JP3550841B2 - Centrifuge rotor and centrifuge - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a microplate adapter for mounting a microplate containing a sample on a swing rotor for a centrifuge.
[0002]
[Prior art]
First, the microplate will be described with reference to FIG. The use form of the microplate 4 is, for example, a method in which a reaction reagent is dropped into a body fluid such as blood and then applied to a centrifuge, or various experiments in a tissue culture field or a genetic engineering field including a centrifugation step as an intermediate step. Or used. Such a microplate 4 is generally made of a plastic material such as polystyrene or polypropylene, and is formed by molding. It is a box-shaped container having a size of about 130 mm in length, about 90 mm in width, and about 10 to 50 mm in height. A large number of small concave sample injection holes 5 for injecting a sample are provided on the upper surface of the container in a regular manner. Have been. The microplate 4 is provided with a notch 8 in the lower part of the box-shaped outer wall 7 in consideration of the case where the microplate 4 is vertically stacked. The size of the notch 8 substantially matches the size of the upper surface of the microplate 4, thereby preventing misalignment between the vertically stacked microplates 4. Unless the notch 8 is provided at a position lower than the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4, misalignment between the microplates 4 when the microplates 4 are vertically stacked cannot be prevented. The box-shaped outer wall 7 extends to a position lower than the plate bottom surface 9.
[0003]
Next, a centrifuge rotor for centrifuging the sample in the microplate 4 will be described. Such a microplate centrifugal separation rotor is also disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-934, but will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11 in this description. FIG. 10 is an external perspective view of a swing type rotor, and FIG. 11 is an external perspective view of a metal adapter mounted on the swing rotor shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, the rotor is basically composed of a rotor body 1 and a bucket 2, and a rotational force is applied to the rotor body 1 by a centrifuge (not shown). The bucket 2 swings outward to apply centrifugal acceleration to the sample held in the bucket 2.
[0004]
In order to use such a swing rotor for separating a sample built in the microplate 4, it is common to attach a metal adapter 3 to the bucket 2. The external dimensions of the adapter 3 are such that there is no play with respect to the bucket 2, and the adapter 3 has a microplate in order to eliminate play with the microplate 4 when the microplate 4 is held. 4 are provided with bent portions 12 and 13 for holding the outer periphery. The adapter 3 is manufactured by processing a metal plate such as a stainless steel plate or an aluminum plate, and its bottom 11 is flat.
[0005]
When the above-described microplate 4 is loaded into such an adapter 3, the configuration shown in FIG. 12 is obtained. As described above, the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4 is configured to extend to a position lower than the bottom surface 9 of the plate, and the bottom 11 of the adapter 3 is configured to be flat. There was a gap 10 between the cable and the adapter 3. In such a state, the rotation speed is usually about 2,000 rpm, and the maximum centrifugal acceleration is about 700 × g.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In recent years, microplates have been used to test various symptoms related to human health and various experiments in the field of tissue culture have been actively carried out, improving the efficiency of the centrifugation step required in the intermediate steps of inspection and experiments. Is required. Efficiency of the centrifugal separation process can be achieved by increasing the centrifugal acceleration by increasing the rotational speed to rotate the row data.
[0007]
However, when the rotation speed of the rotor configured as described above is increased to improve the efficiency, the sample injection hole is moved from the boundary portion 6 between the group of the sample injection hole portions 5 of the microplate 4 and the box-shaped outer wall 7. The group of the part 5 is broken in a depressed form, and the centrifugal separation purpose cannot be achieved. This is because when a centrifugal load is applied to the microplate 4 due to centrifugal acceleration, the gap 10 exists between the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4 and the bottom portion 11 of the adapter 3, so that the sample injection hole 5 has a centrifugal load. As a result, a large bending moment is applied to the group of the sample injection holes 5 and the boundary 6 between the box-shaped outer wall 7 and the boundary 6 is damaged. According to the applicant's test, when a commercially available ordinary microplate 4 was tested, the boundary 6 was broken at about 1,000 × g (1,000 times the gravitational acceleration). In general, polystyrene is often used as the material of the microplate 4, and the fact that the material is brittle in strength, which is a characteristic of polystyrene, also contributes to the breakage.
