CS262183B1 - Manipulator for biological sampling - Google Patents

Abstract

The manipulator for biological sampling with a closed sterilized working space consists of two inclined roller conveyors with adjustable inclination for transporting pallets with containers with nutrient solution and pallets with containers with nutrient soil, a self-descent working space, two stoppering arms for uncorking and capping containers and one double T-shaped sampling arm for biological sampling. The manipulator can be advantageously used in the production of antibiotics for medicine, livestock nutrition, plant production and food industry.

Description

The present invention provides a manipulator for biological sampling necessary in the manufacture of antibiotics to transfer a fungal culture from a culture medium to a culture solution.

Currently, biological sampling in the production of antibiotics is performed manually. This is a monotonous job, suitable only for smaller sample sizes, becoming larger when tiring and requiring more staff. Antibiotics are mainly used in medicine, in livestock nutrition, in crop production and in the food industry. The need for the use of antibiotics in different sectors is steadily increasing and the current manual preparation is not enough to cover this need.

This problem can be solved by the automated production of antibiotics, part of which (i.e., biological sampling) can be performed by the closed sterilized working space biological sampling manipulator of the present invention, which uses two inclined roller conveyors with adjustable inclination to transport pallets with nutrient containers and Pallets with containers with nutrient soil, working space by self-sliding to positions determined by unlatable stops, two stopper arms for plugging and stopping the containers and one double T-shaped sampling arm for biological sampling.

The use of inclined roller conveyors using pallet self-sliding to the positions determined by unlatable stops greatly simplifies the problem of pallet transport. In the case of horizontal transport, the conveyor drive unit would have to provide two different types of movement: fast pallet travel over a long distance to the work area (as it would be inappropriate for the pallet to pass through an inlet opening with a long jogging movement). Sampling again fast long entry from work area. This requirement increases the complexity of the horizontally designed conveying device. In the case of inclined conveyors, the movements can be easily solved by simply placing the controlled stops, which, after unlocking, lower the pallet to the position of the next unlocked stop. In addition, pallets do not require any form of retaining elements.

By using a double T-shaped sampling arm, the productivity of the device is increased by taking additional samples from the nutrient vessels while transferring samples to the nutrient solution containers through one arm branch.

Both stopper arms and the sampling arm perform the same types of movements, so their columns can be designed in the same way using many of the same parts. Both stopper arms, roller conveyors and the pallet are exactly the same. This advantage is particularly useful in the manufacture and repair of equipment.

An exemplary embodiment of a biological sampling manipulator according to the invention is schematically shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side view and Fig. 2 is a view from the exit of the working space.

In a particular embodiment, the manipulator design is based on the choice of five withdrawals from one culture medium, the use of glass culture medium containers, and a glass lid culture solution with cellulose wadding allowing air oxygen to enter the glasses and a choice of 5x5 glass pallets.

The biological sampling manipulator according to the invention has an outer box shape. The lower part 1 houses all power units, electrical equipment, ventilation equipment and accessories. The upper glazed part forms a sterile working space 2, separated from the lower part 1 by a partition 19. Inside the cabinet, the manipulator consists of two inclined roller conveyors 4, 5 for transporting pallets 24, 25, the working space 2 by self-sliding into positions determined by software stops 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, as well as two stopper arms 71, 82 for plugging and stopping nutrient and culture glasses and a double T-shaped sampling arm 6 for transferring samples to its nutrient solutions one branch, while taking further samples from the broths with the other, the other branch. The two conveyors 4, 5, the two stopper arms 71, 72 and the sampling arm 6 are mounted on a frame 3 with an adjustable inclination to adjust the optimum inclination angle of the conveyors 4, 5.

The roller conveyors 4, 5 are connected upstream and downstream of the manipulator by four outer belt conveyors 20, 21, 22, 23 of a conventional design for inter-operational transport of pallets 24, 25, whose intermittent operation is controlled by the manipulator's own control according to a fully automatic working cycle. The belt conveyors 20, 21 in front of the manipulator are provided with guide rails 30 for guiding pallets 24, 25 onto the roller conveyors 4, 5.

