JPS59157532A - Automatic sample sealing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To supply cover glass of size corresponding to the size of a sample automatically by ANDing signal data from a signal conversion processing means on detecting slide glass and discriminates on the size of the sample. CONSTITUTION:A signal from a sensor array 310 is passed through an A/D converter 322 and stored in a memory 323. A slide glass sensor 250A is provided slightly at the upstream side of a slit 341 and supplies a detection signal to a CPU324 through an input/output part 325 and further to a converter 322 every time the slide glass 110 is conveyed. Consequently, the CPU324 stores the A/D- converted signal in the memory 323 every time the detection signal is inputted, and AND operation is performed on the basis of those signal data to discriminate on the size of the sample 111. Consequently, liquid dispensing operation corresponding to the size of the sample 111 is performed through an actuator 401 and cover glass corresponding to the size of the sample 11 is drawn out by a cover glass sorting and supplying device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device, and more particularly to a discriminating device that detects and discriminates the size of a specimen attached to a glass slide conveyed by a conveying device. The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device which has a discriminating device and supplies a signal for performing an adhesive liquid processing operation and a cover glass sorting and supplying operation based on the signal from the discriminating device.

(Prior art and its problems) In general, tissue specimens for microscopy used for cell tissue examination etc. are first dehydrated and sliced, then the thin sections of the specimen are attached onto glass slides and then stained. done,
Then, they are stored in a xylene solution tank, etc., and then they are pulled out of the tank and sealed one by one on a slide glass using adhesive and a cover glass.

However, conventionally, most of these steps have been performed manually. In recent years, efforts have been made to automate each of these processing steps, but in particular, fully automated methods for mounting specimens attached to glass slides are rare, and the newly developed method However, there are still various problems such as the tendency for air bubbles to remain.

(Objective of the Invention) The object of the present invention is to fully automate such a specimen enclosing device, and to determine the size of the specimen on the slide glass conveyed on the conveyance path, and to cover the specimen with the corresponding size. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic specimen enclosing device capable of automatically supplying glass.

(Summary of the Invention) That is, the present invention includes a slide glass detection means for detecting a slide glass being conveyed, and a slide glass detection means installed downstream of the detection means for scanning the slide glass and detecting a specimen on the slide glass. an optical means, a signal conversion processing means for a sample detection signal obtained from the optical means, a storage means for signal data obtained from the signal conversion processing means, and a logical sum of the signal data stored in the storage means. and a central processing unit that determines the size of the specimen on the slide glass, and when the detection signal from the slide glass detection means is input to the central processing unit, the specimen detection signal obtained from the optical means is inputted to the central processing unit. is converted into signal data by the signal conversion processing means and stored in the storage means, the central processing unit calculates the logical sum of the signal data, and the size of the specimen on the slide glass is determined by the logical sum. This feature is characterized in that it is designed to determine the

(Embodiment of the Invention) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the configuration of the automatic specimen enclosing device of the present invention.

Here, 100 is a slide glass shooter that supplies slide glasses/10 one by one to the conveying device 200 at predetermined time intervals, and the slide glasses/10 fed from the chute 10θ are transported by the conveying device θO. It is transported from the right side to the left side.

3θO is a discriminating device, and the slide glass/10 on the transport device λθθ is first subjected to discrimination of the size of the specimen attached to its upper surface by this discriminating device 30θ. Next, the slide glass/10 whose size of the specimen has been detected by the discrimination device 3θ0 is sent to the liquid-based device 1Ioo, where adhesive liquid is applied to the slide glass/10 according to the size of the specimen.
0.

SOO is a cover glass sorting and supplying device. si.

The sorting device 510 has a sorting section j/l in which cover glasses of a plurality of types, four different sizes in this example are stacked up and down, and the sorting device 510 has a section j/l, and the sorting device 3
This sorting is performed by the discrimination signal obtained through 0θ.
/ can selectively pull out only one cover glass of a size corresponding to the size of the specimen by the extracting mechanism S30. The cover glass that is further pulled out is replaced by the SS mechanism.
After the adhesive liquid has been dripped, the adhesive is guided to the scraper material on the scoop, which has been conveyed to the bonding position.

