JPH11313666A - Incubator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an incubator capable of suppressing the dispersion of an inner environmental condition, and enabling a test with high reliability to be carried out. SOLUTION: This incubator having a temperature and a CO2 concentration, in a chamber 2, controlled by an environmental controller 13 has plural rotary shelves 21 for loading microplates as sample-storing parts 4, suspended from a lifting and lowering plate 20. The incubator also has a rotating means for rotating the plural rotary shelves 21 through a spline shaft 30 by a motor 35, and a lifting and lowering means for lifting and lowering the rotary shelves 21 through a feed screw 24 by the motor 29. The lifting and lowering shelves 21 are lifted, lowered and rotated by the continuous action of the rotating means and the lifting and lowering means during the culturing time. As the result, the air in the chamber 2 is stirred and the environmental condition is made uniform.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an incubator used for culturing microorganisms and cells and for antigen-antibody reactions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An incubator is known as an apparatus used for culturing microorganisms and cells and for testing biochemical reactions of substances. The incubator has a function of adjusting and maintaining environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity in a chamber for storing a sample to be tested. Generally, in order to conduct experiments on a large number of samples under the same environmental conditions, the incubator is provided with a sample storage section for storing a large number of samples. The sample storage section is generally composed of multi-stage shelves, and each stage of these shelves stores a container for storing a sample such as a microplate. In the conventional incubator, a fan for air circulation is provided inside the incubator in order to make the environmental conditions of these many samples as uniform as possible.

[0003]

However, the circulation of air inside the incubator is not constant depending on the number and arrangement of the samples, but depends on the density of the arrangement and the ubiquitous state. In other words, even if the setting of environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity is the same,
When looking at individual samples, the actual environmental conditions varied depending on the position in the incubator and the number of samples stored at the same time. Then, there is a problem that the variation in the environmental conditions adversely affects the reliability of the test result.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an incubator capable of suppressing a variation in internal environmental conditions and performing a highly reliable test.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an incubator comprising: a chamber; environmental condition adjusting means for adjusting environmental conditions in the chamber; and a rotating shelf provided in the chamber for mounting a container containing a sample. Rotating means for rotating the rotating shelf, and elevating means for moving the rotating shelf up and down.

According to the present invention, by providing a rotating means for rotating a rotating shelf for storing a sample provided in the chamber and an elevating means for raising and lowering the rotating shelf, the air in the chamber is agitated by stirring the air in the chamber. The conditions can be made uniform.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of a sample storage section of the incubator, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a rotating shelf of the incubator.

First, the overall structure of the incubator will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, the main body of the incubator 1 includes a chamber 2, a door 3, and a sample storage unit 4 provided in the chamber 2. The chamber 2 is a two-layer water jacket having inner and outer walls, and water as a temperature control medium circulates between the inner and outer walls. A water circulation pipe 5 is connected to the chamber 2, and water returned from the water jacket is sent to a heater 7 by a circulation pump 6, heated and sent again to the water jacket.

Further, the chamber 2 is connected to CO ₂ gas cylinder 8 via the CO ₂ pipe 10, control valve 9 for CO ₂ pipe 10 is provided. Sensors 11 and 12 are provided inside the side wall of the chamber 2.
Numeral 12 measures the temperature and CO ₂ concentration inside the chamber 2 and sends the measured data to the environment controller 13. By controlling the heater 7 and the control valve 9 by the environment controller 13, the temperature and the CO ₂ concentration in the chamber 2 are adjusted, and the inside of the chamber 2 is maintained at a predetermined environmental condition. Therefore, environmental controller 13, the circulating pump 6, the heater 7, CO ₂ cylinder 8 and control valve 9 has a environmental condition adjusting means. The environment controller 13 is controlled by a control unit 37, and by inputting a command value from input means 38 such as a keyboard, environmental conditions in the chamber 2 are set.

Next, the sample storage section 4 will be described. 1 and 2, nuts 25 are provided at both ends of the elevating plate 20, and a feed screw 24 is screwed into the nut 25. In FIG. 1, a pulley 26 is provided at an upper end of two feed screws 24, and a pulley 27 is provided at a rotation shaft of a motor 29.
Are connected to each other, and a belt 28 is tuned to the pulley 27 and the two pulleys 26.

In FIG. 2, a spline bearing 31 is rotatably mounted on the elevating plate 20 with respect to the elevating plate 20. The uppermost rotating shelf 21 is fixed to the spline bearing 31, and a plurality of rotating shelves 21 are suspended below the rotating shelf 21 by a connecting member. A spline shaft 30 is inserted through the spline bearing 31, and a pulley 32 is coupled to an upper end of the spline shaft 30, as shown in FIG. A pulley 33 is coupled to the rotation shaft of the motor 35, and a belt 34 is tuned between the pulley 33 and the pulley 32. Driving the motor 35 rotates the spline shaft 30. When the spline bearing 31 is rotated by the spline shaft 30, the rotary shelf 21 is also rotated. Therefore, the motor 35 and the spline shaft 30 serve as a rotating unit of the rotating shelf 21. Also, by driving the motor 29, the feed screw 24 rotates,
The rotating shelf 21 moves up and down together with the elevating plate 20. That is, the motor 29 and the feed screw 24 constitute a means for elevating the rotary shelf 21.

