JPH0761814B2 - Carrier - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer device, and more specifically, to a transfer device capable of sequentially transferring a large number of objects to be transferred to a predetermined position in a predetermined order. Regarding the device. One of the typical applications of the present invention is an automatic sample changer, which is attached to an automatic titrator and sequentially conveys a large number of samples to the position of the titration section.

[Prior Art] An apparatus for sequentially conveying a large number of objects to be conveyed to a predetermined position in a predetermined order is required in various fields, and various apparatuses have been proposed to satisfy this demand. One such device is a conical turntable. The turntable is widely used as an automatic sample analyzer attached to an automatic analyzer, for example, an automatic titrator. In one example, the turntable is radially divided into twelve compartments, with each compartment accommodating one beaker. This device can automatically titrate 12 samples by rotating the turntable intermittently by 30 degrees and feeding the beakers sequentially to the titration unit fixedly arranged along the table.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the turntable, since the beakers are only placed in one row along the circumference, the ratio of the area of the beaker to the entire area of the turntable is small, that is, the area efficiency is poor. There are drawbacks. Also, if many beakers are to be placed on the turntable, the table must be made large, and the area efficiency becomes worse, and at the same time, if a large table is used, the power required to rotate it also increases. Moreover, since the inertial force due to the rotation of the table becomes large, a high-grade braking means or the like is required.

In a conventional auto sample chain including a turntable, a container containing a sample is transported by moving a support table on which a container containing the sample is placed, for example, a turntable. It If only the container can be transported without moving the support, it would be advantageous because the power for moving the support is unnecessary. In particular, when carrying a heavy object, in addition to this advantage, a mechanism for moving a heavy support table is not required, and instead, a mechanism for carrying only a much lighter object to be transferred may be attached. Therefore, it may be structurally advantageous. At this time, if the friction between the transported object and the support can be reduced, the transportation mechanism of the transported object can be further simplified.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention focuses on such problems of the conventional transfer device, and does not move the support table on which the transferred object is placed, but only the transferred object placed on the support table in a predetermined order. It is an object of the present invention to provide a carrier device that can sequentially carry to a predetermined place.

The transport apparatus according to the present invention includes a top plate having a large number of vent holes, a means for supplying gas from the lower side of the top plate to the vent holes to eject gas from the top plate, and a top plate on the top plate. A transported object placed so as to cover at least one of the ventilation holes, and a first object provided on the transported object.
And a second magnetic body that is disposed below the top plate and that is magnetically attracted to the first magnetic body,
And a moving unit that can move the second magnetic body substantially parallel to the top plate.

[Action]

In the transfer device of the present invention, gas (usually air, so hereinafter referred to as air) is ejected from a large number of vent holes to slightly lift the transferred object placed on the upper surface plate, and in this state By moving the second magnetic body in a predetermined direction substantially parallel to the upper surface plate, the object to be conveyed is moved through the first magnetic body in a magnetic attraction relationship with the second magnetic body. It is to be transported along. Therefore, in the carrying apparatus of the present invention, the top plate merely supports the weight of the object to be carried and does not move, so that the structure thereof can be made extremely simple, and usually only a large number of vent holes are provided. A single plate provided with is sufficient. In addition, since the transported object moves in a slight floating state, the frictional resistance with the upper plate is small, and accordingly, the second magnetic body for moving the second magnetic body may be relatively small in size. As a result, the moving means for moving the second magnetic body may be small and simple.

In the transport device according to the present invention, the transport of the transported object on the upper surface plate is performed by moving the second magnetic body that moves while maintaining a suction relationship with the first magnetic body provided therein, as described above. Performed by. As an aspect, typically, each transported object is always in a magnetically attracting relationship with a specific second magnetic body through a first magnetic body provided on the individual transported body, and The method of always carrying the transported object by moving the specific second magnetic body and the method of moving the specific second magnetic body by forming a temporary suction relationship with the specific transported object. The transported object is transported to a predetermined position, and when this transportation is completed, the second magnetic body returns to the original position as a general rule, and then a temporary suction relationship is formed with another transported object to transfer the transported object. There is a method of sequentially transporting the transported object to a predetermined position by repeating transporting to a predetermined position.

