JPH09303582A - Multipe small type pinch valve - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To positively perform the opening and closing operations of a tube through which fluid flows, simplify a plurality of tube operations, and thereby enhance operating performance in connection with a fluid feeding valve controlling fluid such as medicines and the like automatically or by a remote control. SOLUTION: The multiple small type pinch valve is so constituted that it can be easily disassembled into a tube guide 5 serving as a casing lower part as well, and a casing upper part 6 acting as a base member for a motor 11, cams (1) 3 and the like, and a plurality of flexible tubes 1 and 2 through which fluid such as medicines and the like flows, are lined up so as to be held in grooves in a parallel form within the tube guide 5. Over the tubes 1 and 2, one shaft 4 is disposed while being perpendicularly intersected with these tubes, and a plurality of cams (1) 3 are mounted onto the shaft 4. Each cam is basically circular in shape, but a part of its circular are shape is cut and formed into a bow shape. The rotation of each cam (1) 3 thereby allows the fluid pass of each tube to be opened/closed, so that the flow of fluid is thereby controlled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a valve for supplying a liquid of a drug or the like in a cell culture experimental apparatus or the like, which needs to control the liquid of the drug or the like unattended or by remote control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In cell culture experiments, chemical experiments, etc., a pinch valve is used to control the supply of a drug, in which a liquid such as a drug flowing inside a tube having excellent chemical resistance does not come into direct contact with each mechanism constituting the device. Be preferred.

In an environment such as a laboratory where a worker can manually operate, the supply amount of the drug can be controlled by sandwiching or removing the tube through which the drug flows with a clip. A valve installed in a place where an operator cannot approach such as in a narrow space needs to be electrically or remotely controllable by fluid pressure such as air pressure, water pressure, and hydraulic pressure.

FIG. 12 shows the structure of a conventional electric or electromagnetic pinch valve.

In the figure, a hammer 19 held by a spring 18 is usually a tube 2 due to the elastic force of the spring.
Is pressed downward to close the tube 2.

To open the tube 2, the pressure control tube 20
Is energized to drive the hammer 19 to move the hammer 19 upward to open the tube 2.

The fluid driven valve basically has the same mechanism except that the drive source is different. (See Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-51874, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-51880, and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-8771 as examples of the conventional pinch valve.)

Further, as an example of a structure in which a clip is electrically driven and a tube is sandwiched or removed, an actual opening 63-
Although there is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 195163, in this case, there is a problem that the mechanism is large for one tube and the response is bad.

[0009]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional pinch valve as shown in FIG. 12, when the diameter of the tube 2 is reduced and a plurality of tubes are passed through at the same time, one pinch valve 22 is used for a plurality of tubes at the same time. Can be opened and closed, but cannot be opened and closed independently at different times.

Further, since the device is of a one-piece type, it is necessary to remove the tube once and pass it through the pinch valve in order to mount the pinch valve 22 on the tube.

Further, in an experiment requiring a sterile environment, it is necessary to sterilize not only the tube 2 but also the pinch valve 22.

When the space inside the apparatus is limited, it is difficult to incorporate a large number of pinch valves in terms of space and work.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new multiple small pinch valve which eliminates the above-mentioned problems of the conventional device.

[0014]

As a structure for achieving the above-mentioned object, a multiple small pinch valve of the present invention has a plurality of flexible tubes through which a liquid such as a drug flows, and is provided with a pinch valve. Hold parallel to each groove of the tube guide provided in parallel at the bottom of the main body, on the plurality of tubes,
One shaft is arranged orthogonally, a plurality of cams are attached to the shaft, and the rotation angle of a motor connected directly to the shaft or via a gear is controlled to control each tube by the plurality of cams. And a tube upper part for housing the cam, the shaft, and the driving motor, and the tube guide are configured as a fitting type lock mechanism to facilitate disassembly and assembly. It is characterized by having done.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 are the first embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 5 to 7 are the second embodiment, FIGS. 8 to 9 are the third embodiment, and FIG. 10 is the fourth embodiment.
Embodiment, and FIG. 11 shows a fifth embodiment.

