JPH0721137U - Angle rotor and tube holding plate for centrifuge - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To obtain a rotor with a small moment of inertia, whose tube size and number can be easily changed, and whose manufacturing cost is low. Improve the usability of the adapter used when changing the tube size. [Structure] This rotor includes a rotor body 50 and a rotor lid 60.
And a bottom plate 70. The rotor body 50 is made by cutting a metal block, and includes a rotating shaft portion 52, a tapered flange portion 53 having a tube hole 55, and a cover portion 54.
Consists of The tube inserted into the tube hole is housed in a donut-shaped space 56 surrounded by the tapered collar portion 53, the cover portion 54, and the bottom plate 70. When the tube size is changed, a thin grate-shaped tube holding plate is attached in close contact with the inner surface of the tapered collar portion 53.
The tube holding plate is formed with tube holes (one or a plurality of sizes) smaller than the tube holes 55 and facing each other.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an angle rotor for a centrifuge and a tube holding plate, and more particularly to reducing the moment of inertia of the rotor.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In an angle rotor used at about 15,000 rpm in the rotor of a conventional centrifuge, the rotor shown in Fig. 8A (Fig. 2 of JP-B-56-16204) and Fig. 8B (second rotor of JP-B-57-40112). Like the rotor shown in the figure), it is generally machined from a block of aluminum alloy or the like into a truncated cone shape by cutting, and the sample tube is inserted at an angle of 45 ° to the axis of rotation. A sample tube hole is provided for

A tube containing a sample, which is generally called a microtube, is held at the open end of a tube insertion hole of a rotor. There are two methods of holding the sample tube, one is to support the tube at the bottom of the rotor tube hole, and the other is to pull the tube lip on the open end of the rotor hole. There is a way to kick. In the latter, there are cases where the tube is hooked directly and cases where an adapter with a collar is made and the tube is housed in it.

By the way, recently, microtubes have been widely used for research on DNA, RNA and the like, and in order to centrifuge a large number of samples, there is a demand for shortening the acceleration and deceleration of the centrifuge. It's coming. Especially when conducting an experiment using an enzyme, the activity of the enzyme decreases over time, so whether or not centrifugation can be performed in a short time is a condition that determines the success of the experiment. There is.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 To meet this demand, it is necessary to strengthen the motor of the centrifuge or reduce the moment of inertia of the rotor, which is the load on the motor. As one of means for solving this problem, a press-molded rotor as shown in FIG. 9 (FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-38264) has been devised. Since the plate is press-molded, the moment of inertia is extremely small. However, a high-priced press die is required to manufacture this rotor.

Further, when the user requests to change the size of the tube or to increase the number of tubes that can be processed in one centrifugation operation, the size of the rotor cannot be easily changed, and a new gold It has the drawback of having to make a mold. Therefore, there has been a demand for a rotor with a small moment of inertia that is easy to change the tube size and the number of tubes and has a relatively low manufacturing cost.

Further, the development of a rotor with a small moment of inertia leads to a reduction in the power of the motor, and it must be pursued in order to reduce the cost of the centrifuge body and reduce energy consumption. It is an issue that does not happen. Another problem is that microtubes have several capacities and sizes, and the user should prepare several rotors that match the size of the tube used, or the rotor with the largest hole size. Tubes smaller than that were prepared and used with an adapter attached to each tube as shown in FIG. 8B. It is an economical burden for the user to have many types of rotors exclusively for tubes, and it is troublesome to replace the rotor each time it is used. Forgetting to fix the rotor to the rotating shaft and rotating it in that state could cause the rotor to come off and cause an accident.

[0008] Although the cost of the adapter for one tube is relatively low, it is a complicated task because the adapter has to be inserted and removed by the number of holes of the rotor each time it is used. Also, since it becomes a large number of adapters, there are many opportunities to lose it, and the user had to take extra care. The object of the present invention is to provide a rotor with a small moment of inertia, in which the tube size and the number of tubes can be easily changed and the manufacturing cost is relatively low, and to improve the usability of an adapter used when changing the tube size.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 According to the present invention, it is the open end of the tube hole of the rotor that supports and holds the load generated by the centrifugal operation of the microtube, and basically this part can hold the tube, and the part below it can hold the tube. It is not necessary to hold the microtube, and this part causes the moment of inertia to increase, so pay attention to the fact that this unnecessary part can be deleted, and the lower part is inserted from the lip of the tube. We devised a method of cutting the space by cutting.