In this latter method, the transported object is not transported when the second magnetic body that has transported the transported object returns to the original position, that is, the transported object is transported by the second magnetic material. It is required not to return to the original position with the body. This requirement is satisfied by using the second magnetic body as an electromagnet and stopping the energization during the returning movement to lose the function as a magnet. As an alternative method, during the return movement, the air supply to the ventilation holes is stopped and the jetting of air from the top plate is interrupted, so that the object to be conveyed is fixed on the top plate and the frictional resistance against movement is increased. Is set to be larger than the magnetic attraction force of the second magnetic body so that the transported object does not move in the opposite direction due to the magnetic attraction force during the return movement of the second magnetic body. To be done. Still another method is to not only stop the supply of air to the vent holes but also suck air from the top plate through the vent holes to reduce the pressure between the bottom surface of the transported object and the top plate. It is also possible to adopt a method of adsorbing the transported object on the upper surface plate.

〔Example〕

The transport device according to the present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the carrier device of the present invention is applied to an automatic sample changer in an automatic titrator.

In this embodiment, the autosampler 10 associated with the automatic titrator A is equipped with a rectangular table or top plate 12 of non-magnetic material, the top plate 12 having a number of plates as shown in FIG. Vent holes 13 are formed along the movement path of the container 11 as a moving body that moves on the top plate. The vent holes 13 and the containers 11 are such that each container 11 always covers one or more vent holes 13 on its movement path. On this top plate, a large number of containers 11 that accommodate beakers containing a liquid to be titrated are placed in a state of being densely aligned in the vertical and horizontal directions.

As shown in FIG. 3, this container 11 is formed in a saucer shape so as to receive the bottom side of the beaker, and the air blown out from the ventilation holes 13 of the upper plate 12 is effectively held on the lower surface side of the container to raise the floating effect. For the purpose of increasing the height and reducing the contact area with the top plate 12, a recess 17 having a slight depth (about 0.5 mm) is formed. A magnet 18, which is a first magnetic body, is fixed to the central portion of the recess 17 on the lower surface side of the container 11 with an adhesive or an appropriate means so as to partially embed it.

A bottom plate 14 of the same material and size as the top plate is arranged below the top plate 12 with a slight gap, and the gap is an edge part that is sandwiched within the gap on the four sides of the periphery. 15 (fourth
It is sealed as a gas chamber 16 in the figure). That is, the gas chamber 16 communicates with the upper side of the upper plate 12 through the ventilation hole 13. As shown in FIG. 4, a box-shaped gas reservoir 19 having a relatively large volume is attached to the lower surface near the end of the bottom plate 14 that defines the gas chamber 16.
Is located on the upstream side of and is communicated with the gas chamber 16 through a long hole (not shown) formed in the bottom plate 14. This gas reservoir 19
A connection port plug 20 for connecting a pipe extending to a pneumatic pump (not shown) is attached to the side wall of the. That is, the spout 20 and the gas reservoir 19 connected to the pneumatic pump form a gas supply means for supplying a pressurized gas to the gas chamber 16.
In this way, by sending the pressurized gas from the pneumatic pump to the narrow gas chamber 16 through the gas reservoir 19 having a relatively large volume, it is possible to suppress the pressure loss. In addition, at the bottom of the gas reservoir 19, a drain removing portion 21 for removing foreign matter that has entered is formed. The drain port 21 is normally closed by a stopper, and when water or the like is spilled on the top plate during use of the auto sample chain, the vent hole 13
The water, etc. that has entered the gas chamber 16 is discharged from the. As a result, the air pressure-fed from the air pressure pump is ejected from each vent hole 13 of the top plate 12 via the gas chamber 16. It should be noted that instead of providing the gas chamber directly below the top plate, a gas reservoir provided at a position distant from the top plate and each vent hole may be connected by a conduit, but this is especially necessary because it is troublesome to manufacture. Unless there is a gas chamber method, it is advantageous.

