JPS59157529A - Automatic sample sealing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a sample of high quality without the mixing of any air bubble by elevating a pendulum base and pressing cover glass from above its top surface at an eccentric position on the top surface of the pendulum base by a pressing member end part under specific pressure. CONSTITUTION:Slide glass 110 is elevated from a conveyance path 210 by the pendulum base 613 and one end part of the glass 110 contacts an edge part of the cover glass 518. In this state, a motor is stopped and this state is held awhile. Simultaneously, a liquid adhesive 480A is spread between the glass 110 and glass 518. Then, the supply of vacuum pressure to a suction board 552 is stopped to superpose the glass 518 upon the glass 110. Then, the pendulum base 613 is elevated, and while the holding base for the glass 110 is returned from inclination to the level state at the eccentric position on the top surface of the pendulum base by the pressing member 560, the glass 518 is pressed against the glass 110 under nearly the same pressure. Consequently, the sample of high quality is obtained without any air bubbles in the sample.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an automatic specimen specimen J4F device, and in particular, in a state in which an adhesive liquid is applied to a slide glass 1 to which a thin piece of Mukugi is completely adhered, the internal This invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device that can automatically attach a cover glass without leaving any air bubbles.

[Prior art] In general, tissue specimens for microscopy used for pathology and cell tissue examination begin with a process in which specimen material is cut to an appropriate size and dehydrated with alcohol, etc. After embedding and slicing, thin sections of the specimen are attached to fried glass, subjected to processing steps such as staining, and then placed in a basket and stored in a xylene bath or other bath. However,
After such processing steps, the specimens were removed from the xylene bath en masse and fixed at 0°-0.1 using adhesive.
With a cover glass of about 1.5 mm in diameter, one person can be used.

When creating such specimens, it is necessary to prevent the tissue from being destroyed and the inclusion of air bubbles, etc., which may lead to judgment, and it must also be created quickly and accurately. Actually, in the past, most of the work was done by hand.

In recent years, each of these processing steps has become automated, and most of the coverslipping equipment, which inserts the specimen attached to a slide glass using adhesive and a cover glass, is now completely automated. However, even those that have been developed still have various problems.

For example, there is a method for automatically enclosing such specimens (developed by Shanton Ken Southern Broken Limited in 4 countries (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 109377/1983). Dropped cover glass
- Hold the slide glass with the side to which the specimen is attached facing downwards, and place the cover glass on one of the slides, placing the 16th eye on the glass slide. and a cover glass, so that 44 specimens were separated between the two.

However, in such an automatic frame-one-person device, the adhesive is not applied directly onto the specimen, but only penetrates into the specimen after the cover glass contacts the slide glass. There was a risk that the liquid would not penetrate completely within 1 minute and bubbles would remain.

Furthermore, it is not possible to automatically select and supply the size of the cover glass according to the size of the specimen, and a glass with a certain size is used. However, since specimens of this kind are often destroyed in units of several hundred pieces, it is undesirable to uniformly use expensive glass.
It is preferable that a wide variety of sizes can be selected.

[Objective] In view of the above-mentioned points, the object of the present invention is to perform the covering operation continuously regardless of the size of the cover glass supplied onto the slide glass, and to improve the quality by eliminating the risk of air bubbles being mixed in. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic specimen enclosing device that allows specimens with high quality to be obtained.

