JPH06167504A - Washer for automatic biochemical analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent malfunction and leakage of a solenoid valve due to dirt, while suppressing virus or the like fling outside the apparatus through a vacuum system. CONSTITUTION:When a washing operation is performed with solenoid valves SV3 and SV4 left closed, washing water accumulate gradually in a vacuum container 10 and in time, it runs over the vacuum container 10 to be sucked into a vacuum container 12 through a piping A. After a while. the water flows over the vacuum container 12 to be sucked to a vacuum tank from a solenoid valve SV1 thereby washing the first vacuum system. When the washing operation is performed with a solenoid valve SV4 closed the washing water is sent to a vacuum container 14 passing through a piping C from a vacuum container 12. Thereafter, the solenoid valve SV2 is switched over to the vacuum side to close the solenoid valve SV1 while the solenoid valve SV3 is opened and the washing water accumulated in the vacuum container 10 is sent to the vacuum container 14 via a piping B from the solenoid valve SC3. As the vacuum container 14 is filled with the water, the overflow is sucked into the vacuum tank through the solenoid valve SV2 thereby washing the second vacuum system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a washing apparatus for washing cuvettes after measurement in a biochemical automatic analyzer for measuring the concentration and activity value of a target component in a sample containing multiple components such as serum and urine, The present invention relates to a cleaning device that uses a vacuum system to suck a waste liquid such as a reaction liquid and a cleaning liquid after the measurement is completed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cleaning apparatus equipped with a vacuum system has an exhaust pipe connected to the exhaust system via an on-off valve at the upper end of a closed container, and has a discharge port having an on-off valve at the lower end. There is provided at least one vacuum container to which a suction port for sucking a waste liquid such as a reaction liquid whose measurement has been completed in step 1 or a cleaning liquid for cleaning the cuvette is sucked from the cuvette. In a cleaning device equipped with a plurality of such vacuum containers, the reaction liquid and the cleaning liquid that have been measured are sucked from the cuvette by the cleaning nozzle by sequentially vacuuming the vacuum containers, and the vacuum close to the cleaning nozzle is obtained. It is moved from the container to the next-stage vacuum container through the discharge port, and finally discharged from the discharge port of the final-stage vacuum container to the discharge port.

[0003]

When the automatic biochemical analyzer is used for many years, the drainage flow path and the vacuum system flow path become dirty and the vacuum valve for controlling the on / off of the vacuum system malfunctions. As a result, the water will start to leak or leak, and normal drainage operation cannot be performed. In addition, viruses and the like adhere to the vacuum tank and the vacuum pump connected to the vacuum system, and when they accumulate, the viruses and the like may be scattered through the vacuum system into the inspection room. Therefore, a troublesome maintenance operation of periodically disassembling and cleaning the vacuum system is required. An object of the present invention is to prevent malfunction and leakage of the electromagnetic valve due to dirt, and to suppress viruses and odors that are scattered out of the apparatus through the vacuum system without requiring major maintenance operations.

[0004]

In the present invention, during normal cuvette cleaning operation, by partially changing the valve control of the vacuum system, cleaning water is stored in each vacuum vessel and overflowed to make it overflow. By sucking toward the pump, each valve and vacuum path are cleaned.

Therefore, the cleaning apparatus of the present invention has an exhaust pipe connected to the exhaust system via an on-off valve at the upper end of a closed container, has an outlet having an on-off valve at the lower end, and can be measured by a biochemical automatic analyzer. Suction of waste liquid such as finished reaction liquid or cleaning liquid of the cuvette from the cuvette is connected to the suction port.The waste liquid stored in the vacuum container is discharged from the discharge port at the lower end. A vacuum system cleaning mode is provided in which the cleaning liquid is sucked from the cuvette, the cleaning liquid overflows into the vacuum container with the discharge port at the lower end closed, and the cleaning liquid is discharged through the exhaust pipe at the upper end. The vacuum system cleaning mode can be manually activated, or can be programmed so as to be automatically activated each time an automatic analysis operation is performed for a certain period.