[0008]
Since the rotor for the centrifuge generates a high centrifugal acceleration, the lighter the object to be separated including the adapter 3 held by the bucket 2, the smaller the centrifugal load can be, and the load on the rotor body and the bucket can be reduced. It will be advantageous. Further, the buckets are installed symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis, and it is necessary to consider the balance of the mass of the opposing buckets and the balance of the position of the center of gravity. If the microplate is rotated with its position shifted, the rotor vibrates greatly and rotates, possibly damaging the centrifuge, making it impossible to achieve the purpose of centrifugation.
[0009]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and to improve the efficiency of the centrifugation step by enabling the centrifuge rotor equipped with the current microplate to be used under a higher centrifugal acceleration.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An object of the present invention is to provide a rotor body, a plurality of buckets swingably engaged with the rotor body, and a large number of sample injection holes for injecting a sample into a box-shaped upper surface. A microplate having a box-shaped outer wall extending further below the plate bottom of the sample injection hole, and an adapter mounted on the bucket and supporting an outer peripheral portion of the microplate. In a swing rotor, this is achieved by providing a pad for contacting the bottom surface of the sample injection hole of the microplate to the adapter.
Further, it is achieved by providing a hole or a thinned portion in a part of the pad.
Further, this is attained by providing a pad recess on the lower surface of the pad, which is substantially equal in size to the upper surface of the microplate.
Further, the pad is achieved by making the pad smaller than the inner size of the box-shaped outer wall.
As another method, a rotor body, a plurality of buckets swingably engaged with the rotor body, and a large number of sample injection holes for injecting a sample into a box-shaped upper surface are provided. A centrifugal separator further comprising a microplate having a box-shaped outer wall extending to a lower position from the plate bottom of the sample injection hole, and an adapter mounted on the bucket and supporting an outer peripheral portion of the microplate. A centrifugal separator provided with a swing rotor for rotating a centrifugal separator provided with a pad for contacting the adapter with the bottom surface of the sample injection hole of the microplate.
Further, this is achieved by a centrifugal separator provided with a thinned portion on a part of the pad.
Further, this is attained by providing a pad recess on the lower surface of the pad, which is substantially equal in size to the upper surface of the microplate.
Further, the pad is achieved by making it smaller than the inner size of the box-shaped outer wall.
[0011]
The adapter configured as described above is provided with a pad that eliminates the gap between the bottom surface of the microplate and the adapter, so that the sample injection hole does not bend, and the sample injection hole group and the A large bending moment is not applied to the boundary of the box-shaped outer wall, and as a result, the breakage of the boundary can be prevented.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
A microplate adapter according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an adapter 3 showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view in which the adapter 3 shown in FIG.
[0013]
In the figure, a pad 14 having an outer dimension substantially equal to its inner dimension is attached to the adapter 3. The pad 14 is formed of an elastic material such as rubber or plastic, and is adhered to the adapter 3 at a bottom surface thereof. The configuration of the pad 14 has an upper surface portion 16 having a height in contact with the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4 at a central portion thereof, and a height contacting with a lower surface of the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4 at an outer peripheral portion. It has a step 15 having a height.
[0014]
When the microplate 4 is placed on the adapter 3 equipped with the pad 14 configured as described above, and the microplate 4 is loaded on the bucket 2 of the rotor body 1 and centrifuged, the bucket 2 including the adapter 3 is centrifugally separated. Swinging, resulting in a downward centrifugal force in FIG. This centrifugal force acts on the microplate 4, but the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4 is received in the centrifugal direction by the upper surface portion 16 of the pad 14, and the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4 has a stepped portion of the pad 14. Since it is received by the part 15, a large bending moment is not applied to the group of the sample injection hole 5 and the boundary part 6 and other parts of the box-shaped outer wall 7, and as a result, a higher centrifugal force as compared with the related art is obtained. It becomes the structure which can endure. When a rotation test of a commercially available microplate 4 was performed using the adapter 3 configured as described above, centrifugal acceleration could be added without any problem up to 2,000 × g. It was confirmed that it can withstand double centrifugal acceleration.
