JPS61115482A - Method for feeding transplantation needle in automatic colony transplantation apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the necessity for the provision of a number of transplantation needles, by unwinding a thin wire from a reel, passing the wire through a heat-sterilization zone, cutting to a definite length, holding with a holding tool and using as a transplantation needle. CONSTITUTION:A definite length of a thin wire 41 is unwound from the reel 42, passed through the heat-sterilization zone 43, clamped with the holding means 46, 47, cut with the cutting device 44 (44a, 44b), and used as a transplantation needle. The thin wire 41 is preferably made of aluminum.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to a method for supplying a transfer needle in an automatic colony transfer device, and particularly to a culture medium of a source petri dish in which colonies of various bacteria are propagated in a mixed state. The present invention relates to a method for supplying a transfer needle (pickup) suitable for continuously transferring colonies to be transferred from a container to a so-called object petri dish prepared for tests and the like.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, new bacterial species are generally treated and cultured through the following nine steps.

These are: - Collection of soil, - Dilution with water, - Planting on agar medium in a culture dish, - Cultivation for a certain period of time in a warmer, (Visual judgment of colonies of various bacteria that have grown on the agar medium, (Collect only a small number of colonies with the desired color using a platinum loop, etc.; ■Transfer to an agar medium in a test petri dish or test tube; Φ) If the bacteria is promising after culturing, repeat various tests and consider.

(ΦThis is done through the steps of application to medicine, brewing and other fields of biotechnology.

In the above process, the visual identification, collection, and transplantation of colonies of specific bacteria that appear promising are performed manually, which is tedious and inefficient work.

Therefore, in order to eliminate these drawbacks, an operating device that can sequentially observe the culture medium in a petri dish using an Therefore, automatic devices have been proposed and developed that process images using a color TV monitor and visually observe the color TV, thereby increasing the efficiency of the work and reducing fatigue.

The automatic pole device developed as this type of automatic device is 6
Colonies of a predetermined color are selected from the culture medium of the source petri dish in which heel fungus colonies are breeding in a mixed state, and the colonies corresponding to the selection are automatically and continuously collected and placed in the medium on the object petri dish. It will be gradually ported to

In such a device, the work up to colony selection must be done manually, but once the colonies have been sorted, a person operates the automatic pole device and performs specified tasks via the operation panel or keyboard. By giving a command, the polar device then automatically collects the selected colonies and automatically transfers them to a culture medium in an object Petri dish or test tube set at another predetermined location. Therefore, there is an advantage that manpower and fatigue can be partially reduced, and the efficiency of the processing can be further improved.

By automating the collection work after sorting in this way, it has become possible to transfer desired colonies of the cultured source petri dish from the source petri dish to the object petri dish within a relatively short period of time. In such extreme work, it is important to prevent contamination by other germs, so all work must be done inside a safety cabinet, and all equipment used must be disinfected and sterilized (including these) in a timely manner. , described and used herein as sterile)
Process.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when transplanting is carried out continuously using an automatic pole section device, the pole section needle using a thin metal wire such as a platinum loop or aluminum wire is not suitable for the pole section processing speed. If sterilization is performed each time a different type of bacteria is used, the sterilization process will be performed many times, resulting in poor processing efficiency and problems in automatic polar section processing.

Therefore, in order to eliminate such problems, the applicant uses a thin metal wire wound around a wire reel to handle such continuous pole processing, and the used part is cut and disposed of. He proposed a method of using a new thin metal wire as a new pickup each time, and this was patented in 1983.
It has been filed as No.-84011.

However, this requires preparing the entire wire reel as a pick amplifier and also extracting and supplying a large number of pickups, which takes time from delivery to the subsequent overheating sterilization of the tip. , the transfer mechanism becomes complicated.

In addition, since it is necessary to superheat sterilize the tip side to be picked up before transplanting, the tip must be superheated before use, and as a result, if overheating is done, heat remains You end up doing it. On the other hand, since some cultured bacteria are sensitive to heat, it is necessary to allow some time for the pick-up to cool down.

For this reason, a certain amount of time is required from the time of extraction to cooling before moving on to the next transfer process, and there is an unresolved problem that the transfer process cannot be started immediately.

