JPH02134568A - Liquid distribution apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the suction speed due to a probe and to realize a high processing speed without making the thinning of a liquid to be distributed to be a problem by performing distribution operation in a ratio of one time per two or more times of a usual cycle. CONSTITUTION:A reaction disc 12 is revolved step by step by the operation from a keyboard 53 and reaction cuvettes 11 are washed by a washing apparatus 16. Subsequently, the cell blank of each cuvet 11 is measured. When the cuvet 11 reaches a specimen distribution position, the specimen on a turntable 26 is sucked by the probe 28 of a sampler 27 to be distributed to the cuvet 11. When the cuvette 11 reaches the first reagent distribution position A, a dispenser 31 sucks the reagent in a reagent vessel 30 to distribute the same to the cuvette 11. A spectroscope 13 starts measurement with respect to the cuvette 11 and the absorbancy at each measuring position is subjected to data processing at every measuring item by a control apparatus 17. When the cuvette 11 reaches the second reagent distribution position B, a dispenser 32 is operated and, in the same way hereinafter, absorbancy is measured to be subjected to data processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a liquid dispensing device, and particularly to a liquid dispensing device for dispensing a liquid from a liquid storage container to a dispensing container.

[Conventional technology]

For example, conventional automatic biochemical analyzers are equipped with a liquid dispensing device for dispensing reagents into reaction vessels. A conventional liquid dispensing device includes a tubular dispensing probe, a driving section such as a syringe pump, and a control section that controls the driving section. The control unit controls the drive unit to perform a probe dispensing operation using a pipetting method at regular intervals. As a result, liquid is dispensed from the reagent bottle into the reaction container.

However, this type of liquid dispensing device has a problem in that the reagent is diluted by pure water or the like filled in the piping. Although this dilution of the reagent does not pose much of a problem for some measurement items, for certain measurement items, this dilution of the reagent can greatly affect the measurement results. Therefore, as a measure to reduce the dilution of the reagent, the following configuration is adopted in a conventional liquid dispensing device.

■Insert an air segment between the purified water in the probe or piping and the aspirated reagent.

■ Slow down the reagent suction speed with the probe.

■Make the inner surface of the probe and piping as smooth as possible.

■Aspirate excess reagent so that diluting the reagent part adjacent to the pure water does not cause problems. Then, when injecting the reagent from the probe into the reaction container, excess of the reagent adjacent to the pure water is not injected.

■Increase the inner diameter of the probe and piping to reduce the contact area between the inner surface and the reagent.

[Problems that the invention attempts to solve]

Among the conventional measures mentioned above, the measure (■) is the most effective, but
Even so, dilution of the reagent cannot be sufficiently prevented. Furthermore, even if measures ① to ① are taken, sufficient results cannot be obtained.

This is because the penetrating force of the liquid in the probe or pipe is superior to the surface tension of the liquid, resulting in droplets remaining on the pipe wall when the liquid is sucked up. Therefore, as an improvement measure, it is conceivable to slow down the suction speed.

Actually, we used a SUS probe with an inner diameter of 1 mm and an inner diameter of 1.5 m.
Using piping made of Teflon tube of 200mm, the air segment amount is 20μ! The reagent dispensing operation was performed under the following conditions: an extra suction volume of 20 ul, and a suction/discharge volume of 340 μl. As a result, the dilution rate of the reagent was 7.3 at an aspiration speed of 500μ2/sec.
%, 6.3% at aspiration speed 375 μl/sec, aspiration speed 25
3.1% at 0 μl/sec, 2.1% at suction speed 125 μm/sec.
It was 7%.

From the above results, it can be seen that the measure (2) is effective.

However, it is generally required to improve the processing speed of automatic biochemical analyzers, and the suction speed cannot be set too low.

An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid dispensing device that can achieve a high processing speed without causing a problem of dilution of the liquid to be dispensed when dispensing by pipetting.

[Means to solve the problem]

A liquid dispensing device according to the present invention is a liquid dispensing device for dispensing a liquid from a liquid storage container to a dispensing container. This device includes a tubular dispensing probe, a probe drive source that causes the dispensing probe to perform a dispensing operation using a pipetting method, and a control section that controls the probe drive source. The control unit controls the probe drive source to perform a dispensing operation of the dispensing probe at a constant cycle, and also performs one dispensing operation of the dispensing probe as necessary to slow down the suction speed. This is a control unit that controls the operation to be performed over a plurality of the cycles.

(Function) In the liquid dispensing device according to the present invention, the control unit controls the probe drive source so that the dispensing operation of the dispensing probe is performed at a constant cycle. Pipetting method 〇 Perform the dispensing operation at regular intervals.