[0015]
In the present embodiment, the pad 14 is bonded to the adapter 3. However, the pad 14 is simply mounted, and the microplate 4 is mounted on a centrifuge. It is apparent that the same effect can be obtained even when the pad 14 is used by removing the pad 14 between the case where the pad 14 is mounted on the separator. Further, in the present embodiment, the pad 14 and the adapter 3 are separate components, but the same effect can be obtained even if the shape of the bottom 11 of the adapter 3 is configured like the pad 14 described above.
[0016]
Next, a second embodiment of the adapter for a microplate according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Since the adapter 3 is mounted on the bucket 2 of the rotor body 1 as described above, the smaller the weight of the adapter 3, the smaller the centrifugal force applied to the rotor body 1, which is advantageous in design. become. Therefore, it is desirable to make the pad 14 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 lighter as the first embodiment. In view of this, in the second embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the pad 14 having the thinned portion 17 is bonded to the adapter 3. Since the thinned portion 17 is for reducing the mass of the adapter 3, the thinning method is somewhat free while taking care not to cause breakage of the microplate 4 due to the bending moment. Due to the thinned portion 17, a portion receiving the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4 and a portion not receiving the plate bottom 9 are formed, and a bending moment is applied between these portions. Is smaller, so that the structure can withstand higher centrifugal force than before. 3, the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4 is not received by the pad 14, but the weight of the box-shaped outer wall 7 is close to the sample injection hole 5 into which the sample is injected. Since it is relatively small, the centrifugal acceleration at the portion of the box-shaped outer wall 7 is smaller than that in the vicinity of the sample injection hole 5, so that the destruction of the boundary 6 caused by the conventional configuration is less likely to occur. I have.
[0017]
Next, a third embodiment of the microplate adapter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The third embodiment differs from the above-described second embodiment in that a step portion 15 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the pad 14. The pad side surface 19 which is the outer peripheral surface of the step portion 15 is configured to be the same as or slightly larger than the inner diameter of the adapter 3. Thus, while the pad 14 is bonded to the adapter 15 in the second embodiment, the pad 14 and the adapter 3 can be positioned and fixed by the pad side surface 19 in the third embodiment. There is no configuration. Also in the third embodiment, the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4 is not received by the pad 14 for the same reason as in the second embodiment.
[0018]
Next, a fourth embodiment of the microplate adapter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The fourth embodiment is significantly different from the first embodiment in that the plate 14 is provided with a plate holding portion 20. The plate holding portion 20 provided on the pad 14 regulates the relative movement between the pad 14 and the microplate 4, so that the microplate 4 can be more reliably placed on the pad 14 at a predetermined position. Can be. Further, FIG. 6 discloses a configuration in which the plate pressing portion 20 presses the outer periphery of the microplate 4. However, the plate pressing portion 20 may be configured to press the inside of the box-shaped outer wall 7 of the microplate 4. .
[0019]
Next, a fifth embodiment of the microplate adapter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. When the adapter 3 and the pad 14 are configured as separate components, it is possible to mount the microplate 4 on a centrifuge in a state of being stacked. As shown in FIG. 7, the pad 14 as described above is first placed on the bottom of the adapter 3, and the microplate 14 is placed thereon. Further, by placing the pad 14 thereon, the second microplate 14 can be placed.
