JPH0564305B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer, and more particularly to an automatic analyzer capable of determining liquid level detection using optical means.

Conventionally, this type of automatic analyzer was developed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.
An automatic analyzer described in Publication No. -82769 is known.

This automatic analyzer consists of a reaction container containing a sample to be analyzed, a reagent liquid storage section configured by arranging in series a required number of reagent containers containing reagents corresponding to analysis items, and a reagent distribution device that sucks in a reagent liquid from a liquid storage section and supplies it to the reaction container; a liquid level detector that detects the liquid level of the reagent liquid in the reagent liquid storage section; and an output from the liquid level detector. Therefore, it is composed of a reagent remaining amount display device that displays the remaining amount of the reagent solution.

However, in the conventional automatic analyzer mentioned above, the structure of the reagent liquid storage section is such that the required number of rectangular parallelepiped reagent liquid containers are arranged in two rows in series, and each row is removably attached to the case. Because of this, it is necessary to specify the arrangement position of the reagent containers in advance and input the same position information into the control device, which makes the input operation complicated, and it is difficult to handle this when changing measurement items. The operator's reagent management is complicated because it is complicated to change the reagents, and furthermore, even if human errors occur, such as mistakes in replacing reagent containers, it is impossible to check for such errors, which poses a problem for analytical accuracy. This had the problem of reduced reliability.

Furthermore, since the above-mentioned conventional automatic analyzer is configured to detect the liquid level by immersing a pair of electrode bodies in the reagent solution, it is necessary to A device for cleaning both electrode bodies is required, which not only increases the complexity and size of the automatic analyzer, but also requires that both electrode bodies be inserted into the same container through the opening of the reagent solution container. Because the electrode bodies must be arranged in close proximity, cleaning water or reagent liquid tends to get in between the same electrode bodies and adhere to them, resulting in a structure that is prone to malfunctions such as when constantly energized. There is also the problem that the device lacks reliability when it comes to surface detection, and in order to solve this problem, the two electrodes must be placed sufficiently apart to prevent cleaning water from adhering between them. In such a case, there is no choice but to make the opening of the reagent container larger, which not only increases the size of the liquid level detection device, but also accelerates the evaporation of the reagent liquid and causes the concentration of the reagent liquid to fluctuate. However, this method cannot be adopted because it causes a decrease in the reliability of analysis and measurement accuracy.

The present invention was devised in view of the current situation, and its first purpose is to detect the liquid level of the reagent liquid in this type of automatic analyzer outside the reagent liquid container. Therefore, it is possible to simplify and downsize the device by eliminating the need for a cleaning device for the liquid level detection device, and to perform highly accurate liquid level detection without the risk of malfunction or false detection, thereby improving reagent solution management. Second,
Contents of Reagent Liquid Container By automatically determining the data required for analysis accuracy management and reagent liquid management, such as the type of reagent liquid, by the control device when dispensing reagent liquid or replacing reagent liquid containers, reagent liquid The present invention aims to provide an automatic analyzer that can eliminate human errors in management and greatly improve the reliability of analysis and measurement accuracy.

In order to achieve the first object, the present invention provides an automated system comprising a reagent storage section configured by arranging in series a required number of reagent containers containing reagents corresponding to analysis items. In the analyzer, a longitudinally elongated protrusion communicating with the inside of the reagent container is formed on the side of each of the reagent containers, and
An optical detection device that detects the liquid level in the reagent container by optical means in the process of moving up and down along the protrusions is disposed at a portion facing the surface side of the reagent container where the protrusions are arranged. It was constructed by setting up

In addition, in order to achieve the first and second objects, the present invention includes a reagent storage section configured by arranging in series a required number of reagent containers containing reagents corresponding to analysis items. In this automatic analyzer, each reagent container has a vertically elongated protrusion on the side that communicates with the inside of the reagent container, and information such as the type of reagent in the container is displayed at the required position of the protrusion. A data body encoded with is disposed at a portion facing the surface side of the reagent container on which the protrusions are arranged, and in the process of moving up and down along the protrusions. A detection device is provided to discriminate between liquid level detection and information reading of the data body.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, a sampler 10 includes a sample table 11, an ion analysis tank 15, and a drive unit that rotates these. The sample table 11 includes a row of ordinary sample containers 12 in which samples to be analyzed are loaded into a plurality of holes on the outer circumference side, and a row of special sample containers in which samples for emergency testing and standard samples are loaded and arranged in a plurality of holes on the inner circumference side. 13 are formed, and these sample containers are rotated and transferred to sample intake positions 44 and 44' as required. There is a rotatable ion analysis tank 15 inside the sample table 11, and a plurality of ion selection electrodes 16 for sodium ions, potassium ions, chloride ions, etc., and a comparison electrode 17 are extended inside. These electrodes are arranged so that when a sample sampled from the sample container row is introduced into the analysis tank 15 and diluted with a dilution liquid by a sampling mechanism (not shown), the electrodes are immersed in the liquid. adjusted.