[Purpose of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art, and is suitable for eliminating these problems, and is suitable for continuous translocation processing, and allows for immediate translocation processing. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for supplying a pole needle in an automatic colony pole part device that allows the colony to be transferred to a colony automatic pole part device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The method of supplying the pole needles in the colony automatic pole part device of the present invention, which achieves the above object, is to cut a thin metal wire such as aluminum and cut out a new pickup each time for use. Before cutting out the pickup, the tip side to be cut is sterilized by heating while it is connected to the wire reel. It has a thin wire for cutting out a transplant needle with high efficiency, a superheat sterilization section, a cutting section, and a transfer arm for transferring the transplantation needle for transplantation processing, and the tip side of the thin wire is superheat sterilized. After being sterilized in the section, it is set on the transfer arm, and the cut section is cut at the top of the transfer arm by the cutting section, and the cut section is used as a transplantation needle.

[Function] With this configuration, since the pickup is superheated and sterilized before being cut out, it is possible to cut out and supply the pickup in response to continuous pole processing. As a result, new pickups can be supplied quickly, and even if they are overheated and sterilized just before being cut out as pickups, the heat will be absorbed by the wire reel or heat sink before being cut out as pickups. As a result, it will be cooled down in a short time and no heat will remain.

Therefore, the next transfer process can be started quickly, and sterilization suitable for continuous extreme treatment and continuous supply of pick-ups can be realized.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an automatic colony pole device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram corresponding to the plan view showing the internal configuration seen from the front. Figures 3 and 3 are detailed views of the pick-up cut-out supply section, and Figure 4 is a sectional view of the I-lower side thereof. In addition, in each of these figures, the same parts are indicated by the same symbols.

In FIG. 1, ``■'' is a colony automatic pole device, 2 is its transfer mechanism, and 23 is its transfer arm. Further, 3 is an object petri dish supply am, 4 is a source petri dish supply unit, 5 is an object petri dish transfer stage as a table on which the petri dish is set, (6 is a similar source petri dish transfer stage, 7 is an operation panel.

A petri dish loading/unloading mechanism 9 is installed between the source petri dish supply SOS+ and the source petri dish transfer stage 6, and as shown in FIG.
An image processing section 8 including a built-in TV camera is arranged above the source petri dish transfer stage 6. In addition, 8a
is a light source that illuminates the source petri dish.

Here, the video detected by the video processing section 8 is color-processed and displayed on a TV monitor (not shown). As a result, each colony in the medium of the source petri dish 11 is observed with a certain color on the CRT display.

On the other hand, as shown in Figure J.2, a pick-up cutting supply section 24 is disposed at the top of the transfer arm 23, supported by the frame of the transfer mechanism 2, and positioned above the entire surface thereof. In response to the command, a new pickup that has been sterilized by heating is cut out and set in the chuck portions 36 and 37 of the transfer arm 23 (see FIG. 3). On the other hand, a disposal case 25 is provided on the lower side of the transfer arm 23 to dispose of used pickups.

Now, the object petri dish transfer stage 5 and the source petri dish transfer stage 6 are stages movable in the x, y, and z directions, respectively, and in order to move independently in each direction, the x.

A moving mechanism (not shown) that combines a ball screw mechanism and a stepping motor is used in the Y and Z directions, respectively.

The stepping motor is driven to control its movement in each direction, and the rotation amount and direction of the stepping motor are determined according to direction control pulses and drive pulse signals from a control unit (not shown). It will be done. As a result,
The object petri dish transfer stage 5 and the source petri dish transfer stage 6 are moved in a predetermined direction by a predetermined amount toward the 1-1 mark position in response to a control signal.

By the way, the positions shown by the solid line in FIG. 1 are the first set position 5a as the set target position when the object Petri dish transfer stage 5 and the source Petri dish transfer stage 6 are at the extremes in the case of colony transfer processing; It is 6a. Note that an object petri dish 10 and a source petri dish 11 are placed on these stages 5 and 6, respectively.

On the other hand, the positions indicated by dotted lines 5b and 6b are for loading (taking out and setting) each Petri dish 10.11 on stage 5.6 or unloading (recovering the set one)
This is the second set position for

Now, the transfer mechanism 2 here uses a combination of a pair of link mechanisms 21 arranged in parallel and a swinging type eccentric cam 22 to swing a transfer arm 23 consisting of a lever mechanism having a pivot point in the center. The eccentric cam 2
By rotationally driving the second rotating shaft 22a, a pick amplifier 23a made of a thin wire for a pole part set at the tip side of the transfer arm 23 is given a swinging motion. As a result, the pickup 23a moves from the culture medium of the source petri dish 11 placed on the source petri dish transfer stage 6 to the medium of the object petri dish 10 placed on the object petri dish transfer stage 5, and is shaken between them. repeat the movement.