[0020]
Next, a sixth embodiment of the microplate adapter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a modification of the configuration of the pad 14 shown in FIG. The pad 14 shown in FIG. 8 has on its lower surface a pad recess 21 having a size substantially equal to the size of the upper surface of the microplate 4. When the microplates 4 are stacked using the pad 14 thus configured in the same manner as in the fifth embodiment, the result is as shown in FIG. As can be seen from the configuration of FIG. 8, the pad 14 placed on the microplate 4 holds the upper surface of the microplate 4 by the pad recess 21 and regulates the relative movement between the pad 14 and the microplate 4. are doing. When the pad 14 having such a pad recess 21 is placed on the adapter 3, a gap 22 is formed between the pad 14 and the adapter 3 because the bottom 11 of the adapter 3 is flat. If the pad 14 is made of an elastic material such as rubber, a bending moment is generated in the pad concave portion 21 by centrifugal acceleration when the pad 14 is applied to the centrifugal separator in a state having the gap portion 22. Moments can be absorbed. In order to eliminate the gap 22, the pad 14 placed at the lowermost position has a flat bottom (for example, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 7) and is placed on the microplate 4. The pad 14 may have a configuration having a pad recess 21.
[0021]
Next, a seventh embodiment of the microplate adapter according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 shows a configuration in which the bottom surface of the adapter 3 is made to be the same as the above-mentioned top surface shape of the pad 14, and the plate bottom surface 9 of the microplate 4 is directly received by the adapter 3. An engagement groove 23 having the same width as the bent portions 12 and 13 of the adapter 3 is provided below the bent portions 12 and 13 so that the adapter 3 can be hung on the machine. In the present embodiment, the adapter 3 is configured as described above. However, instead of the adapter 3, the pad 14 may be similarly configured and mounted on the adapter 3.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, since the rear surface of the sample injection hole of the microplate is received by the adapter, the microplate incorporating the sample can be placed under a higher centrifugal acceleration than before.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an adapter according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a state where the adapter and the microplate of FIG. 1 are combined.
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a state where an adapter and a microplate according to a second embodiment of the present invention are combined.
FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an external perspective view of the adapter shown in FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional side view showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a sixth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a seventh embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is an external perspective view showing a conventional rotor.
FIG. 11 is an external perspective view showing a conventional adapter.
FIG. 12 is a vertical side view showing a microplate held by a conventional adapter.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 is a rotor body, 2 is a bucket, 3 is an adapter, 4 microplates, 5 is a sample injection hole, and 14 is a pad.

Claims (8)

A rotor body, a plurality of buckets swingably engaged with the rotor body, and a plurality of box-shaped sample injection holes for injecting a sample into an upper surface thereof; A centrifuge swing rotor comprising: a microplate having a box-shaped outer wall extending to a lower position from the plate bottom surface of the sample injection hole; and an adapter mounted on the bucket and supporting an outer peripheral portion of the microplate. A swing rotor for a centrifuge, wherein the adapter is provided with a pad that comes into contact with the plate bottom of the sample injection hole of the microplate. Centrifuge swing rotor according to claim 1, characterized in that a hole or reduced thickness portion on a part of the pad. The swing rotor for a centrifuge according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a pad recess having substantially the same size as an upper surface of the microplate is provided on a lower surface of the pad. The swing rotor for a centrifuge according to claim 1, wherein the pad is smaller than an inner dimension of the box-shaped outer wall. A rotor body, a plurality of buckets swingably engaged with the rotor body, and a plurality of box-shaped sample injection holes for injecting a sample into an upper surface thereof; A centrifugal swing rotor includes a microplate having a box-shaped outer wall extending to a lower position from the bottom surface of the sample injection hole and an adapter mounted on the bucket and supporting an outer peripheral portion of the microplate. A centrifuge, comprising: a centrifugal separator provided with a pad provided on the adapter and in contact with a bottom surface of the sample injection hole of the microplate. The centrifuge according to claim 5, wherein a thinned portion is provided in a part of the pad. 7. The centrifuge according to claim 5 , wherein a pad recess having substantially the same size as the upper surface of the microplate is provided on a lower surface of the pad . The centrifuge according to claim 5, wherein the pad is smaller than an inner dimension of the box-shaped outer wall.

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