However, as it is, the lower side of the microtube is exposed, and when the rotor rotates, the microtube causes air friction and increases wind loss, so a windshield cover is required. We focused on the fact that the bottom part can be covered with a thin plate. To accommodate microtubes of different sizes, the rotor is not replaced and the tube holding plate with tube holes is placed on top of it, making it difficult and dangerous to change the rotor, and the trouble of changing the adapter for one tube. Solved.

[0011]

【Example】

 The angle rotor 100 of the present invention comprises a rotor body 50, a rotor lid 60 and a bottom plate 70 as shown in FIG. The rotor body 50 is made by cutting a metal block such as an aluminum alloy, and as shown in FIG. 2, a rotating shaft portion 52 having a central hole 51 for inserting a motor shaft on the bottom surface and a peripheral surface of the rotating shaft portion 52. And a cover portion 54 which surrounds the outer circumference of the rotor and which is integrally extended from the projecting end of the tapered collar portion 53. The cover portion 54 forms a windshield wall, and is left uncut concentrically with the rotating shaft portion 52 with a thickness that can withstand centrifugal force. The extended end (lower end) of the cover portion 54 engages with the peripheral edge of the bottom plate 60 to form a smooth outer peripheral surface of the rotor. A plurality of tube holes 55 of equal size are formed substantially at right angles to the taper surface of the flanged portion 53 with a slant of about 45 ° with respect to the axis of rotation, and penetrate through along the circumferential direction. ing.

The bending of the portion of the cover portion 54 near the extension end facing the tube hole 55 increases the strength, and when the sample tube 80 is flat, the sample accumulates on the bottom of the rotor and does not scatter. To make. If the tube breaks, the sample will be scattered inside the rotor. Without the pool, the leaked sample is scattered into the rotor chamber and becomes vapor, which is discharged with the exhaust out of the centrifuge. It deteriorates the working environment of the user and is also a danger of biohazard. A puddle can prevent that.

As shown in FIG. 1, the rotor lid 60 is formed in a substantially thin disc shape, and a knob 61 is attached to the center thereof. The bottom plate 70 is made of a thin metal or synthetic resin plate in a ring shape as shown in FIG. 1, and is attached to the bottom surface of the flanged portion 53 with a bolt 71 so as to close the bottom surface side of the rotor body 50. The outer peripheral edge of the bottom plate 70 is engaged with the extended end of the cover portion 54. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the bottom plate. In the illustrated example, the bottom plate 70 has a shape like a circular Western plate turned inside out, and a central hole 72 larger than the outer shape of the rotary shaft portion 52 is formed in the shaft center thereof, and the bottom plate 70 is formed near the inner peripheral edge of the central hole 72. A plurality of mounting holes 73 for mounting the bolts 70 are provided.

A donut-shaped space 56 that is concentric with the rotary shaft portion 52 is formed by being surrounded by the tapered collar portion 53, the cover portion 54, and the bottom plate 70, and the sample tube 80 inserted into the tube hole 55 is formed in the space. Is stored. When a microtube having an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the tube hole 55 is used, a tube holding plate 82 (FIGS. 5 and 6) is attached to the inner surface of the tapered collar portion 53 as shown in FIG. The sample tube is inserted into the tube hole 83 of.

The tube holding plate 82 is made by drawing or press-molding a metal plate of aluminum, stainless steel, or the like, or by molding with a synthetic resin material, and is formed into a generally circular Western plate shape. . A central hole 84 is formed at the center of the axis, and a ring-shaped taper portion 85 is formed at the periphery. A plurality of tube holes 83, which correspond to the tube holes 55 of the rotor body and into which the sample tubes are inserted and held, are formed in the tapered portion 85 along the circumferential direction.