The reaction section 20 includes a doughnut-shaped constant temperature passage 23 and a reaction table 21 installed thereon, and the height position of the reaction table 21 is approximately the same as that of the sample table 11. The constant temperature passage 23 consists of a constant temperature bath, and constant temperature liquid is circulated from the constant temperature water supply section 29. The reaction table 21 has many holes,
A reaction vessel 22 consisting of a rectangular transparent cell is inserted into these holes.
are loaded to form a row of reaction vessels. The lower part of the reaction vessel is immersed in a constant temperature liquid.

A light source 25 is provided inside the reaction table 21 which is rotated continuously and intermittently by a drive mechanism (not shown), and a luminous flux 26 from the light source 25 passes through the reaction container 22 in the constant temperature passage 23 and passes through the photometer 27. After being guided into the photometer 27 and dispersed by a diffraction grating, light of a specific wavelength is extracted via a photodetector. The contents within reaction vessel 22 are stirred by a stirrer 28 .

A cleaning machine 24 having a plurality of pure water outlet pipes and a plurality of liquid suction pipes is located above the reaction vessel row, and when the reaction table 21 is stopped, these pipes are inserted into the reaction vessels to perform a cleaning operation.

The sampling mechanism 40 includes a rotating arm holding a sample suction/discharge tube 41, an up/down mechanism for this rotary arm, and a sample pipette 42.
1 can be moved between the sample suction positions 44 and 44' and the sample discharge position 45, and the sample suction and discharge tube can be moved up and down at each position.

The reagent liquid storage section 30 is arranged close to the reaction section 20, and the height positions of the reagent liquid containers 31, 31' are approximately the same as the reaction table 21. Storage section 30
consists of a refrigerator, in which rectangular parallelepiped-shaped reagent liquid containers 31, 31' are arranged in two rows in series, and each row has rail bodies 60, 6, as shown in FIG.
It is constructed so that it can move forward and backward above zero. This forward and backward movement is performed by a drive device _M2 controlled by a microcomputer 51. Each reagent liquid container 31 is prepared according to the analysis item. Each container 31, 31' has an opening 32, 32', and these openings are arranged in series toward a specific position in relation to the row of reaction containers 22. ' One side part 31a, 3
1'a has a protrusion 31 that protrudes outward in a vertically elongated manner and communicates with the inside of each container 31, 31'.
b, 31'b are formed in a bulging manner, and the protruding portion 3
1b and 31'b are made of at least a light-transmitting material. Further, on the upper part of the protruding surface of the protruding stripes 31b, 31'b, the contents of the reagent containers 31, 31', the type of reagent, the date of manufacture, etc. are encoded using a bar code, binary code electrical processing, etc. data body 31
c, 31'c are attached. The reagent pipette 35 is equipped with reagent pipetting parts 36 and 37 that are transferred on rails (not shown), and these pipetting parts 36 and 37 are connected to the reagent suction and discharge pipes 3.
8,39 are attached. These reagent suction and discharge tubes 38 and 39 are independently reciprocated. The reagent suction and discharge tube 38 is moved along the row of openings 32 and is moved to the reagent discharge position 46. The reagent suction and discharge tube 39 is moved along the row of openings 32' and is moved to the reagent discharge position 47. Reagent liquid container 31
The rows of openings 32 and 32' are arranged in parallel, and the rows of openings 32 and 32' are also arranged in parallel. Reagent liquid tank 3
Since 1 and 31' are rectangular parallelepipeds, a large number of them can be arranged very closely adjacent to each other. Reagent suction and discharge pipe 38,
39 is an appropriate reagent liquid tank 31, 3 according to the analysis item.
It is stopped above the opening 1', descends to suck in and hold the reagent liquid, and rises to discharge the held reagent liquid into the reaction tube 22. This operation control is performed by a microcomputer 51. The pipette 35 is equipped with a well-known syringe mechanism.