Above the slide glass/10 at this bonding position, there is provided a bonding device Aθ0 that moves up and down at appropriate timing to bond the slide glass/10 and (5) the cover glass. Therefore, the slide glass//θ is the adhesive device boo.
After the cover glass is placed on the pedestal, the cover glass is gently dropped from above and a slight pressing force is applied to complete the adhesive encapsulation.

Slide glass/10 with completed sealing is stored in storage device 7θO
The products are extruded one after another into the product section 710. When a predetermined number of sealed glass slides/10 accumulate in the product tray 710 (10 in this example), they are automatically pushed out by the extrusion mechanism 73θ to the tray 7!0, resulting in a total of tio The slide glass packaging of one gigantic slide is completed with the product in the tray.

Furthermore, goo is a control unit that controls a series of these enclosing operations using a microcomputer (CPU), and tr
io is its operation board. The operation panel gio is provided with a display, switches, various display means for when an abnormality occurs, etc., and the enclosing device can be operated and its operation can be monitored via the operation panel gio. g and 2θ are switch boxes equipped with button switches for starting and stopping the enclosing device.

Note that the control unit goo includes a discrimination device 30 as described later.
A mechanism is incorporated that performs calculations based on signals obtained from 00, determines the size of the sample, and supplies signals to actuators (not shown) that operate the liquid device 00 and the sorter 310.

Next, the configuration of the discrimination device 3θθ will be further explained with reference to FIG. Here, 310 is a sensor array in which a plurality of photosensors are arranged, and 320 is a printed circuit board connected to the sensor group.

These sensor array 310 and printed circuit board 320
and the lens box 330 in which the lens assembly is built-in are both fixed above the transport device 200, and the lower transport path,
210 is set toward the top.

3tIOj, lA light projection box provided on the bottom side of the transport path 2/θ.

The light projection box 3'IO has a slit 3 on the side in contact with the transmission path 210.
'l/, and further s1) tsu) At the bottom position directly below J'l/, there are 3 light shielding members with 3 vertical plates A, and vertical plates 34' and 2A are placed in front and behind. A line filament lamp 3 and 3 are provided.

Therefore, this vertical plate 34I-, lA surin) 31
The upper surface 341 facing 1/: lf3 is finished in black and is designed to absorb and reflect light. When looking up inside the light box 3tθ, this black upper surface 31
Since the configuration is such that the chisel 1B is visible and the lamps 3'1.3 are not visible, each lamp 3 is
The light projected directly upward from 0 is limited by the light blocking members 3'l, t and the slit 3'l/, and is not received by the sensor group of the sensor array 3IO via the lens box 330.

Therefore, now the slide glass/10 is on the conveyance path 21.
If the specimen is transported after being cured to zero, and there is no specimen on the top surface, none of the sensors in the sensor array 310 will detect light due to the transparent nature of the glass.

However, if there are specimen pieces ///A and ///B on the slide glass /10 as shown in FIG.
When the slide glass /10 passes over the slit 3111, the lamp 34A is emitted from the areas S/ and S2 to which these specimen pieces ///A and ///B are attached.
Scattered light is generated by receiving the light of 3.

This scattered light is received by the sensor disposed in this part of the sensor array 310 via the lens group, so that the entire area to which the specimen pieces ///A and ///B are attached is detected. range, i.e. specimen piece in the longitudinal direction of slide glass /10 ///A and ///
The range lengths S/ and S2 to which B is attached and the limit length S3 that includes these are detected. Below, the signal processing for detecting the size of such a specimen is shown in Fig. The circuit will be explained.

Here, 3/ is an amplifier that amplifies the signal from the sensor array 370, and 3 is an A/D converter that converts the analog signal from the amplifier 32/ into a digital signal. A/
The D-converted signal is stored in memory 3/3. These signal data are processed by the central processing unit (
Although the data is processed by the CPU) 3FI, the data does not go through the input/output unit 3S (A//D (9)). can be transferred at high speed.

xsol is a slide glass sensor that detects slide glass/10. The arrow indicates the direction in which the slide glass/10 is conveyed on the conveyance path Kono0, but the sensor 2j
The TOA is installed slightly upstream of the slide glass/10 (3'l/
Furthermore, the signal is supplied to 32 A/D converters.

Therefore, every time a detection signal is input, the CPU 3111 converts the signal into three A/D converters and stores it in the memory 32.
3 and performs logical operations based on these signal data to determine the size of the specimen /// on the slide glass /10.

