis slide table 20 via a support shaft 27.
8 is fixed. The ball 28 is fitted into a receiving hole 31 of a large ball 30 of the tilting lever 29, as shown in FIG. The large ball 30 is rotatably supported by an adjustment ring 32 and a presser ring 33. The adjustment ring 32 is screwed into the case 34, and when the adjustment ring 32 is rotated with respect to the case 34, the distance between the center of the sphere 28 and the center of the large sphere 30 changes, and the tilting occurs due to this change. The amount of sliding of the ninth to X-axis slide bases 20 relative to the amount of tilting of the lever 29 changes, and in turn, the amount of movement of the glass electrode A attached to the operating table 2 can be adjusted. The tilting lever 29 is equipped with a hydraulic cylinder 35 similar to the above, and the hydraulic cylinder 3
Piston rod 36 that presses the diaphragm 5
Z consisting of a and a knob 36 screwed onto the main body.
A shaft drive mechanism 4 is provided. Each of the hydraulic cylinders 16, 22, and 35 is arranged to be connected to a corresponding hydraulic cylinder of the operation console 2, as will be described later.

The operation console 2 includes an X-axis moving section 37 and a Y-axis moving section 3.
8 and a Z-axis moving section 39. X-axis moving section 37, Y-axis moving section 38, and Z-axis moving section 39
have the same configuration, and the moving directions are the vertical, horizontal, and height directions when assembled, and only the X-axis moving section 37 will be described below.
As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the X-axis moving unit 37 has a base 40 having a substantially U-shaped cross section.
1, a slider 42 is slidably mounted on a bearing 43. The bearing 46 is the fifth
As shown in the figure, rails 44 and 45 each made of two wire rods are installed in each groove of the base 40 and the slider 42.
A plurality of steel balls 46 are inserted between each rail 44, 45. slider 4
A piston rod 47 is inserted into the center of the end face of the slider 42, and a hole 48 is provided from the other end of the slider 42 to the tip of the piston rod 47. A return spring 49 is inserted into the hole 48, and the base A return spring 49 is hooked between the end plate 50 of the piston rod 40 and the tip of the piston rod 47. That is, the length of the return spring 49 is made as long as possible so as not to impair the tensile coefficient during expansion or compression. A bracket 51 is screwed to the other end of the base 40, and the above-mentioned hydraulic cylinders 16, 22,
A hydraulic cylinder 52 having the same configuration as 35 is fixed with screws. As shown in FIG. 4, the hydraulic cylinder 52 squeezes a flange of a diaphragm 56 between a cylindrical body 55 and a casing 54 having a hydraulic chamber 53 therein, and a threaded ring 5 between them.
It is fixed at 7. A valve portion 5 for injecting liquid medium, venting air, etc. is provided around the periphery of the casing 54.
8 and a mouth member 59 for connecting to the hydraulic cylinder 22 of the drive unit 1. diaphragm 56
As shown in FIG. 6, it is made of rubber mixed with a mesh material, has a very small diameter of 5 mm or less, and has a ring-shaped protrusion 60 integrally formed on the flange for sealing. And the cylindrical body 55 is
It is designed to be fixed to the bracket 51 with screws 61. Also, the above return spring 4
9 has a rod 62 implanted in the end plate 50 inserted therein to prevent it from being unintentionally bent.

The slider 63 of the Y-axis moving section 38 is attached to the slider 42 of the X-axis moving section 37, and the slider 63 of the Y-axis moving section 38
The Z-axis moving part 39 is attached to the base 64 of the
sliders 66 are fixedly installed. In this case, the glass electrode A is
It goes without saying that the Y-axis moving section 38 and the Z-axis moving section 39 can be assembled in a position that allows movement in the vertical, horizontal, and height directions, that is, in the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions. The glass electrode A is attached to the base 67 of the Z-axis moving section 39 via a fixture 77. or,
When assembling the X-axis moving section 37, the Y-axis moving section 38, and the Z-axis moving section 39, it is also possible to attach them using mounting tools 78, 79 such as plates. The base 40 of the X-axis moving unit 37 includes operation knobs 68 to 70, and a manual moving mechanism 76 for manually moving in the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions.
It is designed to be attached to physical and chemical instruments such as microscopes through the . Not only can the base 40 of the X-axis moving unit 37 be attached to a physical and chemical instrument as is, but also the base 40 of the X-axis moving unit 37, the Y-axis moving unit 38, and the Z-axis
Since each of the shaft moving parts 39 is extremely small, it is easy to assemble the manual moving mechanism 76, and the first
Various types of assembly other than those shown in the figure can be used. Hydraulic cylinder 5 of the X-axis moving section 37
2 is a tube 7 connected to the hydraulic cylinder 22 of the drive unit 1.
1, the hydraulic cylinder 72 of the Y-axis moving section 38 is connected to the hydraulic cylinder 16 of the driving section 1 through a tube 73, and the hydraulic cylinder 75 of the Z-axis moving section 39 is connected to the driving section 1.
The tubes are each connected to a hydraulic cylinder 35. Each hydraulic cylinder 16, 22, 35, 5
As a result of various studies and experiments, water, which has a small expansion coefficient, was adopted as the liquid medium sealed in the tubes 2, 72, and 74 in this embodiment.

Since water was used as the liquid medium, sufficient consideration was given to sealing to prevent water leakage.

In the manipulator for the glass electrode, etc., first, in order to move the glass electrode A to the position where the cell is, the manual movement mechanism 76 is used, and then the X-axis linear movement mechanism 5, the Y-axis linear movement mechanism 6, and the Z-axis drive mechanism 4 are used. When processing cells or obtaining information from cells, the glass electrode A is moved using the X-Y axis plane drive mechanism 3 and also the Z-axis drive mechanism 4. At this time, the X-axis linear drive mechanism 5 and the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6 can also be used together as appropriate.