Next, if it is necessary to slow down the speed of suction by the probe, the control unit controls the probe drive source so that one dispensing operation of the dispensing probe is performed over a plurality of the cycles. . This allows the dispensing probe to
One dispensing operation is performed over a plurality of the cycles.

That is, if dilution of the liquid to be dispensed becomes a problem during dispensing, the suction speed by the probe can be slowed down by performing one dispensing operation over a plurality of normal cycles. On the other hand, if dilution of the liquid to be dispensed is not a problem during dispensing, the processing speed can be increased by making the cycle sufficiently short. Therefore, according to the present invention, the pipetting method Dilution of the liquid to be dispensed does not become a problem when dispensing the liquid, and high processing speed can be achieved.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an automatic biochemical analyzer employing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. A movable reaction disk 12, a spectrometer 13 that can rotate concentrically with the arrangement of the reaction cuvette 11, a sampling device 14 that injects a sample into the reaction cuvette 11, and a reagent dispensing device that injects a reagent into the reaction cuvette 11. 15, a stirring mechanism 18 for stirring the inside of the reaction cuvette 11, a washing device 16 for washing the reaction cuvette 11 after measurement, a reservoir 19 for storing waste liquid, and a control for controlling the operation of this device. A device 17 is provided.

The reaction disk 12 is driven by a drive source (not shown).
It is designed to be driven every pitch of the reaction cuvette 11. The spectroscope 13 is rotatably driven within a range of approximately 360° by a drive source (not shown). The spectrometer 13 is configured to transmit light to each reaction cuvette 11 of the reaction disk 12 and detect the transmitted light.

The sampling device 14 includes a turntable 26 on which a large number of sample cups are arranged circumferentially, and a sampler 27 that takes out a predetermined amount of a specimen from the sample cup and injects it into the reaction cuvette 11. The sampler 27 has a probe 28 with a liquid level sensor attached to its tip, and a pump section 29 for performing suction/discharge operations (pipetting operations). Sampling is now possible.

The reagent dispensing device 15 includes a reagent storage 30 storing many types of reagents, and a pair of dispensers 31.3 for injecting a predetermined reagent from the reagent storage 30 into the reaction cuvette 11.
2. Both dispensers 31, 32 each have a probe 33, 34 with a liquid level sensor, and the probe 33, 34 can be moved in three axial directions. This allows the probe 33 to move between the first reagent dispensing position A on the reaction disk 12, the top of the reagent storage 30, and the top of the waste liquid port 35.

Further, the probe 34 is movable between the second reagent dispensing position B of the reaction disk 12, the top of the reagent storage 3o, and the top of the waste liquid port 36. Probes 33.34 have
Syringe pumps 39 via switching valves 37, 38 respectively
．． 40 are connected. A pure water bottle 41 storing pure water is also connected to the switching valves 37 and 38.

The cleaning device 16 includes a cleaning unit 44 for cleaning the inside of the reaction cuvette 11 after measurement, and a cleaning unit 44.
It has a cleaning pump 45 for supplying pure water and detergent to perform a cleaning operation.

The control device 17 includes a microcomputer 50 including a CPU, RAM, ROM, etc. The microcomputer 50 has, via an interface 51,
A printer 52 for printing measurement results, a keyboard 53 for the operator to input measurement conditions, etc., a CRT 54 for display, and a floppy disk device 55 for storing measurement conditions and measurement results are connected. There is. Furthermore, in order to communicate between the microcomputer 50 and the analyzer main body, a reaction section control computer 57, a conversion circuit 58, a sampling device control computer 59, and a reagent dispensing device control computer 60 are connected to the interface 51. has been done. The reaction section control computer 57 controls the rotation of the reaction disk 12 and the spectrometer 1.
This is for controlling the rotation of the cleaning device 16 and the stirring mechanism 18. The conversion circuit 58 includes a Log amplifier and an A/D converter (not shown), and the spectrometer 13
It is designed to take input from The sampling device control combinator 59 is for controlling the rotation of the turntable 26 and the operation of the pump section 29.

The reagent dispensing device control computer 60 is for controlling the operation of the dispenser 31.32 and the syringe pump 39.40 as will be described later.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned analyzer will be explained.

First, the flow of sample analysis will be explained. Note that FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the processing steps when focusing on the reaction disk 120 and one reaction cuvette 11.

(1) First, before starting analysis, the operator sets analysis conditions using the keyboard 53. Next, reagents used for each analysis item are set in the reagent storage 30.

(2) Place the sample cup containing the specimen on turntable 2.
6 and install it in the specified position.