In this way, via the pickup 23a, a predetermined sample located at the position of the pickup 23a, which is one end point of the rocking movement, is transferred from the culture medium of the source petri dish 11 in which colonies of various bacteria are propagating in a mixed state. Color-sorted colonies are automatically and continuously collected one after another and placed in a predetermined culture medium located at the position of the pickup 23a, which is the other end point of the rocking movement, on the object Petri dish 10. It will be done.

By the way, the sauce petri dish 11 is taken out from a predetermined position of the sauce petri dish cartridges 4a, 4b set in the sauce petri dish supply unit 4 by the petri dish loading/unloading mechanism 9, and the source petri dish 11 is It is gripped by the l\nd part 9a and set thereon when the source petri dish transfer stage 6 has moved to the second setting position 6b shown by the dotted line.

The source petri dish transfer stage 6 then moves to the first set position 6a. Note that the recovery is almost the opposite operation.

On the other hand, the object petri dish 10 is supplied by the object petri dish supply mechanism 3, and the handling unit 3
The cartridge is taken out by the operation 3a, returned to its original cartridge position, and recovered. Here, the object petri dish supply mechanism 3 includes four cartridges 32a, 32b, 3 mounted on a rotating disk 31 at 90 degree intervals.
2c.

32d, and in the center of the disc 31, a t6 shear rotor/unload mechanism 33 having a handling aR 33a is fixedly arranged independently of the disc 31.

Note that the cartridge 32b positioned at the ejection position
As shown in FIG. 2, an elevator mechanism 34 for moving the cartridge 32b up and down is arranged corresponding to the position of the bottom of the disk 31 in FIG. Ru.

Next, the pink-up cutting process will be explained according to FIGS. 3 and 4.

The pick-up cut-out supply section 24 is normally waiting at the upper part of the central position of the transfer arm 23, and descends from the upper position in response to a command for the pick-up supply process to move to the third position.
It is located at the current position shown in the figure.

A wire reel 42 in which a fine aluminum wire 41 is wound around a stone piece in front of a support base 40 is set in the pickup cutting supply section 24 .

The thin aluminum wire 41 forms a supply route from the wire reel 42 to the cutting section 44 via the through hole 43a of the superheat sterilization section 43 fixed to the center of the support base 40. And this cutting part 4
A pickup set clamper 45 is disposed between the aluminum thin wire 41 and the superheat sterilization section 43.
is held by its tip.

At the top of the pickup set clamper 45, there is a photo sensor 48 that monitors the supply status of the thin aluminum wire 41.
The heating sterilization section 43 has a built-in heater around the through hole 43a. 43b is its power supply lead wire.

By the way, a chuck part 4 is provided at the tip of the transfer arm 23.
6.47 are provided, and the transfer arm 23 clamps and fixes the pick amplifier 23a cut out from the thin aluminum wire 41 by these chuck parts 46.47. When the predetermined translocation process is completed, these are opened and the used pickup 23a is dropped into the disposal case 25 below in response to a command from the control section.

The pickup supply operation will be explained below.
When the pickup supply command is sent from the control section, the cutting section 44, the big up set clamper 45, and the support stand 40
While the pick-up cutting supply section 24 including the
The chuck portions 46 and 47 of No. 3 open outward to the left and right, respectively, to discard the used pickup 23a.

At this time, at the same time, the blade 44a of the cutting part 44 and its receiving part 4
4b open to the left and right, respectively, to form a passage through which the big up set clamper 45 descends.

Then, the pickup set clamper 45 stops when it descends from the current position to the position A shown by the dotted line, and the chuck parts 46 and 47 of the transfer arm 23, which were open left and right, close, and the tip side of the thin aluminum wire 41 is closed. Grasp and secure.

Next, the blades 44a of the cutting section 44, which were open to the left and right, and the receiving section 44b of the cutting section 44 are closed to enter a cutting operation, and the pin 23a is cut out from the thin aluminum wire 41.