By controlling the motor drive unit 36 by the control unit 37, all the rotating shelves 21 can be rotated and moved up and down. At this time, the spline shaft 30
And the elevating plate 20 by the spline bearing 31
The rotating shelf 21 can be rotated regardless of the vertical position of the rotating shelf 21. Therefore, an arbitrary operation pattern of the rotating shelf 21 can be set by freely combining the elevating operation and the rotating operation.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the rotating shelf 21 is provided with a plurality of notches 21a at circumferentially arranged positions. A microplate 22, which is a container for storing a sample, is placed in the notch 21a. In addition, rotating shelf 2
1 is provided with a plurality of openings 21b, and air flows vertically through these openings 21b, so that the air in the chamber 2 is circulated better. 21c is an opening through which the spline shaft 30 penetrates.

During the culture time, these microplates 2
The opening 3a of the door 3 is used for taking the chamber 2 in and out of the chamber 2. That is, the specific notch 21a of the specific rotating shelf 21 to be taken in and out of the microplate 22 is moved to the position of the opening 3a by the raising and lowering operation and the rotating operation of the rotating shelf 21, and the transfer means such as a robot arm ( The microplate 22 is taken in and out of the opening 3a (not shown). As described above, since the rotating shelf 21, the rotating means, and the elevating means also serve as the transport means for the microplate 22 inside the chamber 2, only one opening 3a for taking in and out the microplate 22 is required. Disturbance factors of environmental conditions, such as inflow of external air and outflow of internal air at the time of taking in and out, can be minimized.

The incubator is configured as described above, and its operation will be described below. First, in FIG. 1, the door 3 of the chamber 2 is closed. Next, the controller 37 is operated by the input means 38 to set predetermined environmental conditions. As a result, the environmental controller 13 is operated to drive the circulation pump 6, the heater 7, and the control valve 9 so that the chamber 2
Adjust the environmental conditions inside. When the inside of the chamber 2 reaches a predetermined environmental condition, an opening / closing lid for the opening 3a of the door 3 (not shown)
Is opened and the microplate 22 is passed through the opening 3a by the not-shown transport means, so that the notch 21
a.

When all the microplates 22 have been placed on the predetermined rotating shelf 21, the motor 29 and the motor 35 are driven to cause the rotating shelf 21 to continuously perform a rotating operation and a lifting operation in a predetermined pattern. Thereby, the air in the chamber 2 is stirred by the rotating shelf 21, and the temperature and the CO ₂ concentration are made uniform. In addition, the operation of the rotating shelf 21 does not cause the microplate 22 to stay at the same position during the culture time. Therefore, local environmental conditions caused by the position in the chamber 2 are eliminated, and all microplates are removed. The same environmental conditions are realized for the plate 22.

When a predetermined time has elapsed and it is time to take out a specific microplate 22, the rotating shelf 21 on which the microplate 22 is placed is moved to the door 3.
At the height of the opening 3a. Next, the rotating shelf 21 is rotated so that the specific microplate 22 is located in the opening 3a. Then, the microplate 21 is taken out and transported to another device such as an analyzer by a transport unit (not shown).

[0018]

According to the present invention, by providing a rotating means for rotating a rotating shelf for storing a sample provided in a chamber and an elevating means for lifting and lowering the rotating shelf, the air in the chamber is stirred. In this way, the environmental conditions can be made uniform and the reliability of the test can be increased. Also, these rotating means,
The sample at a specific position can be transported to a specific position in the chamber by the elevating means, so that only one opening for taking out the sample is required. The disturbance element of the condition can be suppressed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a sample storage section of the incubator according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a rotating shelf of the incubator according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 incubator 2 chamber 4 sample storage unit 13 environment controller 20 elevating plate 21 rotating shelf 22 microplate 24 feed screw 29 motor 30 spline shaft 35 motor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Oguro 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Naoki Miyazaki 1006 Okadoma Kadoma, Kadoma City Osaka Pref. 72) Inventor Eiji Watanabe 1006 Kadoma, Kazuma, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hideyoshi Kitahara 1006 Odaka Kazuma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A chamber, environmental condition adjusting means for adjusting environmental conditions in the chamber, a rotating shelf for mounting a container containing a sample provided in the chamber, and rotating means for rotating the rotating shelf. And an elevating means for elevating the rotating shelf.