JPH0317246Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field to which the invention pertains] The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device, and in particular, an automatic specimen enclosing device that allows air bubbles to remain inside when an adhesive is attached to a slide glass to which a thin specimen specimen is attached. The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device capable of automatically enclosing a specimen by adhering a cover glass without any trouble.

[Prior art and its problems] In general, tissue specimens for microscopy used for pathology and cell tissue examination require a process in which specimen material is cut to an appropriate size and dehydrated using alcohol or the like. After embedding with paraffin, etc., and slicing, thin sections of the specimen are attached onto glass slides, subjected to processing steps such as staining, and then placed in a basket and stored in a bath such as a xylene bath. After such processing steps, the specimens are taken out of the xylene bath and sealed with a cover glass of about 0.09 to 0.1 mm using adhesive.

When creating such specimens, it is necessary to prevent tissue destruction and the inclusion of air bubbles, which could lead to erroneous judgments, and to ensure that they are created quickly and accurately. However, in the past, most of the steps were done manually.

In recent years, each of these processing steps has become automated, but most of the coverslipping equipment, which uses adhesive and cover glasses to encapsulate specimens attached to glass slides, is fully automated. However, even those that have been developed still have various problems.

For example, there is an automatic specimen enclosing device for such specimens developed by Syandon Southern Products Limited in the UK (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1983-1999).
No. 109377). According to this example, a slide glass with the specimen attached side facing downward is guided onto the cover glass onto which the adhesive has been dripped, and the cover glass is directed toward the upper slide glass. By pushing up, the adhesive liquid is diffused between the slide glass and the cover glass, thereby enclosing the specimen between them.

However, in such automatic specimen mounting devices, the adhesive is not applied directly onto the specimen, but only penetrates into the specimen after the cover glass comes into contact with the slide glass. There was a risk that the liquid would not penetrate completely and bubbles would remain.

[Object of the invention] In view of the above-mentioned points, an object of the invention is to provide an automatic specimen enclosing device that can continuously obtain high-quality specimens without the risk of air bubbles being mixed in.

[Key Points of the Invention] That is, the present invention includes a conveyance path for conveying a slide glass to which an adhesive is attached to a predetermined standby position, an elevating member provided below the predetermined standby position and capable of being raised and lowered, and A slide glass holding plate that can be held in an inclined position by a spring swingably connected to the top of the elevating member; and a cam device that moves the elevating member and the slide glass holding plate up and down via a lever. a cover glass holding device that is provided at an adhesive position above the predetermined standby position and is capable of holding and opening the cover glass; and a cover glass holding device that detects the position and orientation of the slide glass and holds and releases the cover glass. The present invention is characterized by comprising a detection control means for performing the following.

[Embodiments of the invention] Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. In addition, the present invention is configured to repeatedly move and stop the above-mentioned conveying device at predetermined time intervals for the slide glass that is fed onto the conveying device at predetermined time intervals, and to control the steps in between. The device is designed to perform the enclosing operation step by step in each case, and the adhesive enclosing device used in this process will be described below.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an example of the adhesive enclosing device, where 1 is a case of the device, and 2 is a conveyance path that moves on the case 1 in the direction of the arrow to convey the slide glass 3. A spline socket 5 is attached to the upper surface of the case 1, into which the elevating shaft 4 is fitted vertically.

6 is a holder fixed to the top of the lifting shaft 4, 7 is a slide glass holding plate swingably attached to the holder 6 via a hinge member 8, and a spring holding hole 6A provided in the holder 6 is provided with a coil. A spring 9 is housed, and the spring force of the spring 9 keeps the holding plate 7 in an inclined and lifted state.

The lower end of the lifting shaft 4 is supported by the case 1 via a spring 10, and a lever 11 supported by a fulcrum 11A is connected to the lower end of the lifting shaft 4. This biases the other end of the lever 11 toward the outer periphery of the plate cam 12, which is the base. In this example, the plate cam 12 is of an Archimedean spiral type, and a protrusion 12A is formed between the ends of the spiral to allow clockwise rotation.

Furthermore, in FIG. 1, 13 is a position detection switch that detects when the lever 11 comes to the position of the protrusion 12A of the cam 12, and 14 is the position of a notch 15A provided on the disk cam 15 coaxial with the cam 12. This is a position detection switch that detects the In this example, the position detection switch 14 and a control device (not shown) constitute a detection control means for holding and opening the cover glass. The cam 12 is driven by a prime mover (not shown).

Further, the transport path 2 supports a slide glass 3 at both ends thereof, and a cover glass 30 is placed above the slide glass holding plate 7 via this transport path 2.
A suction disk 21 that can maintain the suction state is placed on standby.

As shown in FIG.
1, as shown in FIG. 2, there is a suction port 21 for sucking the cover glass 30 to a position away from the longitudinal center line of the slide glass 3 and the cover glass 30.
A is provided, and suction force is supplied to this suction port 21A from a vacuum pump (not shown) via a suction pipe 21B. 21C is a relief gap. In this example, a cover glass holding device is composed of the suction disk 21, the suction port 21A, the suction tube 21B, and a vacuum pump (not shown).

