JP6136942B2 - Cell alignment machine - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cell aligner for aligning cells in order to arrange a plurality of sample containers (cells) used in a biochemical measuring apparatus or the like in a predetermined rack or to be stored in a storage. .

  As a cell aligner for aligning cells with ridges at the top of the main body, they are arranged so that their surfaces are parallel with a gap, and the edges that are parallel to each other are formed by notches provided in one place. There has been proposed a structure that includes a rotating body composed of two configured plates, and that guides the guide rail to the guide rail after the cells are aligned by rotating the rotating body (see Patent Document 1). In this cell aligning machine, when the rotating body is rotated, the notch portions of the two plates rotate and pass through the cell accommodating portion that randomly accommodates the cells, and the cell is scooped by the edge of the notch portion of the plate. The main body portion of the cell is sandwiched in the gap between the plates, and the ridge portion of the cell is held by the edge portion of both plates. The cells held at the edge are slid down on the edge by stopping the rotating body at a predetermined position, taken out from the outlet, guided to a guide rail provided near the outlet, and aligned in a row on the guide rail. .

Japanese Patent No. 3701320

  In the cell aligning machine described above, the operation of guiding the cells to the guide rail and aligning them is performed once while the rotating body makes one rotation. Therefore, the rotating body may have to be rotated many times until a predetermined number of cells are aligned.

  Therefore, the present invention aims to improve the above-described cell aligning machine and improve the efficiency of the cell aligning operation.

  The present invention provides a cell accommodating portion for accommodating a plurality of cells having a flange projecting toward the outer periphery of the main body at the opening of the main body, and an outer diameter of the flange larger than the outer diameter of the main body portion of the cell. A rotating body which is composed of two plates arranged so that their surfaces are parallel to each other with a small gap, and is rotatably held at the upper part of the cell housing portion so that the peripheral portion of the plate passes through the cell housing portion. , A drive mechanism for rotating the rotating body, and an edge portion formed by arranging notches provided in a plurality of locations on the peripheral portions of the two plates constituting the rotating body, and between the edges A cell that scoops up a cell housed in the cell housing portion when rotating through the cell housing portion, and holds the body portion engaged with the edge portion while sandwiching the main body portion of the cell in the gap. Rotate the holding part and one end of the cell holding part. A cell aligner comprising a cell outlet provided at a position of a lower end of an inclined cell holding portion on a track, and a guide rail for aligning cells coming out of the cell outlet in a line. is there. Edges made of notches on the periphery of the plate constituting the cell holding portion are provided at a plurality of locations on the periphery of the plate, so that the operation of scooping up the cell and guiding it to the guide rail can be performed during one rotation of the rotating body. Can be performed once.

When scooping a cell at the edge of a rotating body, if there is a cell whose main body part does not normally enter the gap between the two plates, such a cell may be clogged at the exit part without being guided to the guide rail. There is a higher probability that such a malfunction will occur as the number of rotations of the rotating body increases. When cells are clogged at the exit portion, the cell alignment operation is interrupted in order to perform the operation of removing the clogged cells, so that the efficiency of the cell alignment operation is deteriorated.
Therefore, the cell is provided in the vicinity of the cell outlet, and the height of the cell that is scooped up by the cell holding portion and reaches the cell outlet has a height at which the main body portion contacts only the cell that does not enter the gap between the two plates, It is preferable to further include a cell excluding unit for excluding the cell from the cell holding unit. If it does so, the cell which was not normally hold | maintained at the cell holding | maintenance part can be prevented from being clogged by a cell exit, and the efficiency of cell alignment operation can be improved more.

  By the way, when the cell is clogged at the cell outlet portion, the clogged cell may prevent the rotating body from rotating in the forward direction. Therefore, when the cell is clogged, it is necessary to remove the cover and scrape the cell. Therefore, it is preferable to provide a driving mechanism for rotating the rotating body with a handle portion for manually rotating the rotating body in a direction opposite to the rotation direction for guiding the cell to the guide rail. Then, even if the cell is clogged at the cell outlet, the rotating body can be manually rotated in the reverse direction to eliminate the clogging of the cell, and it is necessary to remove the cover and scrape the cell. Disappear.

  According to the cell aligner according to the present invention, since the notches on the peripheral edge of the plate constituting the cell holding portion are provided at a plurality of locations, the operation of guiding the cell to the guide rail during one rotation of the rotating body is performed. Can be done multiple times. As a result, more cells can be aligned on the guide rail during one rotation of the rotating body than in the case of rotating a rotating body composed of two plates each having a notch at one location, and the cell aligning operation Increases efficiency. In addition, when trying to guide a large number of cells to the guide rail, it is necessary to increase the number of rotations of the rotating body when only one notch is provided on the peripheral edge of the plate. The number of cells that are not aligned with the notch increases, and the probability of clogging at the cell outlet increases. On the other hand, in the present invention, since the number of rotations of the rotating body is smaller than that of the conventional cell aligner, the probability that the cell is clogged at the cell outlet is reduced.