1 to 4 showing the first embodiment, FIGS. 1A and 1B are a side view and a front view of a multiple small pinch valve, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view thereof. Is an explanatory view of a flow path closed state, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a flow path open state.

In these figures, reference numeral 21 is a multiple small pinch valve, and the valve 21 is easily attached to a tube guide 5 which also serves as a casing lower portion and an upper casing portion 6 which is a base of the motor 11, the cam (1) 3 and the like. It is designed to be disassembled.

In the tube guide 5 disposed below the pinch valve main body 21, flexible tubes 1 and 2 through which a liquid such as a drug flows through are arranged in parallel in the tube guide. A plurality of grooves are held in the groove so that they can be arranged in parallel.

A single shaft 4 is disposed on the plurality of tubes 1, 2 orthogonally thereto, and a plurality of cams (1) 3 are attached to the shaft 4.

To drive the same cam (1) 3, the shaft 11 passing through all the cams is driven by the motor 11 by the speed reducer 12,
This is done via spur gears 9 and 10.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shape of the cam is basically circular, and a part of the arc portion is cut into an arc shape.

By rotating the cam (1) 3, the tubes 1 and 2 are
As shown in FIG. 3, the in-tube fluid flow path is closed (tube 1 state) or is opened as shown in FIG. 4 (tube 2 state).

In the open state shown in FIG. 4, the tube 2 returns from the flow channel closed state shown in FIG. 3 to the flow channel open state due to its flexibility.

Reference numeral 7 is a hook, 8 is a lock mechanism, and 13 is a rotation angle detector.

Next, when assembling the multiple small pinch valves 21, the tubes 1 and
Place all 2 and place the casing top 6 on it.

At this time, first, the hook 7 is hooked to fit the claw of the lock mechanism 8 into the upper part of the casing, and then the assembly is completed. The lock mechanism 8 is configured to be openable and closable in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG.

Since the cam (1) 3 has a circular part cut out in an arc shape, the cam (1) 3 can be normally closed to open the flow path of the tube only when necessary.

Connect the tube guide 5 to the pinch valve body 21.
By making it more removable, multiple tubes can be attached to and detached from the valve without removing the tubes.

The rotation angle of the motor 11 is detected by a rotation angle detector 13 mounted coaxially, and the position of the cam is controlled.

Further, it is easy to make the response of the flow path opening / closing operation fast depending on the selection of the motor.

Although a total of seven tubes are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the number of tubes may be larger or smaller than this.

The materials of the cam (1) 3 and the tubes 1 and 2 are preferably selected so that they both slide well or a lubricant is applied to the surfaces.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the pressing plate in the case of the same example, FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of a flow path closed inside the tube, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a flow path open state.

In these figures, 14 is a pressing plate,
In the case of this example, in order to prevent the tubes 1 and 2 from being directly rubbed by the cam (1) 3, the tubes 1 and 2 are pressed through the pressing plate 14. The pressing plate 14 and the tubes 1 and 2 are hard to slip, and conversely, the pressing plate 14 and the cam (1) 3 are slippery and surface-treated.

As described above, the reason for constructing the present embodiment is that the tubes 1 and 2 are always rubbed by the cam (1) 3 as in the case of the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. This is because the tubes 1 and 2 may deteriorate if they are opened and closed.

Further, in order to prevent the pressing plate 14 from slipping off, the pressing plate 14 has a standing side surface as shown in the drawing, and the side surface where the tube guide 5 and the pressing plate 14 of the casing upper part 6 contact each other is pressed. A groove is formed so that the plate 14 can move only up and down.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of the closed state of the flow path in the tube, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of the open state of the flow path.

