JPH11276155A - Application apparatus for specimen and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an application apparatus capable of softly bringing a sterilized chip into contact with the surface of a medium and not damaging the surface of a medium even in the case of using a disposable type sterilized chip having high rigidity as an application means and capable of preventing the occurrence of so-called jump as a phenomenon caused by the collision of the tip of the chip having high rigidity with a partition wall. SOLUTION: This application apparatus is equipped with a sterilized chip attaching part comprising a chip attaching nozzle 5 for attaching a sterilized chip, a pipe 6 for supplying a specimen to the chip attaching nozzle 5 and a cylindrical slider 7 which encloses the pipe 6 and is movable along the pipe 6, an auxiliary link 9 which holds the cylindrical slider 7 and is rotatable around a base part and a holder arm 1 which is rotatable around a revolving shaft 1a and liked to the attaching part. The base part of the auxiliary link 9 is eccentric to the revolving shaft 1a of the holder arm 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically applying a liquid sample such as urine, blood, secretions or the like to a culture medium such as agar contained in a culture vessel such as a petri dish.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been an attempt to mechanize and automate the manual work of applying a sample to a culture medium so as to enable a constant amount of application without causing contamination. No. 160576, JP-A No. 2-7
Many proposals have been made in JP-A-2898, JP-A-3-175996, JP-B-4-66552 and JP-A-6-296481.

[0003] As one of them, there is a spiral coating apparatus for applying a sample via a coating tube onto a culture vessel such as a petri dish rotating in a spiral shape. However, since the coating tube must be washed each time the coating is performed, the coating is performed. Not only was it difficult to shorten the working time, but there was no danger of contamination.

[0004] Therefore, if a disposable sterilizing tip can be used for coating, the time can be reduced without fear of contamination, but the sterilizing tip is usually made of a rigid material such as plastic. However, when the medium is brought into contact with the rotating medium as it is, the medium surface may be damaged. Also, 2 in the same petri dish
2 types of medium exist in a state partitioned by partition walls 2
In the case of applying to a fractionation medium, the tip of a highly rigid chip collides with a partition wall, so-called “fly” occurs, and uniform application cannot be performed.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems in the prior art. That is, the present invention provides a sterile tip that can be softly contacted with the surface of a culture medium without damaging the culture medium surface even when a disposable rigid sterile tip having a high rigidity is used as a coating means. It is an object of the present invention to provide a coating apparatus capable of preventing the occurrence of a jump due to a partition wall even when coating is performed on a defined medium.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the sample applying apparatus of the present invention has a mounting portion for a sterilizing chip, and a liquid sample is applied to the surface of the culture medium through the sterilizing chip. An apparatus for applying a specimen to be applied, the apparatus comprising: a mechanism for imparting flexibility to the attachment part when applying the specimen, and a mechanism for imparting rigidity to the attachment part when attaching or detaching the sterilization chip. I do.

According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for applying a sample, comprising: a tip mounting nozzle for mounting a sterilizing tip; a pipe for supplying the sample to the tip mounting nozzle; and a cylindrical shape surrounding the pipe and movable along the pipe. A mounting portion for a sterile tip made of a slider, an auxiliary link that holds the cylindrical slider and is rotatable about a base, and a holder arm that is rotatable about a rotation axis and interlocks with the mounting portion. The sample applying apparatus may be provided, wherein the base of the auxiliary link and the rotation axis of the holder arm are eccentric.

[0008] The attachment portion may be inclined with respect to the culture medium surface.

The method for applying a sample according to the present invention is characterized in that the sample is applied to the surface of a culture medium via a sterile tip mounted on a flexible mounting portion.

[0010] The attachment portion may be inclined with respect to the culture medium surface.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of applying a liquid sample to a culture medium such as agar contained in a culture vessel such as a petri dish or the like, by directly applying a sterilized chip made of a rigid material such as plastic to the culture medium. In addition to adopting the method of applying the sample by contacting it, it is possible to flexibly follow irregularities on the surface of the culture medium or partition walls of the 2-fractionation medium, etc. Is a first feature of the present invention.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the sterilization tip is inclined and brought into contact with the culture medium surface to thereby minimize damage to the culture medium surface as much as possible.