It is a figure which shows the cell aligner of one Example, (A) is a front view, (B) is a left view of the part except a guide rail among (A), (C) is the front of the cell to which it applies. FIG. It is a front view which shows the cell alignment operation | movement in the Example in the order. It is a front view for demonstrating the motion of the cell which was not hold | maintained well in the edge part in the Example. It is a front view which shows the other Example of a cell sorter, respectively. It is a side view which shows the Example which attached the handle | steering-wheel for driving a rotary body manually in the state except the guide rail.

  An embodiment of the cell aligner will be described below. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing a cell aligner according to an embodiment, where FIG. 1A is a front view, FIG. 1A is a left side view of a portion excluding a guide rail, and FIG. It is. In addition, although (B) is a side view seen from the guide rail 10 side, illustration of the guide rail 10 is abbreviate | omitted.

  The cell accommodating portion 4 is a container having an open top, and accommodates a plurality of cells 5 that have been introduced. The rotating body 6 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 8 above the cell housing portion 4 so that a part of the rotating body 6 moves in the cell housing portion 4. The rotating body 6 is formed by fixing and arranging two plates of the same shape having cutout portions at two opposing peripheral portions so that the surfaces and the cutout portions are parallel to each other with a gap. The linear edge formed by the notch of the plate and the gap between the edges constitute a cell holding part 7 that scoops up and holds the cell by the rotation of the rotating body 6. Although not shown, a drive mechanism for rotating the rotating body 6 is also provided.

  The rotating body 6 is disposed at a position where a part of the cell holding portion 7 rotates along one inner side surface 4 a of the cell housing portion 4 to rotate and pass through the cell housing portion 4. The other inner side surface 4b facing the inner side surface 4a of the cell accommodating portion 4 is inclined so as to guide the cell 5 to be accommodated to a position through which the cell holding portion 7 passes, and forms an opening for cell insertion. .

  As shown in FIG. 1C, the cell 5 aligned by the cell aligner includes a flange portion 5b having an outer diameter larger than the outer diameter of the main body portion 5a at the opening of the main body portion 5a. It is a thing. The gap between the two plates constituting the rotating body 6 is larger than the outer diameter of the main body portion 5a of the cell 5 and smaller than the outer diameter of the flange portion 5b. In the cell 5 scooped up by the cell holding portion 7, the main body portion 5a enters the gap between the two plates, and the flange portion 5b engages with the edge of the two plates.

  A cover 2 that covers the rotation path of the rotating body 6 is provided. The cover 2 includes a cell outlet 3 for taking out the cell 5 held by the cell holding unit 7. The cell outlet 3 is in a state where the cell holding portion 7 is inclined so that one end of the cell holding portion 7 passing through the cell accommodating portion 4 is on the upper side and the other end is on the lower side (the state shown in FIG. 1A). It is provided at a position corresponding to the position of the other end. When the rotating body 6 stops in this state, the cell 5 held by the cell holding unit 7 slides down on the cell holding unit 7 from one end side to the other end side, and is taken out from the cell outlet 3 to the outside of the cover 2.

  A guide rail 10 is provided at a position of the cell outlet 3 outside the cover 2 to hold and align the cells 5 taken out from the cell outlet 3 in a row. The two rails are arranged with a gap larger than the outer diameter of the main body portion 5a of the cell 5 and smaller than the outer diameter of the flange portion 5b so that the guide rail 10 can hold the flange portion 5b of the cell 5 on its upper surface. Yes.

  Further, when there is a cell 5 that is not normally held by the cell holding unit 7 above the vicinity of the cell outlet 3 inside the cover 2 (see FIG. 3A), such a cell 5 is held by the cell. A hemispherical projection 9 is provided as a cell exclusion portion for dropping from the portion 7. The protrusion 9 does not contact the cell 5 in which the main body portion 5a enters the gap between the two plates, but only the cell 5 in which the main body portion 5a does not enter the gap between the two plates. It has a height for dropping from the cell holding part 7 (see FIG. 3B). The shape of the protrusion 9 is not limited to a hemispherical shape, and any shape can be used as long as the cell portion 5a can be removed from the cell holding portion 7 when the main body portion 5a does not enter the gap between the two plates. It may be.

Next, the cell alignment operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
The rotating body 6 is rotated counterclockwise in the figure (see FIG. 2A). When the rotating body 6 is rotated and one end of the rotating body 6 passes through the cell accommodating portion 4, a part of the cell 5 accommodated in the cell accommodating portion 4 is scooped up by one end of the cell holding portion 7 (FIG. 2 ( See B).) By sandwiching the scooped up body portion 5a of the cell 5 into the gap between the two plates constituting the rotating body 6, and simultaneously engaging the flange portion 5b with the edge of the two plates. It is held by the cell holding unit 7 (see FIG. 2C).

