JPS62267642A - Petri dish handling system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently handle many Petri dishes by placing a magazine two- dimensionally, positioning a Petri dish handling arm in the upper side of one line of them, discharging the Petri dish from the upper part of the magazine or containing it. CONSTITUTION:As for an automatic colony transplanting device 1, a carrying conveyor line 20 of an object Petri dish and a carrying conveyor line 30 of a source Petri dish are placed in parallel. In an object Petri dish supply part 22, plural magazines 21, 21... are arranged two-dimensionally, and Petri dishes 23 which have been accumulated therein are pushed up simultaneously as to its one horizontal line by an elevator mechanism which is placed in the bottom part of the magazine 21. A handling arm 10 holds the Petri dish which is discharged to its upper part from at least one of the magazines of one line, which are positioned under said arm, or discharged the Petri dish to the upper part of one magazine of them in order to contain the Petri dish in at least one of said magazines of one line.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Applications] This invention relates to a petri dish handling system, and more particularly, to a petri dish handling system for an automatic colony transplantation device that uses thousands or even tens of thousands of dishes. Regarding the handling system.

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

These are (1) soil collection, (2) dilution with water, and (3)
) Planting on an agar medium in a culture dish, (4) Cultivating for a certain period of time in a heat insulator, (5) Visually determining the colonies of various bacteria that have grown on the agar medium, (6) Selecting only the desired colonies. Collecting with a platinum loop, (7) transplanting a test petri dish or test tube onto an agar medium, (8) culturing and repeating various tests if the bacteria is promising, (9) medicine, brewing.

A step will be taken to apply it to other fields of biotechnology.

In the following process, the visual identification, collection, and transplantation of colonies of specific bacteria that seemed promising were performed manually, which was a tedious and inefficient process. Therefore, in order to eliminate these drawbacks, we have developed an operation system that allows sequential observation of the culture medium in a petri dish using an X-Y stage, or a method that allows the culture medium in a culture dish to be observed directly with the naked eye or through a microscope. Instead, 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 colony transplantation device developed as this type of automatic device selects predetermined colonies from the culture medium of a source petri dish in which various colonies are propagating in a mixed state, and automatically selects colonies according to the selection. , which are collected one after another and transplanted one after another into a medium on an object (culture) Petri dish.

In such Wllff, the work up to colony selection is done manually, but at the stage of selection, a person operates the automatic transplantation means and gives predetermined commands via its operation panel or keyboard. Thereafter, the transplantation device automatically collects the selected colonies and automatically transplants them to an object petri dish placed at another predetermined location. Therefore, there is an advantage that the manpower and fatigue can be reduced, albeit partially, and that the efficiency of the processing can be improved.

By automating the collection work after sorting in this way, it has become possible to transplant cultured samples from a source petri dish to an object petri dish within a relatively short time.

However, this type of transplantation typically involves using hundreds to thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of petri dishes. Therefore,
In automatic colony transplanting work using an automatic colony transplanting device, the efficiency of the transplanting work itself is greatly influenced by how efficiently this large number of petri dishes are handled. Therefore, in order to handle a large number of petri dishes, a magazine (or petri dish cartridge, hereinafter referred to as a petri dish magazine) that stores a large number of petri dishes is used.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, even if a magazine is used to process many petri dishes, there is a limit to the number of petri dishes that can be stored in one magazine, and the number of petri dishes that can be stored in one magazine is limited to several thousand or more. When handling petri dishes, it is inefficient to set many magazines one by one.

Therefore, it is conceivable to use a plurality of magazines at the same time, but simply providing a plurality of magazines has the drawback that the entire automatic colony transplantation device becomes large. Furthermore, as the number of magazines increases, it becomes necessary for the operator to manage the status of each magazine.

[An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, and to solve the problems of the prior art, in an automatic colony transplanting apparatus that uses thousands or tens of thousands of petri dishes. To provide a petri dish handling system that can efficiently handle a large number of petri dishes in a small space.

