JPH06258328A - Stirring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the stirring efficiency of the title device and to shorten the stirring time by a method wherein the tip of a stirring member is set nearly in the center of the water level of a liquid as a stirring object. CONSTITUTION:A stirring member support mechanism 1 supports an arm 2 in such a way that the arm can be circled and moved up and down freely. A motor 3 is attached to the arm 2, and a stirring rod 5 in which a spatula- shaped stirring member 4 has been attached to the tip is attached to the shaft of the motor 3. Consequently, the stirring member 4 can be moved to an arbitrary position along the circling orbit of the arm 1 and to an arbitrary height. When a stirring device is applied to a chemical analytical apparatus, it is arranged along a reaction line on a reaction table, the arm 2 is circled up to a position on the reaction line, i.e., up to a stirring position, the arm 2 is lowered to a reaction tube which has been conveyed up to the stirring position while a sample and a reagent are being dispensed sequentially, and the stirring member 4 is inserted. Thereby, the tip of the stirring maker 4 can be set nearly in the center of the water level of a liquid as a stirring object.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stirrer for sample inspection, which mixes and stirs chemicals, biochemical reagents, reaction solutions and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a sample and a reagent are reacted in a sample test, it is essential to stir and homogenize a reaction solution in which the sample is mixed with the reagent in order to obtain reproducibility of the reaction. . In recent years, the speed of automated test equipment (biochemical analyzers) has increased, but this is also becoming a barrier. The main reason is that it takes a certain amount of time or more to stir the reaction solution until it becomes homogeneous.

A conventional stirring device has a stirrer attached to a rotary shaft of a motor which is vertically moved by an up-and-down moving mechanism, and a sample and a reagent are dispensed in order and stirred in a reaction tube which is conveyed to a predetermined position. By descending the child from its bottom to a position of a predetermined height (hereinafter referred to as "falling position"), and rotating the stirrer at that lowered position by a motor, the reaction liquid in the reaction tube is stirred. There is.

By the way, the descending position of the stirrer differs depending on the measurement items such as total protein and neutral fat, and the water level of the reaction solution in the reaction tube also differs depending on the measurement items, such as total protein and neutral fat. If the stirrer is rotated with the upper part of the spout protruding from the reaction liquid surface, problems such as entrainment of air in the reaction liquid or scattering of the reaction liquid may occur. Near the bottom of the reaction tube (for example, 2 mm from the bottom) based on the low water level of
Is set to.

By setting the descending position of the stirrer in this way, it is possible to avoid all of the above problems by dealing with all the measurement items regardless of the difference in the required liquid amount. I have a problem.

That is, when performing a measurement item that requires a relatively large amount of reaction liquid, the water level naturally rises, and even if stirring is performed at a descending position near the bottom of the reaction tube described above, Since the effect of the stirring is difficult to be transmitted to the upper part, the stirring time is required for a relatively long time (usually set to 4 seconds). This is the main factor that prevents the speeding up of the biochemical analyzer as described above.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to address the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a stirring device capable of homogenizing a reaction solution in a short time.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a stirring device for stirring a liquid to be stirred contained in a container with a stirrer,
It is characterized in that the tip of the stirring bar is set substantially at the center of the water level of the liquid to be stirred.

[0009]

According to the stirrer of the present invention, the stirring target liquid is stirred by the stirrer at approximately the center of the water level of the target liquid in the container, so that stirring efficiency can be improved and thereby the stirring time can be shortened. You can

[0010]

EXAMPLE An example of the stirring device applied to the biochemical analyzer according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is an external view of a stirring device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a stirrer support mechanism.
Supports the arm 2 so that it can swivel and move vertically. Arm 2
A motor 3 is attached to the motor 3, and a stirring rod 5 having a spatula-shaped stirrer 4 attached to its tip is attached to a rotation shaft (not shown) of the motor 3. Therefore, the stirring bar 4 can be moved to any position along the turning trajectory of the arm 2 and to any height.