  When the rotating body 6 is stopped in a state where the other end of the cell holding part 7 is at the position of the cell outlet 3, the cell 5 held by the cell holding part 7 slides down on the edges of the two plates, and the cell outlet 3 is guided onto the guide rail 10 and aligned in a line in the guide rail 10 (see FIG. 2D). After the cell 5 is guided to the guide rail 10, the new cell 5 can be supplied to the guide rail 10 using the cell holding part 7 on the opposite side by further rotating the rotating body 6 half a turn.

  Since the cell aligning machine of this embodiment is provided with the cell holding portions 7 at two locations on the rotating body 6, the operation of supplying the cell 5 to the guide rail 10 can be performed twice while the rotating body 6 is rotated once. Therefore, the efficiency of the cell alignment operation can be improved as compared with the conventional cell alignment machine in which the operation of supplying the cell 5 to the guide rail 10 can be performed only once while the rotating body 6 is rotated once. For this reason, when aligning a predetermined number of cells 5, the number of rotations of the rotating body 6 may be smaller than that of a conventional cell aligner.

  In this embodiment, since the projection 9 is further provided in the vicinity of the cell outlet 3 of the cover 2, even if there is a cell 5 in which the main body portion 5a does not normally enter the gap between the two plates, the cell It is difficult to clog at the outlet 3.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, the drive mechanism that rotates the rotating body 6 may be provided with a handle 12 that can manually rotate the rotating body 6 in the reverse direction (clockwise). In the conventional cell aligner, when the cell 5 is clogged at the cell outlet 3, it is necessary to remove the cover 2 and scrape the clogged cell 5, but if the handle 12 is provided, the rotating body The clogging of the cell 5 can be easily eliminated by rotating the 6 slightly in the reverse direction, and the efficiency of the cell alignment operation can be further improved.

  Moreover, you may provide more cell holding | maintenance parts in the peripheral part of a rotary body. FIG. 4A shows an example in which cell holding portions 7a are provided at three locations on the rotating body 6a, and FIG. 4B shows an example in which cell holding portions 7b are provided at four locations on the rotating body 6b. In these examples, the cell holding portions 7a and 7b have a circular arc shape, but may be linear. 4A, the operation of supplying the cell 5 to the guide rail 10 can be performed three times while the rotating body 6a is rotated once. In the embodiment of FIG. 4B, the rotating body 6b is rotated once. In the meantime, the operation of supplying the cell 5 to the guide rail 10 can be performed four times.

  Thus, if many cell holding parts are provided at the peripheral part of the rotator, many cell alignment operations can be performed with a smaller number of rotations, so that the efficiency of the cell alignment operation can be further improved. In addition, since the number of rotations of the rotating body when aligning the same number of cells 5 is reduced compared to the case where there are many cell holding parts at the periphery of the rotating body, the number of cells is larger than that of the conventional cell aligning machine. The number of times and time during which the inside of the portion 4 is agitated also decreases, and the damage to the cell 5 is alleviated.

2 Cover 3 Cell outlet 4 Cell accommodating part 5 Cell 6, 6a, 6b Rotating body 7, 7a, 7b Cell holding part 8, 8a, 8b Support shaft 9 Protrusion 10 Guide rail 12 Handle

Claims (3)

A cell accommodating portion for accommodating a plurality of cells having a flange projecting toward the outer periphery of the main body at the opening of the main body portion;
The plate comprises two plates arranged so that their surfaces are parallel to each other with a gap larger than the outer diameter of the main body portion of the cell and smaller than the outer diameter of the flange portion, and the peripheral portion of the plate is the cell housing A rotating body rotatably held at the upper part of the cell accommodating part so as to pass through the inside of the part;
A drive mechanism for rotationally driving the rotating body;
The notched portion provided at a plurality of positions on the peripheral edge of the two plates is composed of an edge portion arranged in parallel with each other and a gap therebetween, and the cell when rotating through the cell accommodating portion. A plurality of cell holding portions for scooping up the cells stored in the storage portion, and engaging and holding the collar portion with the edge portion while sandwiching the main body portion of the cell in the gap;
A common cell outlet for taking out the cells held by the plurality of cell holders, provided at the position of the lower end of the inclined cell holder on the rotation orbit of one end of the cell holders ; ,
And a guide rail for aligning cells coming out of the cell outlet in a line.   Of the cells that are provided in the vicinity of the cell outlet and are scooped up by the cell holding portion and reach the cell outlet, the main body portion has a height that makes contact only with a cell that does not enter the gap, and holds the cell. The cell sorter according to claim 1, further comprising a cell excluding unit for excluding from the unit.   3. The cell aligner according to claim 1, wherein the drive mechanism includes a handle portion for manually rotating the rotating body in a direction opposite to a rotation direction for guiding the cell to the guide rail.

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