The "sterile tip" in the present invention is a sample holding container usually made of a high-rigidity material such as plastic on the premise of disposable.
Generally, the mounting side has a conical shape having a larger diameter than the discharge side.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the entire configuration of the coating apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a coating apparatus at the time of non-coating. In the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a holder arm that is rotatably supported about a holder rotation shaft 1a, and reference numeral 2 denotes a swing arm that is rotatable about a swing arm shaft 2a by a driving force of a swing cylinder 12, which will be described later. The holder arm 1 is held and fixed by a fixing member 3 fixed to the revolving cylinder 12 and a projection 2b provided at the tip of the revolving arm 2 except during the application.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a holder for holding the sterile tip mounting portion, which is fixed to the holder arm 1. Therefore, the holder 4 is interlocked with the holder arm 1 and is rotatable about the holder rotation shaft 1a similarly to the holder arm 1.

A holder for a sterilizing tip is fixed to the holder 4. In this embodiment, the mounting portion includes a tip insertion nozzle 5 for mounting a sterile tip, a flexible pipe 6 having one end connected to the tip insertion nozzle 5 for supplying a sample, It comprises a rigid rigid cylindrical slider 7 surrounding the pipe 6 and movable along the pipe 6, and the pipe 6 is fixed to the holder 4 by a pipe fixing bracket 8. In the drawing, 13
Is a sterile tip, which is mounted on the tip insertion nozzle 5 via a mounting mechanism (not shown).

Reference numeral 9 denotes an auxiliary link that is rotatably supported about an auxiliary link shaft 9a and that grips and fixes the distal end of the cylindrical slider 7. As shown in FIG. 1, the auxiliary link shaft 9a is eccentrically disposed at a position different from the holder rotation shaft 1a. In addition, as shown in detail in FIG.
The auxiliary link 9 is connected to the fixed member 3 via a connecting member 10, while the fixed member 3 is fixed by a flange 11 to a casing of a revolving cylinder 12 containing driving means such as an electric motor.

Hereinafter, the operation of the coating apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

At the time of non-coating, the swivel cylinder 12 is stopped, and the holder arm 1 is provided with a protrusion 2b at the tip of the swivel arm.
And the fixing member 3 to fix the position. That is, the holder 4 fixed to the holder arm 1
Is fixed with the chip insertion nozzle 5 directed vertically downward as shown in FIG. Then, in this state, the sterilization tip 13 is attached to the tip insertion nozzle 5 by an attachment mechanism (not shown).

In the state shown in FIG. 3 (a), the tip of the cylindrical slider 7 extends to the tapered portion of the tip insertion nozzle 5 attached to the pipe 6, and the tip insertion nozzle 5
Is kept in contact and locked. Therefore, in this state, the tip insertion nozzle 5 is not held by the flexible pipe 6 but by the rigid cylindrical slider 7 and its position is fixed, so that the sterilization tip 13 can be securely and easily mounted. be able to.

After the sterile tip 13 is mounted, a predetermined sample is selected from a group of test tubular containers accommodating a liquid sample, and the sterilizer chip 13 is inserted into the test tube by moving the entire coating apparatus, thereby forming a pipe. The desired sample is held in the sterile tip 13 by aspirating through 6. In addition,
By maintaining the suction pressure applied to the sample via the pipe 6, the sample in the sterilization tip 13 is not released to the outside.

On the other hand, at the time of coating, a petri dish containing a culture medium such as agar is placed on a coating table by a petri dish supply device (not shown), and the lid of the petri dish is opened. At the same time, the swivel cylinder 12 is driven on the coating apparatus side, and the swivel arm 2 is turned around the swivel arm shaft 2a as shown in FIG.
It rotates in the arrow direction of (a). Then, as the rotation of the turning arm 2 proceeds, the protrusion 2b of the turning arm 2 comes into contact with the lower end 1b of the holder arm 1. However, by continuing the rotation here, the holder arm 1 is moved to the holder rotating shaft 1a.
And tilted as shown in FIG. 3 (b). Note that the tilt angle of the holder arm 1 can be arbitrarily adjusted by controlling the rotation angle of the turning arm 2.

As described above, since the holder 4 is interlocked with the holder arm 1, the holder 4 rotates about the holder rotation shaft 1a with the inclination of the holder arm 1 due to the rotation of the swing arm 2. Incline. At this time, the auxiliary link 9 also rotates about the auxiliary link shaft 9a in accordance with the change in the position of the cylindrical slider 7 provided on the holder 4, but the holder rotating shaft 1a and the auxiliary link shaft 9
As the holder 4 rotates, the cylindrical slider 7 is moved by the auxiliary link 9 because the holder 4 rotates.
Is shown in FIG. 3B along the slide guide 7a.
And the contact between the cylindrical slider 7 and the tip mounting nozzle 5 is cut off. Therefore, the tip mounting nozzle 5 is supported by the flexible pipe 6 at the same time when the holder 4 is tilted.