The two roller conveyors 4, 5 running in parallel through the working space 2 have programmable stoppers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 controlled electromagnetically. The first stop 11 releases the pallet 24, 25 into the working space 2, the second to seventh stops 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 gradually release the pallet 24, 25 so that the pallet 24, 25 does not hit the second stop 12 at too high a speed. An adjustable brake 10 is placed in front of this stop 12. As a result, the speed of the pallet 24, 25 is reduced and just before the second stop 12 with the pallet 24, 25 is released, the brake 10 is released and remains released during the next step. On a short path corresponding to one step equal to the spacing between the glasses, the pallet 24, 25 will no longer obtain a speed such that it will be impermissibly subjected to a large impact. After unlocking the seventh stop 17, the pallet 24, 25 slides down to the conveyor belt 22, 23 downstream of the manipulator, where it is continuously stopped by slipping on the belt. The guide in the straight direction of the pallets 24, 25 descending on the wheels of the roller conveyor 4, 5 is provided by the conical shoulder of the wheels. The roller conveyors 4, 5 have their own frame structure made of two parts pivotally connected in a pin 29. The shorter front part forms an access part 41 for the actual conveying part 42 formed by the longer part. The pivoting connection allows the ramp 41 to be adjusted depending on the inclination of the conveyor 4, 5 so that the pallet tilting 24, 25 does not run simultaneously but divides into two when passing from the horizontal plane of the belt 20, 21 to the inclined plane of the inclined-roller conveyor 4,5. equally large half flip. After adjustment, the pivot bearing is firmly secured.

In the middle of the working space 2 above the lawyers 4, 5 is located a double sampling arm fi T-shaped, provided with a total of ten L-shaped sampling spring probes 8 for sensing samples from the nutrient media by rotary motion. On both sides of the working space 2, there are two stopper arms 71, 72, each of which uses twenty-five to grip the glass lids. vacuum suction cups. 9. The drive units of the sampling arm B and the stopper arms 71, 72 for rotating and sliding them in the direction of the axis of rotation are pneumatic rectilinear motors 28. However, electric motors could also be advantageously used to drive.

The entire working space 2 with the roller conveyors 4, 5, the stopper arms 71, 72 and the sample arm δ is rigidly attached to the pivoted frame 3, which can be tilted to the desired angle by means of the adjusting screw 18 to adjust the roller conveyors 4, 5 According to calculations, the inclination angle should be around 6 °.

There are five electrically ignited gas burners 2β for firing the probes 8, which are located above the pallet 25 with the tumblers at the level below the sampling arm B. Opposite to each burner 26 is a suction pipe connected to the suction of the pressurized ventilation. The suction pull draws a flame into the pipe, including any unburned flame entrained from the sampling probes 8, thus eliminating the falling of impurities into the open jars of culture medium. After firing, the burners 26 are briefly switched to the air supply, the flame goes out and the flow of the sampling probes 8 is accelerated by its flow.

The sterility of the workspace 2 environment is ensured by pressurized ventilation. The fan sucks air through special filters and feeds it into the working space 2. This creates an overpressure of air that escapes through any leaks and prevents non-sterile air from entering the working space 2. Above the inlet and outlet openings there are air showers 27 that entrain the vertical airflow all the ambient air, and the openings essentially close. If, for example, germicidal fluorescent lamps could be used to maintain sterility of working space 2 without negative effects on biological samples, or another method to maintain sterility, it would be advantageous to sterilize the manipulator working space 2 in this way, since pressurized ventilation is compared to propulsion arm units 6, 71, 72 energy-intensive.