The detection devices 70, 70' are mounted on a bracket 71 having a generally concave shape in plan view, as shown in FIG.
and a drive device MA that slides the bracket 71 in the vertical direction with its recess 72 loosely fitting into the protruding portions 31b, 31'b of the reagent liquid containers 31, 31';
A potentiometer 73 that detects the rotation angle of the drive device _M1 , and a recess 72 of the bracket 71.
A light irradiator 74 and a photoreceptor 75 arranged at facing parts
and a data reader 76 disposed at a portion corresponding to the bottom of the recess 72. This drive device _M1 is configured to operate the bracket 71 as required by a known mechanism such as a combination of a pulse motor and a rack mechanism. In addition, the light irradiation body 7
The bracket 71 is disposed so that the light emitted from the container 31, 31' passes through the protruding portions 31b, 31'b of the containers 31, 31' and is received by the photoreceptor 75. data body 31b,
When the data bodies 31'b and 31'b are disposed, the information on the data bodies 31b and 31'b is read by a data reader 76.

The detection devices 70, 70' configured in this way are
Respective protrusions 31b, 3 of reagent liquid containers 31, 31'
1'b, and each reagent liquid container 31, 31' is moved by the drive device _M2 before the automatic analyzer starts the required analysis work. It is transported to the location where the detection devices 70, 70' are installed. In this way, the reagent liquid containers 31, 3
1' reaches the location where the detection devices 70, 70' are installed, the bracket 71 starts to rise via the drive device _M1 , and liquid level detection and data reading are performed.
These data are input to the microcomputer 51 in correspondence with the positions of the reagent liquid containers 31, 31'.

Liquid level detection is performed as follows. For example, when water is used as the reagent solution, it is rapidly absorbed in the infrared region around 2.7μ, so the infrared rays received by the photoreceptor 75 are maintains a constant voltage level, but when it is permeated into the reagent liquid in the reagent liquid containers 31, 31', the voltage V suddenly drops. The microcomputer 51 detects the point at which the voltage V suddenly drops, uses the potentiometer P to detect the rotation angle of the drive device _M1 at this point, detects the liquid level, and the microcomputer 51 display and store this on a monitor (not shown).

That is, the amount of reagent liquid stored in the reagent liquid containers 31, 31' is determined in advance, and the remaining amount of reagent liquid is calculated and displayed based on the water level.

Incidentally, in the above embodiment, the case where the liquid level is detected by the measurement light passing through the protrusions 31b and 31'b was explained as an example, but in this invention, the measurement light The protrusions 31b, 31'b
The light is reflected by the photoreceptor and received by the photoreceptor, and by using the phenomenon of light being absorbed by the air layer and the reagent liquid layer, the timing of light intensity fluctuations at the boundaries of each layer is detected, and the required calculations are performed to determine the liquid level, that is, the reagent liquid layer. You can check the remaining amount.

Data reading is performed by the data reader 7 as described above.
6 reaches the location where the protrusions 21b, 21'b are arranged, required known optical reading or electrical reading is performed, and the read data is sent to the microcomputer 51 together with the position of the reagent containers 31, 31'.
is input and stored in memory.

After the liquid level of all the reagent liquid containers 31, 31' and the content of the reagent liquid have been confirmed by the detection devices 70, 70', the sample table 11 on which the sample to be analyzed is placed is installed in the sampler 10. When the user then presses the start button on the operation panel 52, the analyzer starts operating. When the sample suction/exhaust pipe 41 of the sampling mechanism 40 sucks and holds the sample from the sample suction position 44 or 44' and discharges the held sample to the sample discharge position 45, the row of reaction vessels 22 is transferred across the light beam 26, The reaction table 21 makes one rotation and one step, and the reaction container next to the reaction container that received the sample is positioned at the sample discharge position 45.
This sampling operation is repeated continuously.
While the reaction table 21 is stopped, the stirrer 2
The stirring rod 8 and each pipe of the washer 24 are inserted into the reaction vessel at predetermined positions, and necessary operations are performed.

While the reaction table 21 is stopped, reagents are added to the reaction containers at the reagent discharge positions 46 and 47, and a color reaction is started. For analysis items that require only one type of reagent for reaction, the reagent is added to the reaction container at the discharge position 47 using only the reagent pipetting section 37. Samples for various analysis items can be arranged on the reaction table 21. One method is to distribute one sample into reaction vessels for the number of analysis items, and then distribute the next sample in the same way to multiple reaction vessels, for example, 20 reaction vessels, and then add the reagents corresponding to each analysis item. is added to the necessary reaction vessels by reagent pipetting sections 36 and 37.