[Means for Solving the Problems] As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides two-dimensionally arranged magazines for depositing a plurality of petri dishes, and a magazine that corresponds to a certain row of the magazines. , and a handling arm that is positioned at the top and grips and transfers the petri dish, and the handling arm is
Grip a Petri dish to be ejected from at least one of the magazines in the row below to the upper part of the magazine, or hold the Petri dish in the upper part of the magazine in order to store the Petri dishes in one of the magazines in the row. The idea is to release a petri dish.

[Operation: In this way, the magazines are arranged two-dimensionally, and the petri dish handling arm is positioned on the -1- side of the column -, so that the petri dishes are ejected or stored from the top of the magazine. This increases the efficiency of handling a large number of petri dishes (
It can be handled easily and takes up little space.

Additionally, since the structure is such that petri dishes are inserted and removed from the top of the magazine, the internal condition of the magazine can be easily checked.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the interior of an automatic colony transplantation device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, and FIG.
A detailed view of the handling arm, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the petri dish handling process, and FIG. 5 is an external view of the magazine.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an automatic colony transplantation apparatus, in which a conveyor line 20 for carrying object petri dishes and a conveyor line 30 for carrying source petri dishes are arranged in parallel and separated by a predetermined interval. An object petri dish supply section 22 is disposed at an appropriate position on the 1-stream side of the transport conveyor line 20, and the object petri dish supply section 22 includes a plurality of magazines 21. 21. -... is 2
Petri dishes 23 arranged in a dimension and deposited there
are simultaneously pushed up in a horizontal row by an elevator mechanism disposed at the bottom of the magazine 21 by an amount corresponding to the thickness of the Petri dish.

As a result, a handling arm 10 (with a row of petri dishes protruding from the top) is placed at the top.

Not shown in FIG. (see FIG. 2), and are conveyed onto the conveyor line 20.

Similarly, the source petri dish conveyor line 30]
- A source petri dish supply section 32 is arranged at an appropriate position on the flow side, and the source petri dish supply section 32 includes a plurality of magazines 21.21. . . . are similarly arranged two-dimensionally, and the source petri dishes 24 deposited there are simultaneously pushed in a horizontal row by an amount corresponding to the thickness of the petri dishes by an elevator mechanism placed at the bottom of the magazine 21. I'm going to be dumped.

As a result, the handling arm 10 has one row of Petri dishes protruding from the Lmost part arranged in the 1U part, as described above.
(see FIG. 2), and are transported to the transport conveyor line 301-.

Note that here, one row of source petri dishes is taken out, but if the petri dishes are stored in only one of the magazines in one row, only one of the dishes can be taken out onto the conveyor line 30. You can do it like this. This also applies to the object Petri dish side.

As shown in FIG. 1, the object petri dish 23 on the conveyor line 20 is moved forward on the driven conveyor line 20 and reaches the surface position of the petri dish handling section 40a.

Similarly, the source petri dish 2 on the conveyor line 30
4 is also flown forward on the transport conveyor line 30 driven by Germany, and reaches the surface position 11: of the petri dish handling section 40b. Then, each of the sauce dishes is held in place by a Petri dish clamping means (not shown) and fixed at 1-11, and is removed by a Petri dish attachment/detachment stage (not shown), and the source Petri dish 24 with its lid in an inverted state is The colony transplant unit 40 transfers predetermined colonies selected from the
The work of transplanting the object to the object petri dish 23, which is located directly opposite to the object petri dish 23 and whose lid has been removed, is performed.

In addition, 43 is a moving mechanism of the transplant arm arranged at the base of the colony transplant means 40.

Object petri dish 23 after transplantation is a petri dish, h
? +1 ripening is applied from f-1000 means. Thereafter, the pressing force applied to the petri dish clamp holding stage f is released, and the conveyor is driven to advance the petri dish that has been transplanted and discharged from the transplanting work section.

tJl' The petri dishes that are taken out move forward one by one on the conveyor line (.

Note that 25 is a box for transplant needles, and the transplant needle 25 is attached to the tip of the transplant arm of the colony transplant means 40.