When applied to a biochemical analyzer, the stirring device of this embodiment is arranged along the reaction line of the reaction table, and the arm is positioned on the reaction line (stirring position). The stirrer can be inserted by lowering the arm into the reaction tube that has been conveyed while sequentially dispensing the sample and the reagent to this stirring position. Figure 2
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a main part of a stirring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 6 denotes a sequence controller which controls the time of each process of the reaction line of the biochemical analyzer, sample dispensing, reagent injection, stirring, and measurement. The sequence controller 6 includes: A test data input device 7 is connected to input various test data such as desired measurement items and test numbers to the sequence controller 6.

On the other hand, the stirring bar support mechanism 1 of the stirring apparatus of this embodiment is provided with a stepping motor 8 for vertically driving the arm 2, and the stepping motor 8 is provided.
Is connected to the descent controller 9.

The descending controller 9 receives the measurement items input by the test data input device 7 via the sequence controller 6, and stores the measurement items in a ROM (read onl).
y memory) Measurement items stored in 10 and descending position of stirrer 4 (height from bottom of reaction tube to lower end of stirrer)
By referring to a correspondence table in which and are associated, the descending position of the stirrer corresponding to the measurement item is read.

As shown in FIG. 3, the descending position of the stirrer in the correspondence table is based on the amount of reaction solution and the inner diameter of the reaction tube peculiar to each measurement item, as shown in FIG.
It is created so that the lower end of the stirrer 4 comes to the height Hc at the approximate center of the water level Hw.

For example, in the case of a biochemical analyzer employing a reaction tube having an inner diameter of 5 × 6 × 36 mm, the water level is 14 mm and the amount of reaction solution is 308 μl in the measurement item A which requires 440 μl of reaction solution. For measurement item B, the water level is 9.5 mm. Therefore, the descending position of each stirrer corresponding to the measurement items A and B is set so that the lower end of the stirrer 4 is 6 mm and 4 mm above the bottom surface of the reaction tube, respectively. This descending position is individually created for each of all the measurement items, and a correspondence table that associates the descending positions with the measurement items is created.

Then, the descending controller 9 drives the stepping motor 8 according to the descending position of the stirrer obtained from this correspondence table to lower the arm 2 and the stirrer 4 to the descending position. In this position, the motor 3 rotates,
The stir bar 4 is rotated to stir the reaction solution. In this way, by rotating the stirrer around the center of the water level of the reaction solution and stirring, the stirring time which was conventionally required to be about 4 seconds,
It was possible to reduce the time to about 1.9 seconds.

As described above, according to the stirring apparatus of the present embodiment, the correspondence table in which the measurement items and the height of the approximate center of the reaction solution water level are associated is stored, and from this correspondence table, the reaction solution of the current measurement item is stored. The approximate center of the water level is read, and the stirrer is lowered to the approximate center to stir the reaction solution, so that the reaction solution can always be stirred at the approximate center of the reaction solution water level even if the measurement items change, thus improving efficiency. The stirring time can be shortened.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be implemented with various modifications. For example, although the motor rotating type stirring bar is used in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a method may be used in which piezoelectric ceramics is attached to a stirring rod, and the vibration is generated by supplying a voltage to the piezoelectric ceramics to stir.

[0020]

Industrial Applicability The present invention provides a stirring device for stirring a liquid to be stirred contained in a container with a stirrer,

Since the tip of the stirrer is set approximately at the center of the water level of the stirring target liquid, the stirring target can stir the target liquid at that position, thus improving the stirring efficiency and shortening the stirring time. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a stirring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main part of a stirring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a descending position of a stirrer by a stirring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Stirrer support mechanism, 2 ... Arm, 3 ... Motor, 4 ... Stirrer, 5 ... Stirring bar, 6 ... Sequence controller, 7 ...
Test data input device, 8 ... Stepping motor, 9 ...
Descent controller, 10 ... ROM.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A stirrer for stirring a liquid to be stirred contained in a container with a stirrer, wherein the tip of the stirrer is set substantially at the center of the water level of the liquid to be stirred. 2. The stirring device according to claim 1, wherein the stirring bar is movably supported by a moving mechanism along a direction from the opening of the container toward the bottom surface.