[Summary of the Invention] In other words, the present invention provides a slide glass holder having an upper surface and an arcuate lower surface capable of holding a slide glass in an inclined state, and a slide glass holder having a shape corresponding to the curved surface of the slide glass holder. A slide glass holder is rotatably supported, and an elevating member that can be lowered freely is installed below a predetermined bonding position where the slide glass is guided, and a pendulum body is fixed to the slide glass holder. A regulating member is disposed for the side force of the pendulum body so that the rotation of the holding table can only be operated on the side where the inclination angle of the - face of the holding table decreases,
The A lowering member is lowered by y1 by the cam, and the cam is lowered by 41
The motor that moves the slide crow is stopped for a predetermined time at the predetermined upper y position, the first position, and the lowermost position A☆, P of the slide crow holding base, and the slide When the glass holder moves to the first predetermined 1-out position, the cover glass supplying member that supplies the cover glass is guided so that the edge of the cover glass is aligned with the edge of the slide glass on the slide glass holder. When the cover glass is supplied onto the slide glass from a state where it can come into contact with the slide glass, and the slide glass holder is moved up to the vicinity of the topmost A device, the cover glass supply member is retracted and the suppressing member is replaced by the slide glass holder. The surface of the cover glass on the slide glass holder comes into contact with the suppressing member at the eccentric position 4:/::'i so that it is guided to a position eccentric to the higher slope side of the L plane, and the slide glass is held. The feature is that the cover crow is pressed against the slide glass with almost the same pressing force while returning the #i barb of the stand to a horizontal position.

[Example 1] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings! Explain.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the automatic specimen enclosing device of the present invention. Here, 100 is a slide glass shooter that supplies slide glass 110 one by one to the conveying device 200 at predetermined time intervals.

The slide glass 110 supplied from the shooter 100 is transported from the right to the left in the figure by the transport device 200, which repeats movement and stopping at predetermined time intervals 1rJ-.

300 is a discriminating device 〆i, and the slide crow 110 supplied to the conveying path 210'' is first passed through this discriminating device 3.
00, the size of the specimen (not shown) attached to the first surface is determined. FIG. 2 shows a discrimination device 300.
An overview is shown. Here, 310 is a sensor array 1/-1320 in which a plurality of photo sensors (not shown) are arranged (this is tentative).

These sensor array 310 and printed circuit board 320
and the lens box 330 in which the lens assembly is housed are both fixed to one side of the transport device 200. The image is blurred and is being sent upwards onto the conveyance path 210 on the opposite side. 340
is a light projection box provided on the lower surface side of the conveyance path 210, and the light projection box 340 has a slit 341 on the side in contact with the conveyance path 210, and a slit 341 is provided at the bottom position directly below the slit 7l-341. A light shielding member 342 having a straight plate 342A, and a line filament lamp 3 arranged before and after the vertical plate 342A.
43 is the provision.

However, Kono-@u'1 board 342A (7) pickpocket...
The surface 342B facing 1.341 is colored black to absorb light and not reflect it. If you look down inside 340, this black top surface 3
42B is visible and the lamp 343 is not visible, each lamp 34 is shown as a broken line in the figure.
The light projected toward one side from 3 to 3 is limited by the light shielding member 342 and the pickpockets 7I and 341, and is not received by the sensor group of the sensor array 310 via the lens box 330.

Therefore, now the slide glass 110 is
If there is no sample on the top surface of the specimen, none of the sensors in the sensor array 310 will detect light due to the transparency of the glass.

However, if there are specimen pieces 111A and 111B on the slide glass 110'2 as shown in FIG. 3, when the slide glass 110 passes through the slit 341'2, these specimen pieces 111A and 111
From the range St and S2 where B is attached, the lamp 3
Scattered light is generated by receiving the light of 43.

When this scattered light is received by the sensor disposed in this part of the sensor array 310 via the lens group, the frame pieces 111A and 111B cover the entire attached area, that is, the slide glass. Specimen pieces 111A and 111 in the longitudinal direction of +10
The attached limit length S3 of B is detected. The detected length S3 is compared with lengths of a plurality of set types, and by being discriminated, a discrimination signal corresponding to the type can be supplied via a control 011Δ1 (to be described later).

Therefore, when the size of the slide specimen is detected by such a discrimination device 300, the adhesive liquid is applied to the frame during the process of transporting it to the liquid injection device 400 shown in FIG. It is ejected as quickly as possible depending on its size.