Now, similarly to the above-described downstream flow, a transplanted object petri dish storage section 50 is disposed at an appropriate position on the downstream side of the object petri dish conveyor line 20. This, like the -L flow side, has a two-dimensional array of magazines 21. When a predetermined number of petri dishes are accumulated on the conveyor line at a position facing the object petri dish storage section 50, the petri dishes are stored in the magazine 21 of the transplanted object petri dish storage section 50 by the handling arm 1o.

Similarly, the source petri dish 24 after the transplantation is also stoned again by the petri dish lid attaching/detaching means, and then the pressing force applied to the petri dish clamping and holding means is released, and the conveyor is driven to remove the stones from which the transplantation has been completed. Move forward and eject υ[ from the transplanting work area.

The discharged petri dish is on the conveyor line! − flows forward in sequence.

Then, place the object petri dish storage section 50 at an appropriate position on the downstream side of the source petri dish conveyor line 30.
A used sauce petri dish storage unit 80 having a two-dimensional array of magazines 21 similar to the above is provided.

Now, as shown in FIG. 2, a camera 70 is arranged in a part of the petri dish handling section 40b of the source petri dish 24, and a CRT display 71 is installed next to it. Then, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the magazines 21 shown in FIG. 5 are joined by four ice cubes to form a row, and these are arranged in four rows in a two-dimensional arrangement.

As shown in FIG. 5, each magazine 21 has an upper frame 2 having a rectangular shape and a lower frame 3 having a similar square shape and a corresponding size. Between the two-part frame 2 and the F-part frame 3, four pipe members 4 of equal length are passed at each of the four corners of the frame.

The upper frame 2 is provided with an opening 1 part 5 in its center that accommodates a petri dish that is slightly larger than the outer diameter of the petri dish to be stored (the outer diameter dimension including the lid of the petri dish). The opening 5 forms an opening with a notch 6 continuous thereto. Furthermore, a taper 5a is formed around the opening 5 and is open on the 1- side, making it easy to take in and take out petri dishes.

Further, the lower frame 3 on the lower side is also provided with an opening 7 in the center thereof which has a smaller diameter than the outer diameter of the petri dish to be stored (the outer diameter of the main body of the petri dish).
The portion 7 also forms an opening with a notch 8 continuous thereto. Moreover, this notch 8 is provided in the opposite direction to the notch 8, thereby improving strength and precision.

On the other hand, the tops of the four pipe members 4, 4.4.4 are open [
The diameter becomes smaller successively so as to continue to the lower side 5b of the first part 5.

The petri dishes stored in the configuration described below can be stacked without any gaps, and the inner part of the outer periphery of the four-piece wooden pipe member (the outer periphery part) contacts the outside of the petri dish in a circular contact form close to point contact. , serves as a guide for storing the Petri dish, and the Petri dish is stored in the inner space surrounded by these four pipe members.

In this case, the petri dish stored is less likely to be damaged.
The pipe member is precisely positioned on the outer periphery of the pipe member and can be stored and discharged. Moreover, the taper 5a and the pipe member 4
It is very easy to take it in and take it out because of its outer periphery.

Next, handling of the petri dish will be explained according to FIGS. 3 and 4.

As shown in Figure 3, there are four magazines in one row (of which (
A plurality of object Petri dishes 23, 23 (or source Petri dishes 24, 24; hereafter Petri dishes 23 will be used to represent these Petri dishes) are piled up in a Petri dish 23.
and are simultaneously raised or lowered by the elevator mechanism 13 shown in FIG.

The handling arm 10 is connected to this elevator mechanism 1■1
4 petri dishes piled up in 1 part of 3 23° 23.2
It is provided with a gripping arm 14 which is disposed on the 1 side of 3.23 and which grips and transfers the petri dish 23 on both sides.

When the gripping arms 14 are holding the petri dish 23, the first two gripping arms 14 are arranged substantially parallel to each other with an interval slightly larger than the size of the petri dish 23. Second gripping frame 15.1E
i and a sliding shaft 17.1 which passes through these gripping frames 15.16 and allows them to slide relative to each other.
7, a gap expanding mechanism 18, 18 provided across the rack at both ends of these gripping frames 15, 16, and a support frame 11. Here is the gap expansion mechanism 18
．． 18 is an air cylinder 18a, l8a with pins 19 and 19 fitted at both ends, and a spring 18b.