[0006]

EXAMPLE FIG. 1 shows a cleaning apparatus according to an example together with a part of an analysis section of an automatic biochemical analysis apparatus. In the analysis section of the biochemical automatic analyzer, a cuvette 2 containing a sample and a reaction reagent is immersed in constant temperature water 6 in a constant temperature bath 4 of the reaction section in order to measure a target component of the sample. 3 is a reaction liquid containing a sample and a reaction reagent. In the figure, the arrangement of the cuvettes 2 is schematically represented in time series. A cleaning nozzle 8 is provided for sucking the reaction solution from the cuvette after the measurement and supplying cleaning water to the cuvette for cleaning. As the cuvette to be cleaned, there are a cuvette in which the detergent is supplied by a dispenser and a cuvette in which the detergent is supplied through one of the cleaning nozzles. Either method may be used.

The cleaning nozzle 8 for sucking waste liquid such as reaction liquid and cleaning water while supplying the cleaning water is connected to the suction port at the upper end of the first-stage vacuum container 10 via the electromagnetic valve SV5, and after cleaning, The nozzle 9 for sucking the cleaning water from the cuvette is connected to the suction port at the upper end of the vacuum container 10.

The vacuum container 10 has a discharge port having a solenoid valve SV3 at its lower end, and a vacuum pipe A connected to the upper end of the vacuum container 12 is connected at its upper end. The discharge port at the lower end of the vacuum container 10 is connected to the suction port at the upper end of the second-stage vacuum container 14 from the solenoid valve SV3 via the pipe B. Vacuum container 1
An outlet is provided at the lower end of 4, and the outlet is the solenoid valve S.
It is connected to the drain port via V4. Vacuum container 1
A pipe E is connected to the upper end of the pipe 4, and the pipe E is a solenoid valve SV2.
It is connected to the vacuum tank and pump via. The solenoid valve SV2 has a common side on the vacuum container 14 side, and is switched between the vacuum tank and pump side and the atmosphere side.

A pipe D is connected to the upper end of the vacuum container 12, and the pipe D is connected to a vacuum tank and a pump via a solenoid valve SV1. Lower end of vacuum container 12 and vacuum container 1
A pipe C is provided between the upper ends of the pipes 4, and the pipe C is provided with a check valve 16 capable of passing a liquid or gas only from the vacuum container 12 side to the vacuum container 14 side and a resistance pipe 18 downstream thereof. Has been.

The vacuum container 10 is a vacuum container for sucking the reaction liquid and the cleaning water from the cleaning nozzles 8 and 9 and temporarily storing them, and the vacuum container 14 is usually used for cleaning the reaction liquid from the vacuum container 10 through the pipe B. Solenoid valve S
It is for discharging to the drain port via V4.
On the other hand, the vacuum container 12 temporarily traps bubbles in order to prevent the waste liquid from foaming during suction and flowing into the vacuum tank when the reagent contains a large amount of surfactant or the like. belongs to.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows the operation in the normal cleaning mode. The solenoid valve SV3 is closed, SV1 is opened, and the cleaning nozzle 8,
When the cleaning probe is lowered into the cuvette 2 while the liquid is sucked from 9, the reaction liquid and the cleaning liquid are sucked by the cleaning nozzles 8 and 6 and accumulated in the vacuum container 10. When the cleaning probe is pulled up from the cuvette 2, the solenoid valve SV4 is closed and SV2
Is switched from the atmosphere side to the vacuum side, and SV1 is closed, so that suction is performed through the vacuum container 14 this time, and when the solenoid valve SV3 is opened, the waste liquid accumulated in the vacuum container 10 is electromagnetically closed. The bubbles that have moved to the vacuum container 14 via the valve SV3 and are trapped in the vacuum container 12 also become liquid and are sucked into the vacuum container 14. Solenoid valve SV
When the solenoid valve SV4 is opened after 2 is switched to the atmosphere side and suction is stopped, the waste liquid stored in the vacuum container 14 naturally falls and is finally sent to the drain port.