(3) By operating the keyboard 53, the reaction disk 12 and the cleaning device 16 start operating. As a result, the reaction disk 12 rotates by one step every 12 seconds, and the reaction cuvette 11 is washed in the washing device 16. (Step 5l) (4) Next, the cell blank of the washed reaction cuvette 11 is measured. (Step 52) (5) When the reaction cuvette 11 whose cell blank has been measured is placed at the sample dispensing position, the sampler 27 is activated. With this, turntable 2
A predetermined sample on the probe 6 is aspirated by the probe 2 and dispensed into the reaction cuvette 11. After dispensing, the probe 28 is moved to the washing position, and the inside and outside of the probe 28 are washed with pure water. (Step 53) (6) When the reaction cuvette 11 containing the sample reaches the first reagent dispensing position A, the dispenser 31 starts operating and sucks a predetermined amount of a predetermined reagent in the reagent storage 30, Dispense into the reaction cuvette 11.

After dispensing, the probe 33 is moved to the waste liquid port 35 side, and the inside and outside of the probe 33 are washed with pure water.

The spectrometer 13 starts measuring. The spectrometer 13 directly measures the light of the reaction liquid in the reaction cuvette 11 while the reaction cuvette 11 is being moved one by one. The absorbance at each measurement position is data-processed in the control device 17 for each measurement item. The control device 17 calculates the absorbance for each analysis item, converts it into an activity value or concentration, and prints it out using the printer 52.

(Step 35) (8) The above series of measurements is completed, and the reaction cuvette 11
When the reagent reaches the second reagent dispensing position B, the dispenser 32 starts operating, sucks a predetermined amount of a predetermined reagent from the reagent storage 30, and dispenses it into the reaction cuvette 11. After dispensing, the probe 34 is moved to the waste liquid port 36 side, and the inside and outside of the probe 34 are washed with pure water. (Step 56) (9) Reaction cubera 1-11 after dispensing of the second reagent
The stirring mechanism 18 then stirs the liquid, and then the spectrometer 13 starts measurement. The spectrometer 13 monitors the reaction cuvette 11 while the reaction cuvette 11 is sequentially moving.
Direct photometry of the reaction solution inside. The absorbance at each measurement position is
Data is processed in the control device 17 for each measurement item.

(Step 57) 00) The reaction cuvette 11 after the measurement is cleaned by the cleaning device 16 and used again for the next measurement. (Step 5t) The processes from OD step S1 to step S7 are performed one after another, and when all the set specimens have been measured, the turntable 26 stops. Further, when the measurement of the sample on the reaction disk 12 is completed, the reaction disk 12 is automatically washed and drained, and the apparatus is automatically stopped.

Next, the operation of the reagent dispensing device 15 will be explained according to FIG. This operation is performed in step S of the above analysis flow.
4 and step S6, the operation of the dispenser 31 regarding step S4 will be described below. The operation of step S6 by the dispenser 32 is basically the same as step S4 except that a different reagent is used, so a description thereof will be omitted.

Here, it is assumed that there are four types of measurement items to be performed in the area after the first reagent dispensing position A, and the third measurement item is the one in which dilution of the reagent is a problem.

First, it is assumed that the nth reaction cuvette 11 in which the first measurement item is to be performed has reached the first reagent dispensing position.

Subsequently, the probe 33 is moved to the reagent storage 30 side by the dispenser 31. During that movement, syringe pump 3
The plunger 9 is lowered slightly, forming an air segment at the tip of the probe 33. Probe 33 is in reagent storage 3
When the first reagent of 0 is reached, the plunger of the syringe pump 39 descends to aspirate a predetermined amount of the reagent. When suction of the reagent by the probe 33 is completed, the probe 33 moves to the reagent dispensing position A. When the probe 33 reaches the reagent dispensing position A, the plunger of the syringe pump 39 rises and dispenses a predetermined amount of the reagent into the n-th reaction cuvette 11. Next, the probe 33 moves to the waste liquid port 35 side. Then, the plunger of the syringe pump 39 repeatedly moves up and down, and the probe 3 is filled with pure water in the pure water bottle 41.
3 is washed.

In parallel with this washing process, the reaction disk 12 rotates by one pitch, and the next (n+1)th reaction cuvette 11 is placed at the reagent dispensing position WA. Then, by performing the same operation as described above by the probe 33 and the plunger of the syringe pump 39, a predetermined amount of reagent corresponding to the next measurement item is dispensed.
It is dispensed into the +1st reaction cuvette 11.

