JPS6233868B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a culture device used in food factories, pharmaceutical factories, chemical factories, etc.

The culture device includes a culture tank that accommodates the culture material to be cultured, and a removable top lid that closes the upper opening of the culture tank, and during culture, the top opening of the culture tank that contains the culture material is closed with the top lid. This is accomplished by heating, sterilizing, cooling, and maintaining the cultured material at an appropriate temperature, injecting air and various chemical solutions into the material, and stirring the material. On the other hand, after such culture, when cleaning the culture tank or repairing a malfunctioning part, it is necessary to remove the top cover from the culture tank.

Therefore, in conventional culture apparatuses, the culture tank is usually installed and fixed, and the top opening of the culture tank is opened and closed by moving the top cover up and down. However, in this configuration, since the top lid is movable, it is connected to electrical wiring, chemical piping, stirring means,
If heating and insulation piping, air piping, etc. are provided, these must also be disassembled when the top cover is removed, making cleaning and repair of the culture tank difficult. In this case, it is also difficult to align the stirring blade and draft tube with respect to the culture conditions, and this alignment cannot be performed accurately.

Therefore, it may be possible to install all of the above-mentioned accessory equipment in a fixed culture tank, but in this case, although the top cover can be easily removed, the internal structure of the culture tank is extremely complicated, making cleaning and maintenance difficult. Master. From this point of view, such a way of thinking goes against the ideal structure of a culture tank, in which it is said that it is best not to provide any accessory equipment inside the culture tank, and it cannot solve any problems.

The present invention follows the conventional configuration in which various accessory equipment is attached to the top lid, but if the top lid is fixed and the culture tank is movable relative to the top lid so as to approach or move away from it, the culture tank can be moved. From the viewpoint that all of the above problems can be solved while maintaining the ideal of simplifying the internal structure, we hereby propose a culture device that embodies this idea.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to illustrated embodiments.

Figures 1 and 2 show an embodiment of the culture device of the present invention. In these figures, 1 is a component mounting panel, 2 is a culture tank, 3 is a top lid that closes the upper opening, and 4 is a culture tank 2.
5 is a pot for a drug to be injected into the culture tank 2; 6 is a pot for an antifoaming agent to be injected into the culture tank 2; 7 is a heating heat-insulating coil through which warm water circulates; 8 is the stirring shaft, 9 is the stirring blade,
10 indicates foam faces, respectively.

The air piping 4, the piping 11 that guides the chemicals and antifoaming agent from the pots 5 and 6 into the culture tank 2, the heating and insulation coil 7, and the stirring shaft 8 are all attached to the upper lid 3, and the culture tank 2 has a handle 12 and various Only a sensor mounting port 13 and an inspection window 14 are provided.

The stirring shaft 8 penetrates the upper lid 3 and is rotatably supported therein so that the lower end provided with blades 9 and 10 is located inside the culture tank 2, and the upper end of the stirring shaft 8 is connected to a motor 15 installed inside the panel 1. A driving connection is made via a belt 16.

The upper lid 3 is attached and fixed to the panel 1 via a bracket 17, and the culture tank 2 is disposed coaxially below the upper lid. The culture tank 2 is attached to an elevating table 19 via a bracket 18 fixed to its outer peripheral surface, and slide fittings 20 and 21 are fixed to this elevating table. The slide fittings 20 and 21 are connected to a guide post 2 with a rectangular cross section.
2, so that the slide fittings 20, 21, and therefore the lifting table 19 and the culture tank 2, can be moved up and down under the guidance of this guide post.
A slot 1a for the bracket 18 is formed in the panel 1 so as not to impede this vertical movement.

A lifting cylinder 23 is further disposed vertically within the panel 1, and its cylinder body is pivotally connected to the panel 1 by a pin 24, and the piston rod is pivotally connected to the slide fitting 20 by a pin 25.

As shown in FIG. 3, the lifting cylinder 23 has one chamber 23a connected to an oil pot 28 through check valves 26 and 27, and variable orifices 29 and 30 are provided in parallel with these check valves. The chamber 23b of the lifting cylinder 23 and the upper space of the oil pot 28 are connected to a solenoid valve 31, and a conduit 33 extending from an air compressor 32 is connected to this solenoid valve. The air compressor 32 is an existing air pressure source for the culture apparatus that supplies compressed air to the air pipe 4 via the pressure reducing valve 34. The solenoid valve 31 has two solenoids 31a and 31b.
When the solenoid 31b is energized, the pipe line 33 is led to the upper space of the oil pot 28 and the cylinder chamber 23b is communicated with the drain port 35. When the solenoid 31b is energized, the pipe line 33 is guided to the upper space of the oil pot 28 and the cylinder chamber 23b is communicated with the drain port 35. It functions to communicate the upper space to the drain port 35.