The reagent pipetting parts 36 and 37 are each suspended from a rail and move along the rail, but they can move up and down together with the rail. The reagent intake/discharge pipes 38 and 39 can be stopped at the openings 32 and 32' of each reagent liquid tank as necessary.
The operation of the driving parts of the pipetting parts 36 and 37 is controlled by the microcomputer 5 based on the detection data.
1. The reagent corresponding to the analysis item of the sample that has arrived at the discharge positions 46 and 47 is selected by the reagent pipetting sections 36 and 37, and the suction and discharge pipes 38 and 39 are temporarily stopped above the reacting reagent liquid tanks 31 and 31'. . Next, the pipetting section 36,3
7 is lowered and the operation of the reagent pipette 35 causes
After suctioning and holding a predetermined amount of reagent liquid into the suction/discharge tubes 38, 39, the pipetting portions 36, 37 are raised, and the suction/discharge tubes 38, 39 are horizontally moved to the reagent discharge positions 46, 47 into the corresponding reaction vessels. Discharge the reagent solution held in the suction and discharge tube.

Since the reaction table 21 is rotated each time the sampler operates, the sample in the reaction container traverses the light beam 26 as the sampler operates, and the coloring state can be observed. That is, the optical characteristics of the same sample are observed multiple times until the reaction container reaches the position of the washer 24.

For the light received by the photoelectric detector of the photometer 27, a necessary wavelength according to the analysis item is selected by a wavelength selection circuit (not shown), and a signal having a magnitude corresponding to the transmitted light intensity is sent to the logarithmic converter 53. be guided. The analog signal is then converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 54, guided to a microcomputer 51 via an interface 50, where necessary calculations are performed and the results are stored in memory.
When all of the multiple photometric operations for a specific analysis item are completed, the multiple photometric data are compared, necessary calculations are performed, and the density value of the specific analysis item is printed on the printer 55. CRT5
6 can display analysis results and statistical data.

In this embodiment, analysis by colorimetric method and analysis by reaction rate method can be performed. Although not shown,
A suction and exhaust pipe cleaning section is arranged near the sample table 11 and the reagent liquid storage section 30. A constant temperature bath 23 serving as a transfer path for the reaction container is maintained at a constant temperature of 25 to 37°C. Analysis items and analysis conditions for each item can be entered using the CRT, item keys, profile keys, and numeric keys.

In the above embodiment, after the detection devices 70 and 70' perform the necessary detection, the pipetting section 3
6, 37 to a required position to aspirate the required reagent liquid. However, in this invention, the pipetting parts 36, 37 are fixed, and the reagent containers 31, 3
It is also possible to perform a required reagent liquid suction operation by controlling the transfer of the reagent 1' along the rails 60, 60.

As explained above, this invention is an automatic analyzer having a reagent liquid storage section in which reagent containers are arranged in series, in which the liquid level in the container can be detected and the content reagent type can be determined without contacting the reagent liquid. Since it can be performed using the same detection device, the device can be simplified and
It can be miniaturized and has high measurement accuracy, and furthermore, human error due to container replacement can be prevented and the reliability of analysis and measurement accuracy can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the main parts of the device, and FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a bracket of the device. FIG. 4 is a graph of liquid level detection data. 30...Reagent storage part, 31, 31'...Reagent liquid container, 31b, 31'b...Protrusion part, 31c, 3
1'c...Data body, 51...Microcomputer, 70, 70'...Detection device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an automatic analyzer comprising a reagent reservoir configured by arranging a required number of reagent containers in series, each of which contains a reagent corresponding to an analysis item, the side of each reagent container is A protrusion that communicates with the inside of the container is formed in a vertically elongated shape, and a protrusion along the protrusion is provided at a portion facing the surface side of the reagent container where the protrusion is arranged. An automatic analyzer characterized in that an optical detection device is installed for detecting the liquid level in a reagent container by optical means during the process of moving up and down. 2. In an automatic analyzer equipped with a reagent reservoir configured by arranging in series a required number of reagent containers containing reagents corresponding to analysis items, the side of each reagent container is provided with the same container. A protrusion that communicates with the inside of the container is formed in a vertically elongated shape, and a data body in which information such as the type of reagent in the container is encoded is disposed at a predetermined position of the protrusion. A detection device is installed at a portion facing the surface side of the reagent container where the reagent containers are arranged, and which distinguishes between detecting the liquid level in the reagent container and reading information from the data body in the process of moving up and down along the protrusion. An automatic analyzer characterized by: