JPS6166141A - Automatic preparation-sealing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure linear elongation of a sealing agent, by relatively moving a sealing-agent discharging nozzle and a slide glass in the longitudinal direction of the slide glass, and continuing the dropping of the sealing agent from the sealing-agent discharging nozzle. CONSTITUTION:A sealing agent 17 is dropped on or in the vicinity of the sample 3 from a nozzle 11 at the lower tip of a dispenser 9. During this time, the nozzle 11 is moved from a point (a) to a point (b) by a distance l in the longitudinal direction of a slide glass 1 in the direction of an arrow A. The points (a) and (b) correspond to the positions of both ends of a cover glass 49, whose length is about l, when the glass is mounted and the sample 3 is located between the points (a) and (b). The nozzle 11 starts at the point (a) or at a position to the left of (a), starts the discharge of the sealing agent 17 at the point (a), continues the dropping up to the point (b) and stops at the point (b) or at a position right to (b). A control device 13 controls start and stop of the dispenser 9, continuation of movement, start of discharge of the sealing agent 17 at the point (a), stop of dropping at the point (b) and continuation of dropping during this period.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an apparatus that automatically discharges a mounting medium linearly onto the specimen surface of a slide glass when preparing a specimen for a microscope.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a mounting medium discharging device in an apparatus for automatically preparing microscopic specimens drips the mounting medium onto the specimen surface of a slide glass in a generally rounded mass.

This conventional method is difficult to use when the material has an uneven surface and uneven thickness, such as cytodiagnosis, or when the viscosity of the mounting medium is high, because the mounting medium spreads over the entire surface of the cover glass. Failures such as insufficient encapsulation may occur. One way to eliminate this inconvenience is to spread the mounting medium in a thin line over or near the sample when mounting the sample manually so that it covers the entire surface of the cover glass. It is known that it can be done.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The purpose of this invention is to provide an automatic device for linearly spreading mounting medium onto a slide glass in an automatic slide coverslipper, even when the surface of the sample is uneven and the thickness is not uniform, or when the mounting medium has a high viscosity. .

[Failure to solve the problem]

This invention uses an automatic slide coverslipper to move a mounting medium dispensing nozzle onto a slide glass along its long axis, and at the same time move the mounting medium dispensing nozzle over the slide glass along its long axis. The mounting medium was dripped over an area comparable to the measured length of the coverslip.

[For production]

Since the nozzle is moved while dropping the mounting medium over the range of the sample and the range of the cover glass, during this time the mounting medium is spread linearly over the width of the cover glass that covers the top of or near the sample. can.

[Example 1] FIG. 1 shows the first example, in which the mounting medium 17 is dropped onto or near the sample 3 from the nozzle 11 at the lower tip of the dispenser 9, while the nozzle 11 is placed on the slide glass 1. Move a distance t in the longitudinal direction from point a to point b in the direction of arrow A. Point a and point b correspond to the positions where both ends of the cover glass 49 having a length of approximately t are located when the sample 3 exists between them and a cover glass 49 having a length of approximately t is placed.

The nozzle 11 starts at or to the right of point a, and
The discharging of the mounting medium 17 is started at the point, the dropping continues until the point b, and the nozzle 11 is stopped at the point b or a position to the left of it.

The control device 13 controls the starting and stopping of the dispenser 9 and the continuation of movement during this time, the start of discharging the mounting medium 17 at point a, the stoppage of dropping at point b, and the continuation of dropping during this time.

The slide glass 1 and the nozzle 11 may be moved relative to each other, and the support base 7 may be moved in the direction of arrow B to sweep between points a and b.

A specific mechanism for supporting and driving the dispenser 9 in the direction of the arrow A or moving the support base 7 in the direction of the arrow B can be found in known techniques.

Also, the near compressor 23, reculator 19, container 1
5, mounting medium 17, dispenser 9, dispenser tube 27 connecting these, first air tube 29,
The nozzle 11 is connected by a system consisting of a second air tube 31.
The technique of discharging and dropping the mounting medium 17 from the dispenser 9 is known, and the controller 13 controls the dispenser 9 via the modular cord
There is also a known technique for controlling the flow and stoppage of the mounting medium 17 by opening and closing a valve inside.

