JPH0833401B2 - Automatic sample feeder - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic plate-like sample supplying apparatus, and more particularly, to safe storage of a large number of plate-like samples to be inspected by a sample analyzer and at the time of inspection. In addition, the present invention relates to an automatic supply device that automatically supplies plate-like samples one by one to a sample analyzer.

(Prior Art) The electrical characteristics of a purified photoconductive material such as selenium (Se) used for a photosensitive drum of an electronic copying machine are not constant due to various environmental factors in the process from the raw material to the purification, Since they are subtly different, such photoconductive materials are sampled (plate-shaped) from each batch to obtain reference data for later use, their properties are measured and analyzed. To be done. Conventionally, a large number of such samples to be inspected are arranged and stored in a storage tool,
At the time of inspection, they were sequentially taken out one by one from the storage tool and supplied to the sample analyzer.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the past, the sample was put in and taken out of the container by hand, and the sample was handled using tweezers or the like. However, if the sample is a photoconductive material such as selenium, and its electrical characteristics temporarily deteriorate when exposed to light due to a phenomenon called light fatigue, handle the sample to avoid such a phenomenon. For this, it must be done in a dark room. Manual work in a dark room significantly reduces the work. In addition, a minimum work lamp is provided in a dark room for human work, but the light from this work lamp changes the electrical characteristics of the sample, resulting in a decrease in measurement accuracy. Furthermore, since the work is performed in a dark and dark room, there are serious problems in safety and hygiene of the worker, such as impairing the eyesight of the worker and causing great fatigue.

Therefore, in order to solve the various problems described above, the object of the present invention is to replace the work by an operator in a dark room,
To provide a plate-shaped sample automatic supply device that automatically supplies one sample to a sample analyzer when inspecting a large number of samples safely (shielded) stored in a sample container. is there.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a plate-shaped sample automatic supply apparatus for automatically supplying a plate-shaped sample under a light-shielding environment, in which a plurality of samples are arranged in parallel. And storing the sample in a light-shielded state, feeding means for sequentially feeding the sample storing tools at a constant pitch, and moving the sample in the sample storing tool brought to a predetermined position by the feeding means to take it out from the outside. The sample container has a rotatable lid on the upper part and an opening on the lower part, and the sample container is stored in a cassette cartridge. It is stored, and the extraction means is
The lid is rotated to form an opening in the upper part of the sample storage tool, the cassette cartridge is pushed up through the lower opening, and the cassette cartridge is raised through the formed upper opening so that the sample can be taken out from the outside. The present invention employs an automatic plate-shaped sample feeder.

(Example) Next, the Example of this invention is described with reference to drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cassette cartridge for holding a sample to be handled by the plate-shaped sample automatic supply apparatus of the present invention and a sample container for housing the cassette cartridge, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the plate-shaped sample of the present invention. A front view of the automatic feeding device, FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG.
FIG. 5 is an enlarged side view showing the feeding portion of the storage tool of the automatic plate sample feeder, and FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of the control circuit of the automatic plate sample feeder.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a sample container 10 is shown. The housing 10 includes a cassette case (main body) 12, and the cassette case 12 has both side plates 12a and both end plates 12b. One side plate 12a is rotatably attached so that a lid 14 can be opened and closed. There is. This cassette case 12 has an opening 16 in the upper part and an opening 22 in the lower part, and a holding member 24 is fixed to the inner lower part of both side plates 12a as shown by the dotted line. Therefore, the cassette cartridge described later is placed and held on the upper surface of the holding member 24 in the cassette case.

The cassette cartridge 18 holds one sample 20 and has a concave structure in which both sides (front and back) are open, as shown in the drawing. A groove for guiding the sample 20 is formed. With this configuration, the sample can be taken in and out from the cassette cartridge from above. In addition,
The upper part of the cassette cartridge, that is, the portion serving as the entrance / exit is formed with a radius (R) so that the sample can be smoothly taken in and out.