Furthermore, here, for example, '101 is an actuator that operates the liquid device DA θO, Sθ/ is an actuator that operates the cover glass sorting and supplying device SOO, and the size of the specimen /// is determined as described above. and specimen//
A liquid-related operation corresponding to the size of the specimen is performed via the ac (10) tuator θ, and a cover glass sorting and supplying device 50θ is caused to perform an operation of pulling out a cover glass according to the size of the specimen ///. be able to.

Next, the procedure for determining the size of the specimen /// using Figs. S - G) will be explained.

Generally, as shown in FIG.
/ is provided, and the specimen number etc. is written in this 70 stroke section /l/. Therefore, in this example, this frost part/
By scanning and detecting 2/ with the sensor array 310, the discrimination device 300 can also detect that the lamp 3 is reliably lit. Further, in the case where the lamp 3 does not have such a frost portion 12/, the presence or absence of an abnormality in the lamp 3 can be detected by providing a portion at the end to replace the frost portion 12/.

Figs. S (A) to (2) show the case where such frost portions/2 are provided on the slide glass I10.

Now, in FIG. S (A), it is assumed that the slide glass //θ is being conveyed on the conveyance path 210 in the direction of arrow x, and at this time, the slide glass It is assumed that the scanning lines when 110+ are sequentially scanned are 3//A to 3//F.

In this example, it is assumed that four scanning lines 3// are obtained in this way, but these scanning lines, ? The greater the number of //, the higher the resolution of detection in the transport direction.

Furthermore, where/, 23 indicates the measuring range on the slide glass /10, which in this example is equal to the length of the slide glass I10. However, the range of lever 123
The area between the bits is divided into detection units of 2 day bits, and the value signal from each bit is stored in the memory 32. ? Enter. In addition,
Here again, it goes without saying that it is more effective to further subdivide the detection unit in order to improve the resolution in the scanning direction.

In addition, within this measurement range 7.23, signals for each bit are sent to the sensor array 310 through the slit 311/ by the scanning lines J//A to 3//F during the process of being conveyed in the direction of the frost section x. Assuming that memory 3.
The signal data read out on each scanning line 7//A to 3//F via 23 appears as waveforms shown in FIG. 5 [F]) to (G).

Therefore, the logical sum of the waveforms obtained in this way within the effective measurement range /2'l is stored in the memory 3 and the CPU 3.
A waveform as shown in FIG. 5(6) can be obtained by calculating the waveform as shown in FIG. Note that in this example, the sample /// is separated into two bodies, ///A and ///B, so the two pulses ///
, 25A and/, 2! rB is obtained, but the pulse/25
The length l obtained from the rising edge of A and the falling edge of pulse/λjB is regarded as the size of one sample.

Based on this determination of the size of the sample ///, a cover glass of the corresponding size is selected, and a selection signal is sent from the CPU 32Q to the input/output unit 32! as shown in FIG.
Next, a method for obtaining a cover glass selection signal will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6(4) to (13).

FIG. 6(4) is a waveform diagram of the logical sum using the sample /// shown in FIG. S(G). For the effective measurement range/distance, the center line/27 of this pulse width is set as shown in FIG. 6 [F]). Furthermore, in FIG. 6 ((E) to (G)), /, 2gA to /, and 2gD are signals each having a pulse width that matches the dimensions of the cover glass to be prepared,
In this example, four types of cover glasses with these dimensions are used as the first
It is stored in the cover glass sorter sio shown in the figure. Note that the centers of the pulse widths of these pulse signals /2tA to /2tA and 2tD are all aligned with the center line 1.27.

Therefore, if a logical sum signal as shown in Figure 6 ■ is obtained for the sample ///, the CPU 3 will convert the sample size l obtained from this signal into a pulse signal /yugA. , /:1KB, /:1gO and lugD.

In this example, since the pulse signal i2ga is larger than the pulse width /2A corresponding to the size of the specimen ///, the cover (/l) - glass corresponding to this pulse signal /2 EC is selected. The selection signal is sent to the CPU 321I to
is supplied from the input/output section 325 to the actuator tags θl and 30/.

Therefore, in the liquid device 1Ioo, the actuator '10/
A liquid operation corresponding to the selected cover glass is performed by this selection signal via the cover glass sorting and supplying device 5.
At step 00, the selected cover glass is supplied to the sorter 510 via the actuator 50/.