A table guide 22 having an inverted L-shaped cross section is provided on the peripheral edges of the top plate 12 and the bottom plate 14 configured as described above, and a part of the table guide 22 located on the top plate does not drop from the top plate 12 of the container 11. To prevent. An upper end of a side plate 23 is fixed to a side portion of the table guide 22, and a lower end of the side plate 23 is fixed to a peripheral end surface of a base plate 24. Thus, just below the bottom plate 14, the bottom plate 1
4, a machine room 25 for movement surrounded by the side plate 23 and the base plate 24 is formed. In the moving machine room 25, there is housed a second magnetic body moving means for carrying a large number of containers 11 floated by the air jetted from the air holes 13 on the upper plate 12 along a predetermined path. To be done. Although the moving means for the second magnetic body can be installed inside the gas chamber, it is preferably installed outside the gas chamber as shown in the drawing. That is, by providing it outside the gas chamber, the volume of the gas chamber can be reduced, and it becomes easy to interrupt and restart the ejection of air from the top plate in a short time. Further, it is possible to prevent the moving means from being contaminated by water, fine particles or the like flowing into the gas chamber through the ventilation hole of the upper plate.
As the means for moving the second magnetic body, it is possible to use any means that can sequentially convey the objects to be conveyed that are aligned and placed on the upper plate to a predetermined place in a predetermined order. FIG. 5 is an example of this, in which one chain 26 is stretched by a plurality of sprockets 27 on a path which can endlessly pass through all the containers 11 vertically and horizontally aligned on the top plate 12 by one line. A magnet 28, which is a second magnetic body and corresponds to the magnet 18 of the container 11, is attached to the upper side of the chain 26. According to this embodiment, by intermittently moving the chain 26 by the drive sprocket by the distance between the magnets 28 while ejecting air from the top plate,
Each container can be simultaneously moved and circulated one container at a time along a path along the chain.

Another example of the moving means is an XY axis direction movable table controlled by a computer or the like. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the upper surface plate is viewed from above, the rectangular surface area of the upper surface plate 12 is equally divided from the center into a left area 29a and a right area 29b, and each area is divided into four areas in the lateral direction. The individual containers are arranged so as to form one row, which is arranged in five rows in the right region 29b and four rows in the left region 29a. On the lower side of the gas chamber just below the top plate, XY
The movable table in the axial direction is installed so that the entire area of the top plate is within the movement range. For example, the Y-axis is set on the boundary between the left region 29a and the right region 29b, and the movement range on the Y-axis is the length of the top plate in the vertical direction, that is, the a-line to the e-line. On the other hand, the length of the X-axis table is equal to the length of four containers arranged side by side, that is, the length in the lateral direction of the left region 29a and the right region 29b, and the lengths of the four regions are arranged in a row on the top plate.
Attach four second magnetic bodies corresponding to the individual containers.
Explaining the method of transporting the container by the X-Y axis direction movable table, first, the X-axis table is directly under the a row so that the four second magnetic bodies correspond to the four containers in the a row. Located in. In this state, while ejecting air from the top plate, the X-axis is moved to the left by one container, and the four containers in row a are simultaneously moved to the left by one container, resulting in the left end. Is transported to the titration position B of the titrator C. When the ejection of air is interrupted, the container at the left end is fixed at the titration position, so the titration is performed in this state. After the titration is completed, the X-axis table is moved to the left again by one container while ejecting air again. Do this operation 4
If all the containers in the row a are moved to the left region 29a by repeating the process, the position in the row a is moved. To do so, first move the X-axis table to the right by four containers (that is, return it to its original position), then move the Y-axis table backward by one container and move the X-axis table to the b row. Position it directly below. Note that this operation is performed by stopping the ejection of air so that the container conveyed to the left region 29a does not return to the right region 29b in reverse (at this time, the gas chamber is evacuated to a negative pressure in the gas chamber). It is more effective if a means for exhausting gas is provided and the container is adsorbed and closely attached to the top plate). When an electromagnet is used as the second magnetic body, the air may be continuously ejected if the energization of the electromagnet is interrupted and the function of the magnet is lost. Then, while ejecting air again, the Y-axis table is moved to the container 1
When the containers in the row b are moved forward by an amount, the containers in the row b are conveyed to the position in the row a as a group. By repeating the same operation, the containers in each row up to the i-th row are conveyed forward one by one. As a result, the position of the i-th row is moved, so that the original four containers in the a-th row are transported to the i-th position by the same operation. By repeating the above operation, 36 containers on the upper plate can be successively transported to the titration position B. Therefore, when each row is considered as one group, each group has a left and right area.
29a and 29b are moved around as shown by arrows in FIG. In addition,
When advancing the rows a to i, several rows can be conveyed at once instead of conveying the rows one by one as described above. For example, a
After transporting the row to the left region 29a, the X-axis table is positioned directly below the row c with the row b left, and the Y axis is moved forward by one container while ejecting air in this state.
Since the containers in the row b are pushed by the containers in the row c and move forward, the containers in the rows b and c can be transported at one time.