In the case of this example, the shape of the cam is changed to the one shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 9, the cam shape is formed like a cam (2) 15 which is normally opened and closed when necessary.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the shape of the cam (1) 3 is such that the flow path is closed at all times and opened only when necessary. In this case, the cam (2) 15 has a cam shape that is normally opened and closed when necessary.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to 0. FIG. 10 shows the cam (1) 3 and the cam (3)
It is explanatory drawing of the flow path opening / closing action of the tubes 1 and 2 by interlocking 16 multiple cams.

When it is necessary to control a plurality of flow paths of tubes arranged in parallel at the same time, the combination of open valves and closed valves can be narrowed down to almost several patterns, but it is not a single pattern.

When there are a plurality of combinations of tubes to be opened in this way, a plurality of arcs to be cut off like the cam (3) 16 may be used. (FIG. 10)

By thus forming a plurality of arcuate portions to be cut off from the cam, it is possible to mechanically realize a complicated valve opening / closing operation with a single motor and also to downsize the device.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
1 will be described. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a motor arrangement state in the case of this example.

Depending on the arrangement of equipment around the multiple small pinch valve 21, it may be better to change the mounting position of the motor in order to avoid interference between the equipment.

If the shaft 4 can be driven, the mounting position of the motor is free, so in this example, the motor can be mounted by being directly connected to the shaft 4 like the motor 11 '.

Further, when the torque of the motor 11 'can be sufficiently obtained even at a low speed, the speed reducer may be omitted as shown in FIG.

Reference numeral 5 is a tube guide, 6'is an upper part of the casing, 7 is a hook, 8 is a lock mechanism, and 13 is a rotation angle detector, which are the same as those in the above-mentioned respective embodiments.

[0049]

As described above, the multiple small pinch valve of the present invention has the following effects.

Based on a circular shape, a cam cut in an arc shape creates a closed state in a tube through which a liquid such as a drug is constantly flowed, so that the tube is pressed by a pressing force of a spring or the like unlike the conventional case. The operation is reliable because the closed state is not released by vibration or shock.

By driving a plurality of cams by one shaft and making a plurality of cut-out portions of the cams, it is possible to mechanically realize a complicated valve opening / closing operation by one motor, and to make it possible to reduce the size. .

2 of upper part of casing and tube guide
By allowing the body to be disassembled and assembled with the lock mechanism of the fitting type, the valve can be attached and detached at once without removing multiple tubes, which is excellent in workability.

Further, by changing the shape of the cam, it can be applied to a valve whose flow path is always closed, and the applicable range is wide.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a multiple small pinch valve according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a side view and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the pinch valve.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a tube flow channel closed state in the pinch valve.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a tube channel open state in the pinch valve.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a tube pressing plate in a multiple small pinch valve according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a tube flow path closed state in the same example.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a tube flow channel open state in the same example.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a tube flow path closed state in the third embodiment example of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a tube flow channel open state in the same example.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a tube flow path opening / closing operation by interlocking a plurality of cams according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a motor arrangement state in a multiple small pinch valve according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing a conventional pinch valve.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Tube in closed state 2 Tube in open state 3 Cam (1) 4 Shaft 5 Tube guide (lower part of casing) 6,6 'Upper part of casing 7 Hook 8 Lock mechanism 9,10 Spur gear 11,11' Motor 12 Speed reducer 13 Rotation angle detection Device 14 Presser plate 15 Cam (2) 16 Cam (3) 21 Multiple small pinch valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of flexible tubes through which a liquid such as a drug flows inside are held in parallel by respective grooves of a tube guide provided in parallel at the lower part of the pinch valve main body, and the plurality of tubes are held. A shaft is orthogonally arranged on the above, a plurality of cams are attached to the shaft, and the rotation angle of a motor connected directly to the shaft or through a gear is controlled to control the plurality of the plurality of cams. Each tube is configured to be opened and closed independently by a cam, and further, the casing, which accommodates the cam, the shaft, and the drive motor, and the tube guide are configured as a fitting type lock mechanism for disassembly and assembly. Multiple small pinch valve characterized by making it easy.