Next, the adhesive enclosing operation in the adhesive enclosing device configured as described above will be described.

First, the slide glass 3 is transported by the conveyance path 2.
Assuming that it has been transported to the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the suction disk 21 and its rotating arm 22 are at a standby position 22A directly above the slide glass 3 as shown in FIG. 3A. , and is in a standby state for the start of the bonding operation. Further, this state is obtained when the projection 12A of the cam 12 rotates to the uppermost position, and this position is detected by the position detection switch 13 shown in FIG.

When the cam 12 rotates clockwise from this position, as shown in FIG. The cover glass 30 where the tool 6 is quickly lifted, the slide glass 3 is carried from the transport path 2 by the holding plate 7, and the end of the slide glass 3 located on the higher side is held by the suction disk 21. It is on the verge of contact.

On the other hand, an adhesive 40 for encapsulation is dropped onto the slide glass 3 before the slide glass 3 is conveyed to such a bonding position. Therefore, as the cam 12 continues to rotate, the end of the lever 11 that is in contact with the cam 12 moves downward according to the gentle spiral shape formed on the circumferential surface of the cam 12. Due to the upward movement, the ends of the cover glass 30 and the slide glass 3 first come into contact with each other, and then the cover glass 3
Since 0 is a thin piece, it is deflected somewhat along the slide glass 3, during which time the adhesive 40 is diffused by capillary action and the air between the glasses is pushed out along the slope, as shown in FIG. 3B. The adhesive 40 can be spread in a state as shown in FIG.

During the subsequent upward movement of the holder 6, the vacuum pump (not shown) that was supplying suction force to the suction disk 21 is stopped to release the cover glass 30, but the timing of this stop is set in the cam 15. It is obtained by the signal from the position detection switch 14. Third
FIG.
This shows the uppermost position where the slide glass 3 and the cover glass 30 are kept in perfect contact with each other, and after this, the projection 12A of the cam 12 shown in FIG. 2 will suddenly push up the end of the lever 11. This allows the holder 6 to be returned to the state shown in FIG. 3A.

Note that when the holder 6 is returned, the slide glass 3 is returned to the transport path 2 with the specimen encapsulated by the cover glass 30 and adhesive 40, so the encapsulation is completed in this way, although not shown. The slide glass 3 thus prepared can be transported to the next process position by a transport means (not shown).

At the same time, after releasing the cover glass 30, the suction disk 21 automatically returns to the retracted position 22B shown in FIG. 1, where it receives the next supplied cover glass 30.

Although the details of the adhesive enclosing device according to the present invention have been described above, the other devices are constructed in accordance with the automatic specimen enclosing device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-30902, which was previously filed by the applicant. The detailed explanation will be omitted here.

[Effects of the invention] As explained above, according to the invention, there is a transport path for transporting the slide glass to which adhesive is attached to a predetermined standby position, and a transport path that is provided below the predetermined standby position and can be raised and lowered. an elevating member and a holding plate for a slide glass which is swingably connected to the top of the elevating member and can be held in an inclined position by a spring; and a holding plate for the elevating member and the slide glass via a lever. a cam device that moves the
a cover glass holding device that is provided at an adhesion position above the predetermined standby position and capable of holding and releasing the cover glass; and a cover glass holding device that detects the position and orientation of the slide glass to hold and release the cover glass. Since the detection control means is provided, sufficient air bubble removal and adhesive diffusion and spreading can be automatically performed with a simple device, and high-quality encapsulated specimens can be continuously obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are a perspective view and a partial cross-sectional view, respectively, showing an example of the configuration of an adhesive sealing device applied to the automatic specimen sealing device of the present invention, and FIGS. 3A, B, and C are three modes of the adhesive sealing operation. FIG. 1... Case, 2... Conveyance path, 3... Slide glass, 4... Lifting shaft, 5... Socket, 6...
Holder, 6A... Holding hole, 7... Holding plate, 8...
Hinge member, 9...Coil spring, 10...Spring, 1
1... Lever, 11A... Fulcrum, 12... Cam, 1
2A... Protrusion, 13, 14... Position detection switch, 15... Cam, 15A... Notch, 21...
Suction board, 21A...suction port, 21B...suction pipe,
21C...Gap, 22...Rotating arm, 22A...
Standby position, 22B... Retreat position, 30... Cover glass, 40... Adhesive.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A conveyance path for conveying a slide glass to which adhesive is attached to a predetermined standby position, an elevating member that is provided below the predetermined standby position and is movable up and down, and the elevating member. a cam device for vertically moving the elevating member and the slide glass holder via a lever; a cover glass holding device that is provided at an adhesive position above a predetermined standby position and capable of holding and releasing a cover glass; and a detection device that detects the position and orientation of the slide glass and holding and releasing the cover glass. An automatic specimen enclosing device characterized by comprising a control means.