The vacuum system cleaning mode is composed of two systems. The first system is vacuum vessel 10 → piping A → vacuum vessel 1
2 → Pipe D → Solenoid valve SV1 and the second system is a path through the vacuum container 12 → Pipe C → Vacuum container 14 → Pipe E → Solenoid valve SV2. Cleaning may be performed using a detergent or pure water only. It can be set in either case.

The first system will be described with reference to FIG. With the solenoid valves SV3 and SV4 kept closed, the detergent is supplied to the cuvette or the cleaning operation is performed while the detergent is supplied from the cleaning nozzle of the cleaning nozzle. The cleaning water sucked from the cleaning nozzle gradually accumulates in the vacuum container 10. Eventually, when the vacuum container 10 becomes full, the cleaning water will pass through the pipe A and the vacuum container 1
Sucked to 2. Eventually, when the vacuum container 12 becomes full,
The cleaning water is sucked toward the vacuum tank through the solenoid valve SV1, and the vacuum system of the first system is cleaned.

The cleaning of the second system will be described with reference to FIG. The same cleaning as in FIG. 2 is performed with the solenoid valve SV4 closed. The cleaning water accumulated in the vacuum container 10 is first sent to the vacuum container 12 through the pipe A, and then sent from the vacuum container 12 to the vacuum container 14 through the pipe C. Thereafter, the solenoid valve SV2 is switched to the vacuum side, the solenoid valve SV1 is closed, and the solenoid valve SV3 is opened, so that the cleaning water accumulated in the vacuum container 10 is sent from the solenoid valve SV3 to the vacuum container 14 via the pipe B. To be When the vacuum container 14 becomes full,
The overflowed cleaning water is sucked into the vacuum tank through the solenoid valve SV2. This cleans the vacuum system of the second system.

After the cleaning operation of the first system and the cleaning operation of the second system are repeated several times, the drain cock of the vacuum tank is opened to drain the cleaning water accumulated in the vacuum tank. . The present invention is not limited to the cleaning device having the flow path shown in FIG. The normal cleaning mode is executed along with the analysis operation, and the vacuum system cleaning mode can be activated at regular intervals or by an operator at an appropriate time.

[0016]

According to the present invention, in addition to the normal cleaning mode, the vacuum system cleaning mode in which the cleaning liquid is passed through the vacuum system is provided, so that the malfunction or leakage of the electromagnetic valve due to the contamination of the waste liquid can be prevented. Further, it is possible to suppress contamination of air outside the analyzer through the vacuum pump. Since such a vacuum system cleaning mode only requires switching control of the solenoid valve as in the normal operation mode, it is easy to program it so as to automatically start it, and maintenance operation becomes easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment together with a part of an analysis unit.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing a normal cleaning mode.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing a cleaning mode of a first vacuum system.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing a second vacuum system cleaning mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 cuvette 3 reaction liquid 4 constant temperature bath 8,9 washing nozzle 10,14 vacuum container SV1 to SV5 solenoid valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A reaction liquid or cuvette, which has an exhaust pipe connected to an exhaust system through an opening / closing valve at the upper end of a closed container, has an outlet having an opening / closing valve at the lower end, and whose measurement has been completed by an automatic biochemical analyzer. In addition to the normal cleaning mode in which at least one vacuum container to which a suction port for sucking a waste liquid such as a cleaning liquid that has been washed from the cuvette is connected, and the waste liquid stored in the vacuum container is discharged from the discharge port, A cleaning system characterized by having a vacuum system cleaning mode for sucking the cleaning liquid from the cuvette through the suction port, causing the cleaning liquid to overflow into the vacuum container with the discharge port closed, and discharging the cleaning liquid through the exhaust pipe. apparatus.