In addition, in the above explanation, even if the specimen piece is separated into two parts ///A and ///f3, a single cover glass is used to cover them.
According to the present invention, when the specimen /// is separated in this way, the separated specimen pieces ///A and ///B
Of course, it is also possible to supply a cover glass of a size corresponding to each of the above, and to perform additional liquid-based work at the corresponding position prior to supply.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, a slide glass detection means is provided for detecting that a slide glass has been conveyed with respect to a slide glass conveyed by a conveyance device, and this detection An optical means for optically scanning and detecting the specimen position on the slide glass is provided downstream of the means, and when there is a specimen position detection signal from the optical means, it is inputted to an A/D converter and converted into a signal. is sequentially stored in the storage means, and when a slide glass is detected by the slide glass detection means, the sample position detection signal is A/D converted and stored in the storage means, and the data stored in the storage means is further stored. Since the data is read out, the CPU calculates the logical sum, and the sample size is determined from the logical sum of this data, it is possible to select a cover glass corresponding to the sample size based on this judgment. As a result, there is no need to uniformly supply expensive cover glasses, which not only contributes to reducing the cost of specimen enclosing work, but also enables smooth and complete automation of such work.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the automatic specimen enclosing device of the present invention, FIG. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a signal processing circuit that detects the size of a specimen through the discrimination device, and FIG. S (4) shows the imaging section of the discrimination device. An explanatory diagram showing, as an example, a state in which scanning is performed with Figure S ~
Figure 6 (g) is a waveform diagram of the logical sum of the data obtained from (g).
B) is a waveform diagram showing the range to be measured and its center line for the waveform diagram of the logical sum, and Figures (0) to (g) are for selecting a cover glass from the waveform of the logical sum. FIG. 6 is a waveform diagram showing four types of set comparison signals as examples. 100... Shooter, /10... Slide glass, ///... Specimen, ///A, ///B... Specimen piece, 12/... Frost part, (/7) / U3...Measurement range, /Nige...Effective range, /, 23-A, /2SB...Order pulse, /Colo...Sample size, l Core...Center line, /2th ~/2gD...signal, 200...conveying device, λ/θ...conveying path, koSθA...sensor, 30θ...discrimination device, 31θ...sensor array, 3//, , ? //A~3//F...scanning line, 32
0...Printed circuit board, 3 things, amplifier 1,? Here...A/D converter, 3 pieces 3...memory, 3.2 da...CPU. 3 pieces 5...input/output section, 330 lens box, 3g 0...light projection box, (7g) 3'l/...slit, 3 pieces...light shielding member, 3g 2A... ...Vertical plate, 3: lf3...Top surface, 31I3-...Slit, S/, S, 2, S3...Length, ttoo--
・Liquid device, KoDI,! ;0/... actuator. jθθ...Cover glass sorting and supply device, 310...
Sorter, 5/l...Separation is done by division. S3θ...Extraction mechanism, sso...Transfer mechanism, too...Adhesive device, too...Storage device, Ri lθ...Product reservoir, Ri30...Extrusion mechanism, qso...Success tray, too...control unit, glo...operation panel, g20...switch box. Patent applicant: Sankyo Co., Ltd. Applicant: Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. - Kazuichi Kazuo <COO Kichiji Kuchida = = Nie Continued on page 10 Inventor: Toshio Sato, Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd., 1-1 Tanabe Shinden, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Japan 0 Inventor: Takato Matsui, Tama, Hino City 07-11-13 Filed by: Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. 1-1 Tanabeshinden, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City

Claims (1)

[Claims] A slide glass detection means for detecting a slide glass being conveyed; an optical means disposed downstream of the detection means for scanning the slide glass to detect a specimen on the slide glass; a signal conversion processing means for the sample detection signal obtained from the signal conversion processing means, a storage means for the signal data obtained from the signal conversion processing means, and a logical sum of the signal data stored in the storage means to calculate the size of the specimen on the slide glass. When the detection signal from the slide glass detection means is input to the central processing unit, the sample detection signal obtained from the optical means is converted into a signal by the signal conversion processing means. The signal data is converted into data and stored in the storage means, the central processing unit calculates a logical sum of the signal data, and the size of the specimen on the slide glass is determined from the logical sum. Automatic specimen enclosing device.