Several types of tube holding plates 82 are prepared depending on the size of the sample tube, and the user selects one of them and two small holes 86 are planted in the tapered collar portion 53. It is engaged with a rotation stopping pin 87 and is attached to the inner surface of the rotor (tapered collar portion 53) by a pressing ring 88. The center hole 84 is adapted to engage with the outer peripheral surface of the holding metal fitting 90 mounted on the upper surface of the rotary shaft portion 52.

A rotor stop bolt 89 for attaching the rotor body 50 to the motor shaft inserted into the center hole 51 is attached to the shaft center of the upper surface of the rotary shaft portion 52. A cylindrical pressing metal member 90 is attached to the upper surface of the rotary shaft portion 52 around the head of the rotor stop bolt 89 by a bolt 92 concentrically. The tube holding plate 82 can be fixed by pressing the tube holding plate 82 onto the upper surface of the rotary shaft portion 52 by screwing the screw on the outer peripheral surface of the pressing metal fitting 90 into the screw on the inner peripheral surface of the pressing ring 88. A ring-shaped groove is concentrically formed on the bottom surface of the pressing ring 88, and an O-ring 93 is attached to the groove.

The rotor lid 60 is attached to the rotor main body 50 by being screwed into a screw on the inner peripheral surface of the pressing metal fitting 90, if necessary. Incidentally, the length of the screw portion of the rotor stop bolt 89 and the knob 61 of the rotor lid also has a check function when the rotor body is loosely attached to the motor shaft (see FIG. 7).

When the rotor body is properly attached to the motor shaft, when the knob (mounting screw) 61 of the rotor lid is screwed into the screw on the inner peripheral surface of the holding metal fitting 90, the lower end of the knob is the rotor stopper. There is a small gap between the bolt 89 and the bolt 89 so that they are in contact with each other. However, if the user forgets to fully tighten the rotor stop bolt 89 when the user removes and reattaches the rotor for cleaning, etc., the lower end of the knob 61 may hit the rotor stop bolt 89. The rotor lid 60 is designed not to be properly tightened. Since the rotor lid 60 is not properly tightened and the gap 94 is formed, the user can know the tightening error of the rotor stop bolt 89.

The tube holding plate 82 of FIG. 5 is provided with tube holes 83 of the same size, but as shown in FIG. 6, for example, 1.5 ml tube holes 83a and 0.75 ml tube holes are provided. It is also possible to provide tube holes having a plurality of sizes (corresponding to the tube hole 55 of the rotor body and not exceeding that size), such as the tube hole 83c for 83b and 0.4 ml. In this case, the number of holes for each size will be small, but it is not necessary to replace the tube holding plate even if the tube size changes, so if you use many types of tubes and each has a small number of tubes, It is convenient.

[0021]

[Effect of device]

 According to this invention, (1) the unnecessary portion between the holes of the rotor is scraped off, so that the strength of the high-speed rotor is maintained, the inertia moment is small, and the windage loss is small. A single rotor can be realized.

(2) The manufacturing cost is relatively low because it is manufactured by cutting without using an expensive mold such as press molding, and there is the flexibility to easily manufacture rotors of different sizes. is there. (3) In the conventional angle rotor, when the size of the sample tube was changed, it was necessary to replace the sample tube with a different rotor according to the size of the tube, whereas in the rotor of the present invention, the tube holding plate was used. It is easy to handle because it only needs to add a tube holding plate, and the tube holding plate can be easily manufactured by press molding or spatula drawing, so the manufacturing cost is low and there are many types of tubes for users. Even if the holding plates are arranged, the financial burden is negligible.

(4) As another effect of the present invention, when the conventional angle rotor is used and there is a portion where the tube is not inserted in the tube hole of the rotor, the hole becomes a whistle when rotating at high speed. May make an unpleasant whistle noise, puncture the bottom of the sample tube hole, or cover the rotor to prevent the opening from coming into contact with the fast airflow due to high speed rotation, etc. Had to take measures.

According to the method of the present invention, even if there is a portion where the sample is not inserted, there is no hole that should be an air column, so no whistle noise is generated. Therefore, the rotor can be used without using the lid of the rotor. It is important for the user that the rotor can be used without closing the lid, and it is a tedious operation that the lid of the rotor must be tightened and removed to prevent noise. This is an obstacle to a rapid experiment for an experimenter with a large number of samples who is studying DNA, RNA and the like.