The operation of the culture apparatus of the present invention configured as described above will be explained next.

When culturing, the solenoid 31a of the electromagnetic valve 31 is energized, and the pipe line 33 is connected to the oil pot 2.
8 and the cylinder chamber 23.
b is connected to the drain port 35. At this time, the inside of the oil pot 28 is pressurized by the air pressure from the air compressor 32, and the internal oil is pumped through the variable orifice 30 and the check valve 26 into the cylinder chamber 2.
3a and causes the cylinder 23 to extend.
The operating speed can be adjusted by adjusting the opening degree of the variable orifice 30 to increase or decrease the oil supply speed to the cylinder chamber 23a.

The sliding metal fitting 20 is raised by this extension operation of the cylinder 23, and thereby the culture tank 2 is also raised via the lifting table 19 and the bracket 18. The culture tank 2 finally reaches the upper limit position shown by the solid line in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the upper opening is closed by the upper lid 3. In this state, the motor 15 causes the belt 1 to
While stirring and defoaming the culture material using the blades 9 and 10 attached to the stirring shaft 8, the compressed air from the air compressor 32 is sent to the culture tank 2 through the pressure reducing valve 34 and the air piping 4. A predetermined culture is carried out by injecting the agent into the culture tank 2 from the pots 5 and 6 through the piping 11, or by heating and keeping the culture material in the culture tank 2 warm with the coil 7. can be done.

To take out the cultured substance from the culture tank 2 and clean or maintain it, the solenoid 31b of the solenoid valve 31 is energized to connect the pipe line 33 to the cylinder chamber 23b and to open the oil pot 28. The upper space is communicated with the drain port 35.
At this time, the air pressure from the pipe line 33 is
The oil in the cylinder chamber 23a is transferred to the oil pot 2 through the variable orifice 29 and the check valve 27.
8, the cylinder 23 is contracted. The operating speed can be adjusted by adjusting the opening degree of the variable orifice 29 to increase or decrease the speed at which oil is expelled from the cylinder chamber 23a.

Due to the contraction of the cylinder 23, the slide fitting 20 is lowered, and thereby the culture tank 2 is also lowered via the lifting table 19 and the bracket 18. Then, the culture tank 2 finally reaches the lower limit position shown by the imaginary line in FIG. 2, and the top lid 3 can be removed from the upper opening. The accessories can be maintained in a state where they are exposed from the culture tank 2.

Thus, the culture device of the present invention has the upper lid 3 as described above.
Since the structure is configured such that the top cover 3 can be removed by fixing the culture tank 2 and moving the culture tank 2 relative to it, it is possible to attach all the attached equipment to the top cover 3 and simplify the internal structure of the culture tank 2 as ideally. When removing the top cover 3, there is no need to disassemble any attached equipment, and the culture apparatus can be cleaned and maintained with extremely simple operations.

Moreover, in the present invention, when the culture tank 2 is moved by the cylinder 23 operated by the air pressure used in the culture apparatus (air pressure from the air compressor 32), this cylinder is operated by the air pressure via the valve. Since the structure is extended and contracted by supply/discharge control, a dedicated power source for moving the culture tank 2 is not required, and the above effects can be obtained with a simple and inexpensive structure.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view of the culture apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view of the main parts thereof, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of the operation control system of the culture tank lifting cylinder in the same apparatus. 1...Mounting panel, 2...Culture tank, 3...Top lid, 4...Air piping, 5...Medical pot, 6...
...Defoaming agent pot, 7...Heating insulation coil, 8...
Stirring shaft, 9... Stirring blade, 10... Foam face, 1
1...Medium injection pipe, 12...Handle, 13...Various sensor installation ports, 14...Inspection window, 15...Agitation motor, 16...Belt, 18...Bracket, 19...Elevating platform, 20, 21...Slide metal fitting, 22...Guide post, 23...Elevating cylinder, 24, 25...Pivot pin, 26, 27...Check valve, 28...Oil pot, 29, 30...Variable orifice , 31... Solenoid valve, 32... Air compressor, 33... Compressed air supply pipe, 34
...Reducing valve, 35...Drain port.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a culture device comprising a culture tank containing a culture material and a removable top lid that closes the upper opening of the tank, and in which the material is cultured by blowing compressed air from an air pressure source, the top lid is fixed. The culture tank is mounted so as to be relatively movable toward or away from the upper lid, and includes an elevating cylinder that moves the culture tank using the compressed air, and a lift cylinder for supplying and discharging compressed air to the cylinder. A culture device characterized by being provided with a valve that expands and contracts under control.