The biological sample manipulator performs during a continually repetitive duty cycle that begins when conveyors 20, 21 are conveyed to the first stops 31 at the same time by the two pallets 24, 25 lso with both nutrient solution and nutrient glasses. ). After releasing the first stops 11, the two pallets 24, 25 descend by gravity into the working space 2 and stop at the second stops 12. Then, the stopper arm 71 above the conveyor 4 for the pallet 24 with the nutrient solution glasses in their initial position (i.e. The workspace 2) drops, already in the previous working cycle of the stoppered glass with the unsampled nutrient solutions in the pallet 24, all stoppering at once, rising up, turning towards the entrance to workspace 2 above the newly transported pallet 24 with the still stoppered glassware, gripping all of the lids of the glasses in the pallet 24 by the suction cups 9, lifting up and turning back to the basic position where the lids are held. During this rotation, the second stop 12 and the seventh stop 17 are simultaneously unlocked, whereby the pallet 24 with the just-stoppered nutrient glasses is pushed to the third stop 13 and the pallet 24 with the stoppered glasses comes out of the working space 2 and stops until the conveyor manipulator. Immediately, the same operation takes place on the side of the conveyor 5 for the pallets 25 with the glasses with the broth. Upon completion of these operations, the two stoppered glass pallets 24, 23 are located in the first row of glasses under the sampling arm 6 and the actual sampling begins. Before the sampling arm 6 drops by the probes 8 into the glasses, the five sampling probes 8 are fired above the culture glasses. If necessary, the firing can be performed before each sampling or only at the first sampling after the manipulator has been started, when there was no sterile environment in the working area before commissioning and after the start the sterility is already maintained by pressurized ventilation. After firing and cooling of the sampling probes 8, the sampling arm 6 sinks, on one branch of the five L-shaped sampling probes by rotating 72 ° to remove the samples from the nutrient media, and on the other, facing branch of the B arm. solutions. Rotate 72 ° to obtain a sample from one glass of broth. Thereafter, the sampling arm 6 is raised and rotated 180 ° while unlocking the third stop 13 on the conveyor 4 for the pallets 24 with the nutrient jars. As a result, during rotation of the arm 6, the nutrient jars pallet 24 assumes a new position given by the fourth stop 14 and offset by the pitch between the rows of jars. Upon further lowering of the sampling arm 6, one of its branches with five probes 8 is sampled on the other fifths of the circular areas of the broth and the reverse branch of the arm 6 with five probes 8 transfers the samples collected in the previous collection to the second row of nutrient jars. Upon subsequent lifting, the sampling arm 6 is rotated 180 ° in the opposite direction, and these operations are repeated until samples are taken from the entire circular surface of the broth in the glasses in the first row of the pallet 25 and all five rows of glasses in the broth 24 are sampled. solutions. This unloaded nutrient pallet 24, with the release of the sixth stop 16, moves to the seventh stop 17 under the stopper arm 71 and at the same time unlocks the first stop 11, which loweres another pallet 24 with nutrient solution glasses into the working space 2. The stopper arm 71 of the tumbler pallet 24 is plugged, the tumbler pallets 24 are unlocked, both pallets 24 are unlocked by the second 12 and seventh 17 stops, thereby moving the new pallet 24 through a first row of 9blocks under the sampler 22 and at the same time from the securing of the third stop 13 on the conveyor 5 the pallet 25 with the tumblers with the soil is moved one step. The working cycle continues by sampling the second pallet 24 with the nutrient glasses from the second row of the first pallet 25 with the nutrient glasses. The entire sequence of operations is repeated until all samples are taken from the fifth row of glasses of the first tray 25 with the culture jar, which corresponds to the sampling of the fifth tray 24 with the culture jar. At this point, the duty cycle ends, which is repeated continuously during continuous operation of the manipulator.

The biological sampling manipulator can be advantageously used in the production of antibiotics for medicine, livestock nutrition, crop production and food processing.

Claims (1)

Biological sampling manipulator characterized in that it consists of two side-by-side inclined roller conveyors (4, 5) provided with detachable stops (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17) for the discontinuous transport of pallets (24, 25). ) by self-descending, from the movable sampling arm (6) with a column between the conveyors (4), 5) and two movable stopper arms (71, 72) positioned above the conveyors (4, 5), whose axes of rotation are perpendicular to the planes of the conveyors (4, 5), the sampling arm (6), the stopper arms (71, 72) ) and the conveyors (4, 5) are mounted on the support structure (3) positioned according to the required inclination of the conveyors (4, 5).