The cassette cartridge 18 holding the sample is accommodated and held side by side in the cassette case 12, as shown in the figure. When the sample is stored and the lid 14 is closed, the sample is protected from light from any direction by both side plates 12a of the cassette case, both end plates 12b, the bottom of the cassette cartridge 18 and the light shielding by the lid 14, and is equivalent to a dark room. Held in a state. Further, the lid 14 has not only a light shielding function but also a dustproof function.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, the automatic feeder 26
It is shown. The automatic feeder 26 has a pedestal 28,
Inside the unit 28, a mechanical unit 30 is arranged at the upper part and a control unit 32 is arranged at the lower part. A slide table 34 is slidably attached to the upper surface of the frame 28 via a slide table rail 36. A plurality of cassette case reference surface forming members 38 for positioning the cassette case 12 from three sides are provided on the upper surface of the slide table 34, and two cassette case retainers 62 for elastically holding the cassette case are arranged on the other side. Has been done. Therefore, the cassette case 12 is held at a predetermined position on the slide table by the cassette case reference surface forming member 38 and the cassette case retainer 62. Further, the slide table has a post-shaped lid support 42, and this lid support 42 works to support the opened lid from below.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, the cassette case of the present invention,
That is, the feeding means of the storage tool will be described.

The rotary actuator 40 is attached to one end of the top surface of the frame 28.
Is attached, and a vacuum pad 44 is attached to the tip of the arm 40a of this rotary actuator. The vacuum pad 44 is connected to a vacuum source (not shown) and is configured to suck the upper surface of the lid 14 of the cassette case. Therefore, the rotary actuator 40
Is operated, the arm 40a is rotated, and the lid 14 attached to the vacuum pad 44 at the tip of the arm 40a is rotated and opened. Similarly, the lid 14 is rotated and closed by the operation of the rotary actuator 40 in the opposite direction.

The slide table 34 is attached to the ball screw 46 via the nut 48.
The ball screw 46 is connected to the stepping motor.
Driven and rotated by 50, it is configured to feed the nut 48 horizontally (eg to the left in the figure) at a constant pitch (a distance corresponding to the width of the cassette cartridge). Therefore, the slide table 34 connected to the nut is sequentially fed by the stepping motor 50 by a constant pitch. A timing pulley 52 is attached to the end of the ball screw 46 opposite to the end on which the stepping motor 50 is attached, and the rotation angle (related to the feed movement amount) of the ball screw is set to the timing belt 56 and the timing pulley 54. It is read by the rotary encoder 58 via the.

Further, a lifting cylinder 60 is provided at a predetermined position below the upper surface of the gantry 28, and the operation of the lifting cylinder 60 causes a relatively long piston rod of the cylinder 60.
62 is configured to raise the cassette cartridge 18 in a specific position housed in the cassette case from below through the lower opening 22 of the cassette case and to move upward from the cassette case to slightly more than half the height of the cassette cartridge. ing. In this raised state, the sample 20 in the cassette cartridge is in a state of being grasped by any suitable transportation means and supplied to the sample analyzer.

Since the cassette case 12 is sequentially fed by the stepping motor 50 by a constant pitch corresponding to the width of the cassette cartridge, the cassette cylinders can be sequentially pushed up one by one by the lifting cylinder 60.

 Next, the configuration of the control unit 32 will be described with reference to FIG.

The control unit 32 has a general control unit 64, and three signals of “start”, “next”, and “end” are input to the general control unit 64. The integrated control unit 64 is connected to the rotary actuator 40 via the rotary actuator DIO66, and also the lifting cylinder DIO68.
It is connected to the lifting cylinder 60 via. Rotary actuator DIO66 or lifting cylinder DIO68
Is a rotary actuator 40 or a lift cylinder 60 according to a command from one of the above three appropriate signals.
Operate. The rotation angle of the ball screw 46 from the rotary encoder 58, that is, the increment amount corresponding to the feed amount of the nut 48 is counted up by the high speed counter 72 and supplied to the comparison circuit 74, and the setting circuit 70 corresponds to the width of the cassette cartridge. Setting amount to be set is comparison circuit 74
And the stepping motor driver 76, and the comparison result (difference) between the set amount and the count number in the comparison circuit 74 is given to the circuit of the stepping motor driver 76 as a correction value. In this way, the stepping motor 50, ball screw 46, rotary encoder 58, high speed counter 72, setting circuit 70, comparison circuit
The 74 and stepper motor driver 76 form a feedback loop to provide accurate positioning for the nut 48.