Then, with the holder 4 being rotated and the sterile tip 13 mounted on the tip mounting nozzle 5 being tilted, the entire applicator is lowered onto the culture medium surface of the petri dish to place the sterile chip 13 on the culture medium surface. Make contact. Next, by applying air pressure from inside the pipe 6 while rotating the application table on which the petri dish is mounted in a spiral manner, the liquid sample is uniformly applied from the sterilization chip 13 onto the surface of the culture medium.

As described above, when the specimen is applied to the culture medium surface via the sterilization tip 13 attached to the tip mounting nozzle 5 supported by the flexible pipe 6, the unevenness of the culture medium surface is sterilized. Since the tip 13 can flexibly follow, it is possible to prevent the surface of the culture medium from being damaged even if the rigidity of the sterilization tip 13 itself is high. Further, when applying to the two-fraction medium, even if the sterilized tip 13 collides with the partition wall, the tip does not fly, so that uniform application can be performed.

Further, as in this embodiment, the sterilizing tip 1
When the sample is applied in a state where the sample 3 is inclined, it is possible to more effectively suppress the occurrence of scratches on the culture medium surface.

After the application on the surface of the culture medium is completed, the turning arm 2 is turned in the opposite direction to return to the initial position, thereby fixing the holder arm 1 upright. The holder 4 also returns to the initial position in conjunction with the holder arm 1. At this time, since the auxiliary link 9 also rotates to the initial position, the cylindrical slider 7 descends, and the tip thereof becomes the tip mounting nozzle 5.
The tip mounting nozzle 5 is firmly held in contact with the tapered surface of the nozzle.

Then, the sterilizing tip 13 is detached from the tip mounting nozzle 5 by a detaching device (not shown) to perform the first coating.
The cycle ends. Thereafter, the above-described application operation is repeated until a predetermined number of samples are applied.

[0031]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) At the time of application, the application is performed while the sterilizing chip is flexibly supported, so that it is possible to flexibly follow irregularities on the surface of the culture medium or partition walls of the two-part culture medium, etc. No scratching or uneven application.

(2) Damage to the culture medium surface can be suppressed as much as possible by tilting the sterile tip to contact the culture medium surface.

(3) When a structure is adopted in which the tip mounting nozzle for mounting the sterilizing tip is flexibly supported only during coating by eccentrically setting the auxiliary link and the rotation axis of the holder arm, the holder arm is rotated. With a single driving mechanism, the support state of the chip mounting nozzle can be changed appropriately, so that the structure of the coating apparatus itself can be simplified and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view (a sectional view of a main part) of an embodiment of a coating apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view (a cross-sectional view of a main part) of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view showing an operation state of the coating apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 during coating.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Holder arm 2 Rotating arm 3 Fixing member 4 Holder 5 Tip insertion nozzle 6 Pipe 7 Cylindrical slider 8 Pipe fixing metal 9 Auxiliary link 10 Connecting member 11 Flange 12 Rotating cylinder 13 Sterilization tip

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Satoru Inoue 19-14 Yokoshiro Hayama, Kokura Minami-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for applying a sample, which has a mounting portion for a sterile chip and applies a liquid sample to a culture medium surface via the sterile chip, wherein the mounting portion has flexibility when the sample is applied. Grant, and
A sample application device, comprising: a mechanism for imparting rigidity to the attachment portion when the sterilization chip is attached or detached. 2. A tip mounting nozzle for mounting a sterilization tip, a pipe for supplying a sample to the tip mounting nozzle, and a sterilization tip comprising a cylindrical slider surrounding the pipe and movable along the pipe. And an auxiliary link that holds the cylindrical slider and is rotatable around a base portion; and a holder arm that is rotatable about a rotation axis and is interlocked with the mounting portion. Wherein the base and the rotation axis of the holder arm are eccentric. 3. The sample applying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion is inclined with respect to the culture medium surface. 4. A method for applying a specimen, wherein the specimen is applied to a surface of a culture medium via a sterile tip attached to a flexible mounting portion. 5. The method for applying a specimen according to claim 4, wherein the attachment portion is inclined with respect to the surface of the culture medium.