Further, when the reaction disk 12 rotates by one pitch, the next (n+2)th reaction cuvette 11 is placed at the reagent dispensing position A. However, in this case, the dispensing operation for the measurement item in which dilution of the reagent is a problem must be performed next, so the operation for dispensing the reagent into the n+2 reaction cuvette 11 is not performed. In addition, sampler 2
The sample dispensing operation in step 7 is also omitted for this (n+2)th reaction cuvette 11 in advance.

On the other hand, the probe 33 is moved to the reagent storage 30 side by the dispenser 31. During its movement, the syringe pump 39
The plunger of is lowered slightly to form an air segment at the tip of probe 33.

When the probe 33 reaches a predetermined reagent in the reagent storage 30,
The plunger of the syringe pump 39 descends to aspirate a predetermined amount of reagent. In this case, the aspiration speed should be slowed down to minimize dilution of the reagent. Slowing the suction speed reduces the deformation of the interface between the pure water and the air segment, and the deformation of the interface between the reagent and the air segment, so the surface tension of the liquid acts effectively and the pure water flows into the reagent. During this suction operation, the reaction disk 12 rotates by one pitch, and the next n+3 reaction cuvette 11 is placed at the reagent dispensing position A.

When suction of the reagent by the probe 33 is completed, the probe 33 moves to the reagent dispensing position A. When the probe 33 reaches the reagent dispensing position A, the plunger of the syringe pump 39 rises, and a predetermined amount of the reagent is dispensed into the (n+3)th reaction cuvette 11. Next, the probe 33
Move to the 5th side. Then, the plunger of the syringe pump 39 repeatedly moves up and down, and the probe 33 is cleaned with the pure water in the pure water bottle 41.

While the probe 33 is being cleaned, the reaction disk 12
is rotated by one step, and the next (n+4th) reaction cuvette 11 is placed at the reagent dispensing position A. Then, the probe 33 and the plunger of the syringe pump 39 perform the same operation as for the n-th and n+1-th reaction cuvettes 11 described above, so that a predetermined amount of reagent corresponding to the next measurement item is delivered to the n+4-th reaction cuvette 11. is dispensed.

In this way, if dilution of the reagent is not a problem during dispensing, the dispensing operation is performed at short, constant cycles. On the other hand, if dilution of the reagent becomes a problem during dispensing, one dispensing operation is performed over two cycles to reduce the suction speed by the probe 33 to 1/9 of the normal speed. In other words, if dilution of the reagent is not a problem during dispensing, the processing speed can be increased by making the cycle sufficiently short, and if dilution of the reagent is a problem during dispensing, the probe 33 is sufficiently low to reduce dilution of the reagent.

[Other Examples]

(a) In the above embodiment, when dilution of the reagent becomes a problem during dispensing, suction with the probe 33 is performed using two cycles, but suction is performed at a lower speed using three or more cycles. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which this is done.

(b) In the embodiment described above, a configuration was adopted in which the reaction disk 12 was always rotated at a constant cycle, but a configuration was adopted in which the rotation of the reaction disk 12 was stopped while the reagent was being sucked by the probe 33 over a plurality of cycles. can also be adopted.

(C) In the embodiment described above, the present invention was adopted for the reagent dispensing device 15, but the present invention can be similarly adopted for the sampling device 14.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the liquid dispensing device according to the present invention, if dilution of the liquid to be dispensed becomes a problem during dispensing, the probe The suction speed can be slowed down. On the other hand, if dilution of the liquid to be dispensed is not a problem during dispensing,
By making the cycle sufficiently short, processing speed can be increased. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a liquid dispensing device that does not cause a problem of dilution of the liquid to be dispensed when dispensing by pipetting, and can realize high processing speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a biochemical analyzer employing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining its control operation, and FIG. 3 is a time chart for explaining its control operation. It is. 11... Reaction cuvette, 15... Reagent dispensing device,
17...Control device, 30...Reagent storage, 31.32.
... Dispenser, 33.34 ... Probe, 39
．． 40...Syringe pump, 60...Reagent dispensing device control computer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A liquid dispensing device for dispensing liquid from a liquid storage container to a dispensing container, comprising: a tubular dispensing probe; and a pipetting method for dispensing to the dispensing probe. a probe driving source that causes the dispensing probe to perform the operation; and controlling the probe driving source to cause the dispensing probe to perform the dispensing operation at a constant cycle, and controlling the dispensing probe to perform the dispensing operation at a constant cycle, and to control the dispensing probe to perform the dispensing operation as necessary to slow down the suction speed. probe 1
A liquid dispensing device comprising: a control unit configured to perform the dispensing operation once over a plurality of the periods;