18b, and the other end sides of the pins 19 and 19 are implanted in the side walls of both ends of the gripping frame 15 and 16, respectively. Also, the springs 18b, 18b are each in a stretched state when the gripping frame 15. A rack is placed on both ends of te.

On the other hand, the support frame 11 is supported so as to be movable in the direction shown by the arrow, and is fixed to the back and forth moving arm lla.
Grasp frame! , 15. te has rubber holding members 12a and 12b each having a valley-shaped depression in the center thereof.
are fixed at four locations (in the figure, two locations are omitted). When these clamping members 12a and 12b are respectively clamping the Petri dish 23, they are facing each other at a width position equal to the outer diameter of the Petri dish 23 and pressing the side wall of the Petri dish 23.

Here, when high-pressure air is introduced into the air cylinder 18a+18a, the first. Second gripping frame 1
5.18 is pushed outward by pin 19.19,
The gap between them increases, and the gap between the portions that are pinched by the pinching members 12a and 12b becomes larger than the size of the petri dish 23. When the air is exhausted from the air cylinder 18 at 18a, the gripping frames 15 and 18 are drawn together to the gripping distance by the action of the springs 18b and 18b, and the petri dish 23 inserted therebetween is pulled to the gripping member 12a. , 12b to hold it.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
The motor 131 is fixed to the base frame 130.The motor 131 is fixed to the base frame 130. Here, the push-up arm 133 is stacked on four magazines 21 in a row, and the petri dishes 23, 23,
It has a comb-shaped shape (see Fig. 3) that is pressed against the center position at the bottom of the 23°23 most do.

In addition, in FIG. 4, only the front two magazines 21 are shown, and the rear side is omitted.

In addition, petri dishes 23 stacked on each magazine 21.
23. - As shown in FIG. 4, the jars are stacked one after another without any gaps, and the magazine mounting table 135 on which each magazine 21 is placed is moved by a motor 136 to arrange the magazines in a row corresponding to the width of one row of magazines. move back and forth.

In order to control this back and forth movement, a control circuit 137 shown in FIG. The motor 131 is controlled.

Next, the petri dish handling operation for taking out the sheets from the magazine on the side of the petri dish supply unit will be mainly explained.

First, +] from a predetermined position under the control of the control circuit 137.
i (Return moving arm lla moves and handling arm 1
0 in a certain magazine row, which is the Petri dish ejection position.
Move it to the capital and stop it. Next, air cylinder 1
8 al 18 Introduce high pressure air to the first
．． increasing the spacing of the second gripping frame 15.16;
The opposing interval between the holding members 12a and 12b is set larger than the outer shape of the petri dish 23.

At this point, the control circuit 137 drives the motor 131 to move the push-up arm 133 of the elevator mechanism 13 by one shear height -t-yr. As a result, the second most part of the stacked petri dishes 23 is attached to the holding member 12.
a and 12b, and at this position the push-up arm 13
3 stops rising.

Next, the control circuit 137 controls the air cylinder 18a.

High pressure air is exhausted to 18a, and spring 18b is removed.

1st by tsb. The interval between the second gripping frames 15 and 16 is narrowed, and the second gripping frames 15 and 16 are closed so as to sandwich the outer side surface of the petri dish 23. Therefore, four of the magazines 21 arranged in one row
The two petri dishes 23° 23.23.23 with the maximum t- and m< are simultaneously held by the holding members 12a and 12b, respectively.

Next, the control circuit 137 drives the back and forth moving arm 11a to simultaneously transport the four petri dishes 23 held to the top of the conveyor line and release them onto the belt.

Here, if the petri dish 23 has a lid, the petri dish body and the lid are transferred at the same time. In order to transfer this simultaneously, the holding members 12a and 12b each use an elastic body, so they use elastic deformation to pinch the petri dish body and the lid, but in this case, the lower side of the holding members 12a and 12b By forming the container into a slightly protruding stepped shape, it is possible to securely hold the side surface of the lid of the petri dish.