(5) When a plurality of tube holes of different sizes are provided on one tube holding plate, it is not necessary to change the tube holding plate even if the tube size changes. Therefore, it is convenient when a large number of tubes are used and each is small. (6) In the angle rotor of Utility Model Registration Application No. 5-28755 filed on May 31, 1993, if the sample tube is heavy and the centrifugal load is large, the thickness of the tube holding plate 82 must be increased. There was a risk that the plate could crack or bend without bearing the load. However, with the present invention, the number of samples that can be centrifuged at one time is determined, but since the portion that holds the tube of the rotor has strength, it is possible to centrifuge heavy samples without problems. Also, the tube holding plate for processing small tubes is supported by the rotor on the lower side, so a thin plate thickness is sufficient.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of an angle rotor of the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view of a rotor body 50 shown in FIG.

3 is a sectional view of the bottom plate 60 of FIG.

4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the angle rotor of FIG. 1 when a tube holding plate 82 is added.

5A and 5B are views showing an embodiment of the tube holding plate of the present invention, in which A is a plan view and B is a sectional view.

FIG. 6 is a view showing another embodiment of the tube holding plate of the present invention, in which A is a plan view and B is a sectional view.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the angle rotor of FIG. 1, showing a state where the rotor lid is not tightened due to improper mounting of the rotor body to the motor shaft.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of an angle rotor manufactured by a conventional cutting process.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of an angle rotor manufactured by conventional press molding.

Claims (5)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An angle rotor for a centrifuge, comprising a rotor body, a rotor lid, and a bottom plate, wherein the rotor body is made by cutting a metal block and has a center for inserting a motor shaft on a bottom surface. A rotating shaft portion having a hole, a tapered brim-shaped brim portion integrally provided on the peripheral surface of the rotating shaft portion, and a cover that extends integrally with the tip of the tapered brim portion and surrounds the outer circumference of the rotor. And a plurality of tube holes of equal size are formed through the tapered surface of the tapered flange portion at a substantially right angle, and the bottom plate is the rotor body. Is a ring-shaped thin plate that is attached so as to close the bottom surface side thereof, and is surrounded by the tapered flange portion, the cover portion, and the bottom plate to form a donut-shaped space that is concentric with the rotation shaft portion, and that space In the tu An angle rotor for a centrifuge, characterized in that a sample tube to be inserted into the tube hole is stored. 2. The centrifuge angle rotor according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of tube holes respectively facing the plurality of tube holes of the tapered collar portion are formed along a circumferential direction. Is provided on the inner surface of the tapered collar portion. 3. The angle rotor for a centrifuge according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a rotor stopper for attaching the rotor body to a motor shaft inserted into the central hole is provided at an axial center of an upper surface of the rotary shaft portion. A bolt is attached, and a cylindrical pressing metal fitting is concentrically attached to the upper surface of the rotating shaft portion around the head of the rotor stop bolt, and the knob of the rotor lid is attached to the inner peripheral surface of the pressing metal fitting. When a screw to be screwed and attached is formed and the rotor body is normally attached to the motor shaft by the rotor stop bolt, the rotor lid attached to the rotor body via the pressing metal has an outer periphery thereof. The bottom portion of the knob is in contact with or in close proximity to the top surface of the rotor stop bolt at the same time that the portion engages with the tip of the tapered collar portion. And said that you are. 4. A tube holding plate which is closely attached to an inner surface of an angle rotor body of a centrifuge, which is formed in a thin skirt shape, and which holds a sample tube in a tapered peripheral portion thereof. Multiple holes of equal length (corresponding to the tube holes of the angle rotor body,
A tube holding plate characterized in that it is formed along the circumferential direction. 5. A tube holding plate closely attached to the inner surface of an angle rotor body of a centrifuge, which is formed in a thin skirt shape, and has a plurality of types in which a sample tube is inserted and held in a tapered peripheral portion thereof. A tube holding plate having a hole of a size (corresponding to the tube hole of the angle rotor body and not exceeding the size) formed along the circumferential direction.