Therefore, if we turn the knob 24 of the X-axis linear movement mechanism 5, this rotation will move the piston rod 25.
When the diaphragm of the hydraulic cylinder 22 is pressed or depressurized, the change in the pressing force of the hydraulic cylinder 22 is transmitted to the hydraulic cylinder 52 in the X-axis moving part 37 of the operation console 2, and the hydraulic pressure by the piston rod 47 is increased. The pressing force of the diaphragm 56 of the cylinder 52 changes, and as a result, the slider 42 slides relative to the base 40 by an amount corresponding to the amount of rotation of the knob 24. Similarly, when the Y-axis linear drive mechanism 6 and the Z-axis moving mechanism 4 are operated, the Y-axis moving section 38 and the Z-axis moving section 39 of the console 2 operate in response to the manipulated variables. When the tilt lever 29 is tilted, the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism 3 operates according to the direction and amount of tilt. In other words, the Y-axis slide table 9 slides on the fixed base 7, and the X-axis slide table 20 slides on the Y-axis slide table 9, depending on the direction and amount of tilt of the tilt lever 29. Due to these sliding movements, the pressing force of each piston rod 14, 25 on the hydraulic cylinders 16, 22 changes, and this change is applied to the hydraulic cylinder 72 of the Y-axis moving section 38 and the hydraulic cylinder 52 of the X-axis moving section 37. The glass electrode A moves in the same manner as described above. When the pressing force of each hydraulic cylinder 52, 72, 74 of the operation console 2 decreases, the operation is performed at a fast response speed due to the elastic bias of the return spring 49.

In addition, the X-axis linear drive mechanism 5, Y
Each hydraulic cylinder of the axis linear drive mechanism 6 and the Z-axis drive mechanism 4, the X-axis moving unit 37 in the operating unit 2,
The hydraulic cylinders of the Y-axis moving section 38 and the Z-axis moving section 39 are communicated with each other through a hydraulic cylinder unit 90 that is connected in advance through a tube.

In this embodiment, water, which has a smaller coefficient of thermal expansion than oil, is used as the liquid medium, so it is possible to extremely minimize the so-called thermal drift of the glass electrode A due to temperature changes. can be reduced to one-sixth of that using
Moreover, by making the internal volume smaller than that of a conventional manipulator using oil, the above-mentioned drift can be reduced to one-half.

In addition, the operating table 2 uses an extremely small diaphragm 56 with a diameter of 5 mm or less, and
Each return spring 49 of the axis moving part 38 and the Z-axis moving part 39 is placed in the center, that is, the slider 42,
By providing a hole 48 that reaches the tip of the central piston rod 47 of 63, 66 and housing a return spring 49 in the hole 48, the overall shape can be made extremely compact. Therefore, the operation table 2 can be mounted so as to face above the stage of a microscope that does not have much space, and as a result, the distance from the fixture 77 to the tip of the glass electrode A can be shortened compared to the conventional method. This not only reduces shake caused by vibration and allows for better work, but also
Many manipulators can be mounted facing above the microscope stage. Moreover, the control panel 2
Since it is extremely small, it is convenient because it can be easily integrated into the manual moving mechanism 76 or an adapter for attaching it to a microscope.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the manipulator such as a glass electrode according to the present invention, two hydraulic cylinders are connected in advance with a tube to form a hydraulic cylinder unit, and a liquid medium is injected to increase the pressure resistance. After conducting various tests for leakage, etc., when it becomes necessary to replace the manipulator's hydraulic cylinder or hydraulic path, it can be replaced immediately and used as a manipulator. There has never been a need for a long period of various tests, and when replacing, the same one can be easily installed in all parts, such as the X-axis linear drive mechanism, regardless of where they are. Therefore, during manufacturing, simplification,
It is possible to rationalize and further reduce costs, and when exporting, etc., only the parts can be sent to the site and assembled, and the testing period is short, and as a result, it is extremely convenient for sales, etc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of a manipulator such as a glass electrode according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram, FIG. 2 is a partially exploded perspective view of the X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism, and FIG. 3 is a partially exploded perspective view of the X-axis moving section, FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the X-axis moving section, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the hydraulic cylinder unit, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a diaphragm, and FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a conventional glass electrode manipulator. 1...Drive unit, 2...Operation console, 3...X-Y axis in-plane drive mechanism, 4...Z-axis drive mechanism, 5...X
Axis linear drive mechanism, 6... Y-axis linear drive mechanism, 1
6, 22, 35, 52, 72, 74... Hydraulic cylinder, 37... X-axis moving section, 38... Y-axis moving section, 39... Z-axis moving section, 40... Base, 42...
...Slider, 47...Piston rod, 49...
Return spring, 56...Diaphragm, 9
0...Hydraulic cylinder unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A drive unit including an X-axis linear drive mechanism, a Y-axis linear drive mechanism, and a Z-axis drive mechanism, an X-axis moving unit, and a Y-axis linear drive mechanism.
A glass device comprising an operating section including an axis moving section and a Z-axis moving section, and in which glass electrodes, etc. are operated by moving each moving section of the operating section by operating each axis moving mechanism of the drive section. In manipulators such as electrodes, the hydraulic cylinder mounting parts of each shaft drive mechanism in the driving part and the hydraulic cylinder mounting parts of each moving part in the operating part are made the same shape, and the two hydraulic cylinders are connected with a tube. A glass electrode constituting a hydraulic cylinder unit, characterized in that both hydraulic cylinders of the hydraulic cylinder unit are attached to a mounting part of a shaft drive mechanism in a driving part and a mounting part of each corresponding shaft moving part in an operating part. etc. manipulator.