JPH043256Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Field of Application The present invention relates to a gel plate creator that is attached to an electrophoresis apparatus, and particularly relates to a gel creator that is easy to operate.

Problems with the Prior Art In the past, gel plates were generally produced by inserting spacers between two substantially quadrilateral glass plates of the same size along two opposing sides of the quadrilateral to create a slight gap between the plates. The basic process is to create a gel plate by pouring a gel solution into the gap and solidifying it so that it does not leak.

Conventionally, as a method to put gel solution between two glass plates with a spacer in between and seal it to prevent leakage, a thin silicone tube is placed around the outer periphery of the spacer between the plates, and this is attached to the glass plate. However, since the tube itself is amorphous and too soft, it causes the following problems.

Since the tube is thin, the sealing effect is low, and it tends to fall off, and the tube may get caught between the spacer and the glass plate.

When performing electrophoresis with a gel plate vertically immersed in a buffer solution, air bubbles will adhere to the bottom edge of the gel plate, and if electrophoresis is performed without removing the air bubbles, the air bubbles will cause resistance, which will adversely affect the electrophoresis results. In order to avoid leaving any room for air bubbles to enter, it is desirable that the gel solution solidify to the lower ends of the spacers on both sides.

In particular, if the tube is made of silicone, the gel solution in the part that comes into contact with the tube will not solidify, so the silicone tube at the bottom edge of the plate must be placed between the glass plates with a distance of several meters from the edge of the spacer. However, its placement is time-consuming.

After placing the seal tube between the plates, it is necessary to compress the plates and crush the tube in order to achieve the sealing effect. Therefore, in the conventional method, the plates are crimped together by turning screws provided on the holding plate by hand and feeling the resistance, but this causes the following problems.

It is difficult to press the glass plate uniformly without damaging it, and to crush the tube sufficiently.

After the gel solution has solidified, the tube is removed, but at this time air tends to enter between the plate and the solidified gel. This is because during this operation, the plates are crimped only by screws rather than springs, so the crimping force is lost during this operation.

Since the necessary electrophoresis conditions vary, the thickness of the spacer, that is, the thickness of the solidified gel, varies, and the degree of care with which the screw is turned varies accordingly.

When the gel plate is mounted vertically on the electrophoresis device, the lower edges of the two glass plates may not be flush.
Because shearing force due to the weight of one of the plates may occur at the contact surface between the solidified gel and the plate, causing damage to the solidified gel, in the production stage where two glass plates are stacked with a tube interposed, the center and bottom of the four side edges are One side edge that should become the edge must be completely aligned, and this operation is extremely time consuming.

Effects of the invention The present invention simplifies the conventional work that relied on manual labor and cans, and provides a gel plate making device that allows even non-experts to make gel plates.

Means for Solving Conventional Problems In the present invention, instead of the conventional silicone tube, a wide flat U-shaped molded gasket is used. The width of the gasket is so wide that only a portion of the width of the gasket is sandwiched within the glass plate to perform a sealing action, and a substantial portion of the width protrudes outside the glass plate. Then, prepare an outer frame that tightly surrounds the outer edge of the gasket, and use this outer frame as a reference to determine the position of the gasket and the glass plate, instead of using the outer edge of the glass plate as a standard as in the past. did.

In order to eliminate the inconvenience of manually tightening and crimping two glass plates with screws, a stopper is provided on the bottom surface of the presser plate to prevent the presser plate from falling below a certain distance from the top surface of the glass plate. Install coil springs at several locations so that they touch the glass plate. The height position of this spring is set so that when the presser plate is placed naturally on the glass plate, the presser plate floats above the stopper.The height of this spring is adjusted by adjusting the height position adjustment knob of the coil spring from the top surface of the presser plate. It is set in advance to a constant value depending on the thickness of the gel plate by rotation.

During work, the operator simply presses down and holds the presser plate until it hits the stopper, and regardless of the thickness of the gel plate, the pressing force is applied to the glass plate, and the operator no longer feels comfortable. There is no room for modest intervention.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows an exploded perspective view of a gel plate maker according to an embodiment of the present invention, as seen from the front, and the table 1 of the gel plate maker includes an outer frame 2 with three steps on the inner periphery. In the process of creating a gel plate, first, a glass plate P _B with two spacers 3 pasted on the opposing left and right sides is placed on the first stage, and then a silicone rubber gasket 4 molded into a plate shape is placed on the second stage. Place it on the tier. At this time, both the glass plate P _B and the gasket 4 are fitted tightly into the stepped portion, so that their positions are fixed relative to the outer frame 2. This pattern is shown in Figure 2. Also, the packing 4 falls well between the second stage and the left and right spacers 3. The rear side 15 of the packing 4 is the spacer 3
It is placed a few millimeters away from the rear end of the This pattern is shown in FIG.