Next, the operation of the automatic feeder of the present invention will be described mainly with further reference to FIG.

The operation mode of the automatic supply device of the present invention is determined by three kinds of contact signals of "start", "next", and "end" input from the outside.

First, in response to the "start" signal, the integrated control unit 64 outputs a lid opening signal for the cassette case 12 through the rotary actuator DIO 66, and the rotary actuator 40 opens the lid 14 of the cassette case. After that, the integrated control unit 64 outputs a cassette pick-up signal through the pick-up cylinder DIO 68, and the pick-up cylinder 60 picks up the first cassette cartridge 18.

Next, in response to the "next" signal, the integrated control unit 64 outputs a cassette lowering signal through the lifting cylinder DIO 68 to lower the cassette cartridge 18 being lifted. After that, the set movement amount for one cartridge is output to the stepping motor driver 76, and the slide table 34 on which the cassette case 12 is placed is moved leftward for one cartridge. At this time, the actual movement amount of the slide table 34 is fetched by the rotary encoder 58, and is fed back to the stepping motor driver 76 accordingly. After this, the integrated control unit 64
A cassette pick-up signal is output through the DIO 68, and the pick-up cylinder 60 picks up the second cassette cartridge 18. The next and subsequent ones are "next"
It is repeated according to the signal.

Finally, at the "end" signal, the integrated control unit 64 outputs a cassette descending signal through the lifting cylinder DIO 68, and the cassette cartridge 18 being lifted is lowered. Then, the slide table 34 is returned to the first position by the stepping motor 50. And integrated control unit
A lid closing signal of the cassette case 12 is output from 64 through the rotary actuator DIO 66, and the lid 14 of the cassette case 12 is closed by the rotary actuator 40.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the plate-shaped sample can be automatically supplied from the container that stores the samples one by one automatically. Since the device can be provided, it is possible to eliminate various drawbacks that would otherwise occur when manually performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cassette cartridge for holding a sample to be handled by the automatic sample feeder of the present invention and a sample storage tool for storing the cassette cartridge. FIG. 2 is a front view of the plate-shaped sample automatic supply device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. FIG. 5 is an enlarged side view showing the feeding portion of the storage tool of the plate-shaped sample automatic supply device. FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a control circuit of the automatic sample feeder for plate-like samples. 10 ... Storage device, 12 ... Cassette case, 14 ... Lid, 16 ...
… Aperture, 18 …… Cassette cartridge, 20 …… Sample, 22
…… Aperture, 24 …… Holding member, 26 …… Automatic feeder, 28 ・ ・ ・
… Frame, 30 …… Machine part, 32 …… Control part, 34 …… Slide table, 40 …… Rotary actuator, 44 …… Vacuum pad, 46 …… Ball screw, 48 …… Nut, 50 …… Stepping motor, 58 ...... Rotary encoder, 64…
… Overall control unit, 66 …… Rotary actuator DIO, 6
8 …… Lifting cylinder DIO.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plate sample automatic supply device for automatically supplying a plate sample in a light-shielded environment, and a sample container for storing a plurality of samples in a juxtaposed state and in a light-shielded state, and the sample container device. The sample storing tool has a feeding means for sequentially feeding at a constant pitch, and a take-out means for moving a sample in the sample storing tool brought to a predetermined position by the feeding means to take out the sample from the outside. The upper part has a rotatable lid, the lower part has an opening, and the sample is stored in a sample storage tool in a state of being stored in a cassette cartridge. A state in which an opening is formed in the upper part of the sample storage tool, the cassette cartridge is pushed up through the lower opening, and the cassette cartridge is raised through the formed upper opening so that the sample can be taken out from the outside. Automatic feeder for plate sample, characterized by. 2. A plate sample automatic supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said feeding means is a slide table on which a sample storage tool is mounted, and a ball screw which is connected to the slide table and which feeds the slide table at a constant pitch by a stepping motor. A plate-shaped sample automatic supply device comprising: 3. The plate sample automatic supply apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the feed means detects a rotation angle of the ball screw and generates a signal, and a signal from the rotary encoder has a constant pitch. An automatic feeder for plate-like samples, further comprising a feedback circuit for comparing a corresponding set amount and sending a correction value to the stepping motor.