500 is a cover glass sorting and supplying device. Reference numeral 510 designates the sorting device 510, and the sorting device 510 has a sorting section 5]1 for stacking and storing a plurality of types, in this example, four types of U-sized cover glasses. Only one cover glass of a size corresponding to the size of the specimen can be selectively pulled out from the section 511 by the extracting mechanism 530. Furthermore, the pulled out cover glass is guided by the transfer mechanism 550 to the slide glass 1101-, which has finished dropping the adhesive liquid and is transported to the bonding position MW533A.

Below the slide glass 110 at this bonding position 533A.
One at the right time! Lower the slide glass 11
An adhesive enclosing device (hereinafter referred to as adhesive device &t) 600 is provided which performs the adhesion between 0 and the force.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the bonding device 600, and the bonding device 600
The case Sol is fixed at a position below the conveyance path 210, and the lifting shaft 8 is attached to the case 801.
10” - Spline socket 6 fitted freely downward
11 is the one to take. 812 is R descending i1+ 810
This is a pendulum stand holder as an elevating member fixed to one end of the pendulum holder 812, and a t+Yi 612A having an arc-shaped cross section is provided at the -1 end of the swing Y one holder 812, and this groove 612
A slide glass holding stand (hereinafter referred to as a pendulum stand) 613 that matches the shape of the slide glass is mounted on A so as to be swingable via a roller bearing 614. 1315 is a pendulum stand 613
A pendulum body attached via a fixing pin 61G to the side surface of )i
17i is a weight attached to the lower end of the pendulum body, and furthermore, an inclination angle adjustment member 618 whose length can be freely adjusted is protruded from the case 601 via a bracket 802 toward the pendulum body 615. be.

By adjusting the Jv: angle of this angle adjusting member 818, it is possible to maintain the pendulum stand 613 in a state of inclination from, for example, 1 degree to about 7 degrees via the pendulum body 615 (the fifth Figure CA) Reference jj (0, In normal use, by giving this degree of inclination to the pendulum stand 813, the slide crow 110 will be
can maintain a suitable posture. In addition, in FIG. 5(A), the slide glass 110 is still conveying path 2+041.
This indicates that the item is in the same state as it was delivered.

Here, reference numeral 551 is an arm of the transfer mechanism 550, and in FIG. Adhesion position 5 with 518 adsorbed
The state of being guided to the slide crow 1101- in 33A! , 1L are shown. In addition, at the 41st Δ, the arm 551 is transferred to the transfer position 553 (here, the force shown in FIG. 1/the force pulled out from the glass sorter 510/<-
The glass 518 is transferred from the extraction mechanism 530 to the transfer mechanism 550
It is shown that it is rotated as shown by the arrow and moved to the bonding position 533A.

1318 is the lower end of A 610 and K-7! , 1301
The A lowering shaft retaining member 603 is held between the A lowering shaft retaining member 603 and the lowering shaft retaining member 603, and the spring force of this spring 618 biases the elevator 810 toward the uppermost position. Furthermore,! A lever 621 that is rotatable around a shaft 620 is connected to the A lowering shaft 1310, and a cam guide 622 is formed at the other end of the lever 82+.

623 is an eccentric disc-shaped cam driven by a motor 624 (see FIG. 5(B)), which is fixed to the output shaft of the motor θ24, and has a cam guide 822 on its cam surface.
maintain contact. As the motor 824 rotates clockwise, the lever 621 is swung around the shaft 620, thereby making it possible to move the elevating shaft 810 up and down.

Historically, the motor output +l+824A has a disc cam 633 which sets the notch 631A and a notch 332A.
A disc cam 834 is fixed coaxially, and the notches 631A and 632A of these disc cams 633 and 634 can operate the position detection switches 133+ and 632, respectively, as shown in FIG. .631B and 632B are switches 831 and 6
32 actuating levers.