Although it has been described above that the ventilation holes 13 of the top plate 12 are formed along the movement path of the container 11, this is because the ventilation holes 13 move when the container 11 is moved by the air ejected from the holes. Top plate 12
This is because it is floated so that it slides smoothly on top, and accordingly, in the case of the movement path of the container 11 as described above, the ventilation hole 13 is formed as described in FIG. .
According to this, the ventilation holes 13 are arranged so as to be almost hidden by each container 11 except for the "empty row" portion of the left region 29a even when each container 11 is in the stationary predetermined alignment position, and In this case, in this embodiment, there are four vent holes 13 existing under one container 11, and in particular, there are five front rows and last rows for lateral movement. However, the number of the vent holes varies greatly depending on the weight of the sample in the beaker carried in the container 11, the size of the container bottom area, the jetting force of air, etc., and can be appropriately changed depending on these factors. it can.

In the above description, the case where the present invention is applied to an auto sample chain has been mainly described, but the present invention is not limited to such an auto sample chain. For example, in the apparatus shown in FIG. 6, different processing means are installed at the positions corresponding to the four containers in the frontmost bright row in the left area, and the transfer is performed for performing four types of processing on the transferred object. It can also be used as a device. Alternatively,
Even in the case of simply moving the transported object, it is possible to freely move and stop on the route.In that case, if the gas chamber is divided for each block and the ejection of air is controlled,
It is possible to freely control the movement such as stopping only some of the containers at a predetermined position, and it can be applied to various manufacturing automation devices.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the transfer device of the present invention, the transferred object is levitated on the table and moved by the magnet, so that the power energy required for the movement is extremely small and the movement is performed under the table. Since the magnet accurately follows the movement of the magnet, it is possible to easily perform accurate positioning at a predetermined position, which has a great effect. Further, according to the present invention,
Since the magnetic body and the magnetic body moving means are provided under the gas chamber independently of the gas chamber, it is possible to reduce the size of the entire apparatus and shorten the ejection of gas from the top plate. It is possible to easily suspend and restart in time, and it is possible to prevent contamination of the magnetic material moving means or the like due to water or fine particles flowing into the gas chamber. Moreover, since the pressurized gas is supplied to the gas chamber through the gas reservoir, pressure loss can be suppressed. Furthermore, water or the like that has entered the gas chamber through the ventilation hole can be discharged by the drainage section, and in particular, it can be suitably used as an automatic sample changer of an automatic titrator.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the whole of an automatic titration device in which the carrier device of the present invention is applied to an auto sample chain in a titration device, and FIG. 2 is a top plate of an auto sample chain according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the relationship between the upper plate of the auto sample chain and the second magnetic material, and FIG. 4 is formed between the upper plate and the bottom plate of the auto sample chain. FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a gas reservoir or the like when air is pressure-fed to the gas chamber, FIG. 5 is an explanatory view schematically showing an example of a moving means of the second magnetic body, and FIG. X as a means of moving magnetic material
It is an explanatory view for explaining a moving state of the container in the automatic sample changer when using the Y-axis movable table. 10 …… Auto sample changer, 11 …… Container, 12…
… Top plate, 13… Ventilation hole, 14… Bottom plate, 15… Edge part, 16
...... Gas chamber, 17 ...... Concave on the bottom side of the container, 18 ...... First magnetic material, 19 ...... Gas reservoir, 20 ...... Connection plug with air pressure pump connecting pipe, 21 ...... Drain drain, 22 ...... Table guide, 23 ...... side plate, 24 ...... base plate, 25 ...... moving machine room, 26
…… Chain, 27 …… Sprocket, 28 …… Second magnetic material, 29a …… Left area of top plate, 29b …… Right area of top plate.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An upper surface plate having a plurality of ventilation holes, a gas chamber formed along the upper surface plate below the upper surface plate and communicating with the upper side of the upper surface plate through the ventilation holes, and the gas chamber. Gas supply means for supplying a pressurized gas, a large number of moving bodies mounted on the upper surface plate in a state of covering at least one of the ventilation holes, and a first magnetic body provided on the moving bodies. A second magnetic body that is arranged below the bottom plate of the gas chamber independently of the gas chamber and is magnetically attracted to the first magnetic body; and the second magnetic body, A magnetic material moving means for moving the upper surface plate substantially parallel to the upper surface plate, wherein the gas supply means includes a gas reservoir arranged on the upstream side of the gas chamber, and the gas reservoir enters the bottom portion of the gas reservoir through the vent hole. A drainage part is formed to remove the accumulated foreign matter. Apparatus. 2. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein at least one second magnetic body is arranged for each first magnetic body of each moving body. 3. The transfer device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising gas exhausting means for making the gas chamber have a negative pressure.