Then, the big up set clamper 45 opens left and right, respectively, as shown by the dotted line B, and the chuck portion 46 of the transfer arm 23 remains in the open state, while the chuck portion 46 of the transfer arm 23 is in the closed state.
47 and the outside of the cutting part 44, and returns to the one-dot line C, and the pink up-set clamper 45 is in the closed state, gripping the thin aluminum wire 41 at the initial position shown by the solid line. Returns to the original initial state.
'1 Next, the pickup supply section 24 ascends back to the original standby position. At this stage, the overheating sterilization unit 43 operates to overheat and sterilize the thin aluminum wire 41 in the through hole 43a for a certain period of time.

The length of the through hole 43a in this case is approximately equal to or longer than the length by which the big up set clamper 45 draws out the thin aluminum wire 41.

As a result, the thin aluminum wire 41 that has been sterilized in advance is always supplied as a pickup, and the thin aluminum wire 41 that has been sterilized in advance is connected to the wire reel 42, so its thermal conductivity Since the temperature is high, the temperature of the thin aluminum wire 41 located inside the through hole 43a decreases in a short period of time, and even if the next pickup supply command is sent from the control unit, it will be in a sufficiently cooled state at that time. become.

Therefore, due to continuous processing, even if it is overheated and sterilized immediately before being cut out as a pick-up,
The heat is absorbed by the wire reel or heat radiator, allowing early cooling and eliminating the need for a special cooling device.

As a result, pickups can be supplied by simply cutting out thin wires in response to continuous pole processing.

As described above, in the embodiment, the thin aluminum wire is pulled out by the big-up set clamper, so that the bending of the thin wire can be corrected and a straight pickup can be supplied.

In addition, the thin wire for cutting out the pickup in the embodiment is not limited to aluminum thin wire, and may be any wire as long as it has good thermal conductivity and is stable to the extreme parts. is wound on a wire reel, but if it is not wound on a wire reel,
It is sufficient if it is brought into contact with or connected to a heat sink.

[Effects of the Invention] As can be understood from the above description, the present invention includes a fine wire cut out from a transfer needle with good conductivity connected to or in contact with a wire reel or a heat sink, a superheat sterilization section, It has a cutting section and a transfer arm that transfers a transfer needle for transplantation processing, and after the tip side of the fine wire is sterilized in a superheating sterilization section, it is set on the transfer arm and transferred by the cutting section. Since the cut portion at the top of the arm is used as a transplantation needle, it is sterilized by heating before being cut out, and a pick-up can be cut out and supplied for continuous pole processing. can.

As a result, new pickups can be supplied early, and even if they are overheated and sterilized just before being cut out as pickups, the heat will be absorbed by the wire reel or heat radiator before being cut out as pickups, resulting in a short period of time. It will cool down in time and no heat will remain.

Therefore, it is possible to proceed to the next pole part treatment quickly, and it is possible to realize sterilization suitable for continuous pole part treatment and continuous supply of the pick-up.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an automatic colony pole device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram corresponding to the plan view showing the internal configuration seen from the front. Figures 3 and 3 are detailed views of the pickup cut-out supply section, and Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along the line I-1. 1 is a colony automatic pole device, 2 is a transfer mechanism, 3 is an object petri dish supply mechanism, 4 is a source petri dish supply unit, 5 is an object petri dish transfer stage, 6 is a source petri dish transfer stage, 7 is an operation panel, and 10 is an object 11 is a source petri dish, 23 is a transfer arm, 23a is a pickup, 24 is a big amplifier cutting supply section, 31 is a disk, 34 is an elevator mechanism, 4
0 is a support stand, 41 is a thin aluminum wire, 42 is a wire reel, and 43 is an overheating sterilization section. 44 is a cutting section, 45 is a big up set clamper, 4
6.47 is the chuck portion of the transfer arm.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A thin wire with good conductivity connected to or in contact with a wire reel or a heat radiator, a superheat sterilization section, a cutting section, and a transfer arm for transferring the transfer needle for transplantation processing. The fine wire has a distal end side sterilized in the superheat sterilization section, and then set in the transfer arm, and is cut at the upper part of the transfer arm by the cutting section, and the cut portion is transferred to the transfer arm. A method for supplying a transplantation needle in an automatic colony transplantation device characterized in that it is used as a needle. (2) A method for supplying a transplantation needle in an automatic colony transplantation device according to claim 1, wherein the thin wire is an aluminum wire wound on a reel.