635 is a position detection switch which is arranged in relation to the cam guide 622 sunk in the lever 621. The actuating lever 635B of the switch\chiro 35 always maintains contact with the top surface of the cam guide 622, and the lever 82+
3, when the pendulum stand 813 is lifted up to the highest position as shown in the figure, that is, when the pendulum stand 813 is at the lowest position, it is detected and operated.

Furthermore, in FIG. 5(A), 580 indicated by a broken line at the tip of the arm 551 is a suppressing member, and the pressing member 560 is not directly provided at the tip of the arm 551, but is attached to the arm 551. More branched branch arm 561
is loosely fitted into the support hole 561A provided at the tip of the S+
A smooth surface is formed at the tip of the + material 560.

The operation of this suppressing member 560 will be described later, but due to its freedom, the cover knife crow 518 and the slide crow 1
This is used to remove air bubbles between the cover glass 518 and the cover glass 518 as shown in the figure.
At the time when the pressing member 560 and the branch arm 561 supporting the pressing member 560 are brought to the bonding position 533A, the pressing member 560 and the branch arm 561 that support the pressing member 560 are in a retracting position different from the bonding position 533A. Next, the adhesive sealing operation in the adhesive device configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6(A) to 6(F).

FIG. 6(A) shows the same state m as shown in No. 5 [Δ<A], and in this state, the switch 635 (see FIG. 4) for detecting the lowest position of the pendulum stand 613 is activated. °°on°
When the adhesive enclosing operation starts, the motor 624 is driven to each cam 823. [While rotating 133 and 634, the pendulum stand 813 is gradually moved 7A via the lifting shaft 610.

In this way, as shown in FIG.
- when one edge of the slide crow +10 contacts or is in the vicinity of contacting the edge of the cover crow 518, the detection switch 632 detects the 7-inch 632A of the cam 634, and the motor is activated. 624 is stopped. Here, the relative positions of the switch 632 and the notch 632A are adjusted in advance in this manner. In addition, a slip stopper 813A is recessed into the edge of the inclined side of the 1-plane of the pendulum table 613, and the slide glass 110 is prevented from sliding down due to this slip stopper 613A. It is held in a fixed position on a pendulum stand 813-.

This state of FIG. 6(B) is maintained for a while,
During this time, the adhesive liquid 480A is diffused between the slide glass 110 and the cover glass 518 due to capillary action and the slope of the slide glass 110. Subsequently, the supply of vacuum pressure to the suction @ 552 that has attracted the cover glass by vacuum pressure is stopped, and the cover glass glass 518 is gently tilted onto the surface of the slide glass 110, and the sixth As shown in Figure (C), it overlaps with the slide glass 110.

After supplying the cover crow 518, the suction disc 552 and the arm 551 are immediately evacuated and replaced by the branch arm 561 and the suppressing part 56 provided at its end.
0 comes to this position. Figure 6(D) shows such a state 'fi! : Shows a pendulum stand 613 and its shoulder holder 610
means that after being stopped in the state shown in Figure 8 (B), the
The thread 11 is held in the stopped state F until the state shown in FIG. The stopping time during this period is, for example, 2 to 3 seconds'J.
'7 Iff is suitable.

After this set stop time, the motor 624 is driven again and the pendulum stand 613 continues to rise, but the notch 631A of the cam 633 is activated by the position detection switch 631.
31B, the eccentric disc cam 623 keeps the cam guide 622 of the lever 621 at the lowest position, keeping the pendulum stand 813 at the highest position, and in this state, the switch 6
31 causes the motor 624 to stop again.

FIG. 8(E) shows such a state, in which the suppressing member 580
The axis of the swinging rod 615 is eccentric from the axis of the shaking rod 615, and since it is a role, the suppressing member 560 pushes the cover crow 51 under its own weight.
8 toward the slide glass +10, the pendulum stand 613 receives an eccentric load and is slightly tilted as shown in the figure. Therefore, this state is maintained for a while, for example, for 2 to 3 seconds.