By the way, when all the Petri dishes 23 in one row of magazines 21, 21, 21° 21 are empty, at that point the li' control circuit 137 drives the motor 138 that moves the magazine mounting table 135 back and forth, The magazine is moved forward by the width, the next column of magazines is discharged and positioned at the position of the handling arm 10, and the work of picking up the Petri dishes of each magazine in this one column is started this time.

Note that whether or not there are any petri dishes in the magazine can be easily determined by the elevated position of the elevator mechanism 13.

In addition, since the structure is such that petri dishes are inserted and removed from the top of the magazine, even if an optical sensor is placed on the top, it can be detected separately, and the operator can check the internal state of the magazine at 5ttt by looking directly from above. .

-- For storage, the operation of the handling arm 10 is reversed, and along with the lowering operation of the elevator mechanism,
Petri dishes are stored in the magazine 21 one after another from the top, and when the last petri dish is placed in the front part of one row of magazines, an empty magazine in the next row is moved and positioned. The details of this operation will be omitted because it is almost the opposite of the case of taking out a petri dish.

As described above, in the embodiment, the handling arm is set at the gripping position (Petri dish pickup position) of a predetermined ejected petri dish from a two-dimensionally arranged magazine, and the column on the magazine side is sequentially placed at that position. I am trying to position it, but this is with the array side of the magazine fixed,
- The handling arm side may be set to be positioned in each row in accordance with the magazine arrangement.

Further, in the embodiment, it is explained that the handling arm picks up one petri dish from a row of magazines at the same time, but this can be done by picking up any petri dish among them.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained in 1., in the Petri dish handling device of the present invention, the magazines are arranged two-dimensionally, and the Nyare handling arm is positioned on the 4- side of one row of the magazines. By discharging or storing petri dishes from the upper part of the magazine, a large number of petri dishes can be handled efficiently and the space required can be reduced.

Furthermore, since the magazine is configured to be inserted and removed from the -L side of the magazine, the internal condition of the magazine can be checked on a regular basis.

4. ffl'll'-Detailed explanation of the drawings FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the interior of an automatic colony transplantation device to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, and FIG.
A detailed view of the /N undoing arm, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the petri dish handling process, and FIG. 5 is an external view of the magazine.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Colony automatic transplantation device, 2... Top frame, 3... F section frame, 4... Pipe member, 5.
7... Opening 11 part, 6.9... Notch, 8... Notch, lO... Handling arm, 11... Support frame, 12a, 12b... Holding member, 13... - Elevator mechanism, 14... gripping arm, 15... first
gripping frame, 16...second gripping frame, 17
...Slide shaft, 18a...Distance expansion mechanism, 18b
... Spring, 19 ... Pin, 20 ... Object petri dish conveyor line, 21 ... Magazine,
23...Object petri dish, 24...Source petri dish, 30...Source petri dish conveyor line, 13
1.138...Motor, 132...Ball screw mechanism, 133...Push-up arm, 135...Magazine mounting table.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A two-dimensionally arranged magazine for depositing a plurality of petri dishes, and a handling arm positioned above the magazine in correspondence with one row of the magazines to grasp and transfer the petri dishes, the handling arm grips a Petri dish to be ejected from at least one of the magazines in the row below it, or holds the Petri dish in the upper part of the magazine in order to store the Petri dish in at least one of the magazines in the row. A petri dish handling system characterized by releasing. (2) The two-dimensionally arranged magazines are movably supported by a handling arm in the direction in which the next row of magazines is positioned, and the handling arm is positioned at a predetermined position corresponding to one row of magazines, and the handling arm is positioned at a predetermined position corresponding to one row of magazines. When a row of magazines located on the lower side becomes empty or when a predetermined amount of Petri dishes are stored in a row of magazines, a magazine in the next row following this row is positioned under the handling arm. A petri dish handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that: (3) The petri dish according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the handling arm simultaneously grasps the petri dishes discharged from each magazine in a row of magazines or simultaneously discharges the petri dishes to each magazine. handling system.