The continuous ejection of the mounting medium 17 includes not only continuous ejection without a break, but also continuous ejection of the mounting medium 17 in a so-called raindrop-like manner, with repeated interruptions.

[Embodiment 2] Figure 2 shows the second embodiment, which was published in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-61.
This invention was implemented based on the embodiment of the invention disclosed in Publication No. 868.

The dispenser 9 is fixed to a suction head base 43 via a relay structure 41. After holding the slide glass 1 between the two fingers 39 and maintaining it horizontally, the suction head base 43
rotates around the vertical axis 2 in the direction of the arrow. At the start of this rotation or thereafter, the discharging of the mounting medium 17 from the nozzle 11 onto the slide glass 1 is started, and the discharging of the mounting medium 17 is terminated at the point where the mounting medium 17 continues downward while rotating in a small angle range. The suction head 45 continues to rotate while adsorbing the cover glass 49, rotates approximately 90 degrees, transfers the cover glass 49 above the slide glass 1, and stops at a place where the cover glass 49 faces parallel to each other.

The pair of forks 35 move independently of the dispenser 9, the relay structure 41, and the suction head base 43, and support the slide glass 1 from below (the state shown in FIG. 2 is this case). Preparation is made for mounting the cover glass 49.

Strictly speaking, the mounting medium 5 extending over the slide glass 1 traces an arcuate trajectory as shown in FIG. 3. In practice, a dripping trajectory that is close to a straight line can be obtained depending on the relationship between the rotation angle (rotation angle between Points a and b corresponding to both ends of the cover glass 49 are set so that the length t of the cover glass 49 is taken not along an arcuate trajectory but along the length of the slide glass 1 (the length along the longitudinal direction of the slide glass 1). Set the location. In this embodiment as well, the mounting medium 17 may be continuously dripped in a raindrop-like manner intermittently and repeatedly.

In this embodiment, there is a process of taking out the cover glass 49 (the state shown in FIG. 2) and then transferring it above the slide glass 1, and prior to the end of that process, it is sealed on the surface of the slide glass 10. On the premise that there is a timing for discharging the agent 17, the circuit/program of the control device 7 is configured to use part of the trajectory drawn by the nozzle 11 to keep the encapsulant control valve in the dispenser 9 open during this period. Set. The feature is that the process for dropping the mounting medium 17 is not provided separately, but is included in the rotation process for transferring the cover glass 49.

〔Effect of the invention〕

A device that automatically mounts a sample d - The machine can spread the mounting medium over the entire area of the cover glass on or near the sample, so it can be used even if the surface is uneven, rough, or uneven in thickness. Even when the viscosity of the sample or mounting medium is high, when a cover glass is placed, the mounting medium can permeate the entire surface of the cover glass, allowing complete mounting. Since it is realized as an automatic machine, there are no variations in finished quality, and the work is safe because there is no need for human intervention.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 are for explaining the invention in detail. The meanings of the main symbols in each figure are as follows. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Slide glass 3...Sample 5...Extended mounting medium 7...Slide glass support stand 9...Dispenser 11...Nozzle 13...Control device
15... Mounting medium container 17... Mounting medium
19...Regulator 21...Regulation knob 23...Near compressor 25...Modular cord 27...Dispenser tube 29...First air tube 31...Second air tube 33...Third air tube 35...2 forks 37...Finger base 39...2 fingers 41...relay structure 43...Suction head base 4
5... Suction head 47... Suppression rod 49... Cover glass. 9Q Procedural amendment Showa care year/θ month 2λ day

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an automatic slide coverslipping device, the mounting medium is continuously dripped from the mounting medium discharging nozzle while the mounting medium discharging nozzle and the slide glass move relative to each other along the longitudinal direction of the slide glass. An automatic slide enclosing device characterized in that: 2. The automatic slide enclosing device according to claim 1, wherein the mounting medium discharge nozzle is configured to move along an arc locus. 3. The automatic slide enclosing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mounting medium discharge nozzle is moved by rotating coaxially with the cover glass transfer means.