After such a set stop time due to the suppressing operation, the motor 624 is driven again to lower the pendulum stand 613 and return the slide glass 110 onto the conveying path 210, and the branch arm 561 supporting the suppressing member 560 also The branch arm 561 and the suppressing member at its tip are moved via a link mechanism that operates the arm 551 while the arm 561 returns to its original tilted state. FIG. 6(F) shows a state in which the pendulum stand 613 and its lower part 610 have returned to the position shown in FIG. 6(A) by driving the motor 624 after the sealing has been completed in this manner.

Thus, even if air bubbles remain in the state where the cover crow 518 is superimposed on the slide crow 110 J2 (the state shown in FIG. 8(C)), -1- the suppression operation during the stop time described above ( In the state shown in FIG. 6(E), air bubbles can be released in all directions around the tip of the suppressing member 560. Note that if the air bubbles are not removed sufficiently, the suppression member 56
It is only necessary to change the weight of the zero and the shape of the tip, and it goes without saying that such adjustments are easy.

The slide glass + 10 that has undergone the bonding and encapsulation process by the bonding device 600 described above is again moved along the conveyance path 210 by the conveyance device 200 and pushed out to the product source 710 of the storage device 700 shown in FIG. It is being done. When a predetermined number of glass slides as products accumulate in the product source 710 (10 in this example), the extrusion mechanism 730
The products are automatically pushed out onto a tray (receiving tray) 750 in units of 10 sheets, and with a total of 40 products stored in the tray 750, one gigantic slide insertion work is completed.

Furthermore, 800 is a control unit that controls these series of automatic sample enclosing operations by a microcomputer (CPU) not shown, and 810 is an operation panel thereof.

The operation panel is equipped with a display, switches, and occasional display means when a l/4 fault occurs.
10, the specimen encapsulation device can be operated and its operation monitored. Incidentally, 820 is a switch box equipped with a button switch for starting the specimen encapsulating device.

[Effects] As explained above, according to the present invention, the slide glass 1 guided in a constant position is
When dynamically supplying the adhesive and enclosing it, the -1- face and the arc-shaped bottom surface of the slide glass are held in an inclined position (yN). A holder H ridge member which can be freely lowered and which is freely pivoted around the holder via a roller bearing in a vortex of a shape corresponding to the upper surface of the holder is placed below the bonding position where the slide glass is guided. By fixing a pendulum body to the holding base and restricting the pendulum body from the side, the rotation of the holding base is limited only to the side where the #i barb angle on the top surface of the holding base decreases. The pedestal support A protrusion is lowered by the cam, and the motor that drives the cam is moved to the predetermined first position on the holding base.
y position, the highest position, and the lowest position for a predetermined period of time, and furthermore, above the bonding position, a holding table is placed above the bonding position.When the cover glass supply member reaches the first y position, the cover glass supplying member is guided and placed on the slide glass. When the holding table reaches a position near the uppermost position, the suppressing member is guided by a device that is eccentric to the side with a higher slope in the plane of the holding table and supplies the cover glass held horizontally to the holding table. Since the cover glass is configured so that it comes into contact with the top surface of the tilted holder in position 1 in the first table above, the edge of the cover glass held horizontally is almost in contact with the top surface of the slide glass in second table above. During this time, it is possible to maintain a good diffusion state of the adhesive liquid and to suppress the accumulation of air bubbles.Furthermore, at the uppermost position, the end of the suppressing member allows the holding table to be held at an eccentric position on the two sides from above the cover glass at an approximately constant level. By applying pressure, air bubbles can be forcibly dissipated, and high-quality encapsulated specimens can be continuously prepared.

Note that by making the regulating member that regulates the pendulum body from the side adjustable, the inclination of the two surfaces of the holding base can be adjusted via the pendulum body according to the bonding conditions.