Next, the second glass plate P _A is stacked on top of the glass plate P _B , but at this time, as seen from Figure 1, the rear edge needs to be aligned, so the upper surface of the rear edge of the gasket is used for this alignment. A protruding guide 14 is attached, and the second glass plate is attached to this step.
If you drop it so that the rear corner of P _A fits snugly, you can match it with glass plate P _B. This pattern is shown in FIG. 4, which is a sectional view of the perspective view of FIG. 1 taken along arrow A.

Next, a presser plate 6 is crimped onto the glass plate P _A. Coil springs 7 are arranged at four corners on the lower surface of the presser plate 6.
The length that protrudes from the lower surface of the presser plate, including the contact pad 8 with P _A , is adjustable.

If the presser plate 6 is placed on the glass plate P _A without applying pressure from above, the presser plate 6 will rise a certain distance D from the stoppers 10 attached to the left and right sides of the outer frame 2 (this state is shown in Figure 2). When pressure is applied (as shown in Figure 2), it sinks and hits the stopper 10, leaving a slight gap on the upper edge 9. At this time, the compressive force of the coil spring 7 is applied to the glass plate A via the pad 8. This distance D is the glass plate
This is the crimp allowance for P _A and P _B. At this point, the stand 1 and the presser plate 6 are fixed with the catcher 11 and held until the gel solution solidifies. The distance D can be adjusted by rotating the knob 12 by hand in advance to adjust the height position of the coil spring 7. As the thickness of the spacer becomes thicker, the distance D needs to be larger and a greater pressure must be applied, but the thickness of the spacer and the crimping allowance are determined in advance so that the plate will not be damaged and the "mountain" 13 of the packing will be sufficiently crushed. However, it can be set within the allowable range.

Now, after the gel solution has solidified, the packing 4 must be removed without removing the pressure applied to the gel plate, that is, without removing the presser plate 6. In this device, the gasket 4 protrudes over a wide area from the glass plate, and it is easy to pull it out and take it out of the device through the gap mentioned above. In addition to the overhanging part of the packing, there is also a guide 14 for mating.
By pinching and pulling out, this task will be improved to the next level.

Function/Effect The structural feature of this device is the shape of the gasket, which completely eliminates the conventional idea of gaskets, and has a sealing part and a projecting part, and the positioning of this gasket with respect to the glass plate. The contact between the outer periphery of the overhang and the outer frame of the instrument was used as a reference, and the gasket itself was provided with a guide for aligning both glass plates, and this guide was attached to the knob for removing the gasket together with the overhang. The point is that it is structured so that it can also be used.

The second structural feature lies in the clever combination of the presser plate and the stand.The presser plate is placed on the glass plate and the distance between the stopper 10 and the presser plate can be easily checked visually (as shown in Fig. 5 if necessary). )
The point is that it is possible to know the degree of pressure bonding of the glass plate, and at the same time, it is also possible to directly know whether or not uniform pressure bonding can be achieved by checking the parallelism of the presser plate to the base. In theory, the parallelism can be corrected by adjusting the knob 12, and if the degree of crimping is determined by a scale, there is no room for further intervention of artificial crimping force, and workability is quite good.

Furthermore, in this device, even when the presser plate 6 is fixedly held on the stand 1 by the catcher 11, there is a gap between the upper edge 9 of the outer frame 2 and the lower surface of the presser plate 6, and this gap is necessary when taking out the packing. This is a moot point.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the gel plate maker of the present invention, seen from the front, Fig. 2 is a sectional view when assembled, seen from the front B of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows the installation state of the packing 4. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken from direction A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an exploded view showing the fixed holding relationship between the presser plate 6 and the base 1. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Gel creator stand, 2... Outer frame of gel creator stand, 3... Spacer, 4... Packing, 5... Rear edge of outer frame 2, P _A , P _B ... Glass plate, 6
... Pressing plate, 9... Upper edge of outer frame 2, 10... Stopper of holding plate, 11... Catcher, 14... Guide for surface matching.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a gel plate maker, which is comprised of a stand for storing stacked glass plates with a U-shaped flat silicone rubber gasket interposed therebetween, and a presser plate equipped with a spring for crimping the stacked glass plates, The first glass plate and the gasket are dropped into a step provided horizontally on the inner surface of the outer frame of the table and fixed in position. One side edge of the second glass plate and the corresponding edge of the first glass plate are aligned and fixed, and the holding plate has a certain gap with the upper edge of the outer frame of the stand, and A gel plate maker for an electrophoresis device configured so that it can be fixedly held by coming into contact with a stopper attached to the outer frame.