It goes without saying that the stopping time at the -h Ff position, the uppermost position, and the lowermost imma of the holding table can be made suitable according to the contact conditions by adjusting the timer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the automatic purlin inserting device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the discrimination device of the automatic specimen engraving device as an example, and Fig. 3 is the specimen piece. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an 11-person adhesive device of the automatic specimen device of the present invention, and FIGS. 5(A) and (B) are IE side views thereof. 6(A) to 6(F) are side views of the cam mechanism thereof, and are explanatory diagrams showing the operations in the adhesive sealing device tlf in order, respectively. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100... Shooter, 110... Slide glass, 111A, IIIB... Specimen piece, 200... Transport device, 210... Transport path, 300... Discrimination device, 310... Sensor array, 320... Printed circuit board, 330... Lens box, 340... Floodlight, 341... Slit, 342... Light blocking member, 342A... Vertical plate, 342B...'' Two ports 1i. 343...Lamp, 400...Liquid injection device, 480A...Adhesive stationary, 500...Cover glass sorting and supply device, 510...
Sorter, 511... Sorting RF++, 518... Cover glass, 530... Extraction mechanism, 550... Transfer mechanism, (23) 551.561... Arm, 552... Suction disk, 553.553A...Position, 560...Suppression member, 581A...Support hole, 600...Adhesive device, 601...Case, 601A...Top surface, 602...Bracket, 603...・Spring support is a member, eio...A descending shaft, 611...spline socket, 812...pendulum stand holder. 612A...Groove, 13+3...Slide glass holder. 613A... Anti-slip, 614... Roller bearing, 815... Pendulum body, 616... Fixed bottle, 617... Weight, (24) 618... Angle adjustment member, 619... Spring, 620...iM. 821... Lever, 622... Cam guide, 623... Cam, 624... Motor, 824A... Motor shaft, 631.632... Position detection switch, 1331A
, 832A... Notsuchi, 631B, 632B...
Actuation lever, 633.834...Cam, 635...Switch, 700...Storing device, 710...Product reservoir, 730...Extrusion mechanism, 750...Saucer, 800...Control unit , 810...operation panel, 820...switch box. (25) -177--179- (β6.3 1986 Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd., 1-1 Tanabeshinden, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi Inventor Matsui Takato Hino-shi Tamadaira 7-11-13 ■Department Requester: Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 1-1-181 Tanabeshinden, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City

Claims (1)

[Claims] A slide glass holder has an upper surface and an arc-shaped lower surface that can hold a slide glass in an inclined state, and the slide glass holder is rotatably pivoted in a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the slide glass holder. An elevating member that supports and can be raised and lowered is provided below the predetermined bonding position where the slide glass is guided, a pendulum bar is fixed to the slide glass holder, and a pendulum bar is fixed to the side of the pendulum. A regulating member is disposed to restrict the rotation of the holding table so that it can operate only on the side where the inclination angle of the upper surface of the holding table decreases, and the elevating member is raised and lowered by a cam, and a motor that drives the cam. The slide glass holder is stopped at the first predetermined raised position, the uppermost position, and the lowermost position of the slide glass holder for a predetermined period of time, and further above the adhesive position, the slide glass holder is fixed to the first A cover glass supplying member that supplies a cover glass when rusted is guided to a predetermined -1-y1 position -I- so that the edge of the cover glass is aligned with the edge of the slide glass on the slide glass holding base J-. The cover glass is supplied to the slide glass in a state where it can come into contact with the slide glass, and the slide glass holder is further moved to the vicinity of the uppermost A☆ position.
Then, the cover glass supplying member described in +iif is retracted, and the suppressing member is instead guided to an eccentric position on the higher slope side of the slide glass holder, and the slide glass is removed at the eccentric position. Holding stand -1-
The upper surface of the cover glass is in contact with the suppressing member, and while the tilting body of the slide glass holder is returned to a horizontal position, the cover glass is pressed against the slide glass with approximately the same pressing force. An automatic frame 1f person device characterized by the following.