JPS5912740A - Stirring device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a stirring device, and more particularly to a device for stirring blood collected in a test tube into a uniform suspension state when the blood is supplied to a testing device.

BACKGROUND ART Currently, blood test devices are known that use a combination of laser technology and computer technology to measure the number of red blood cells, the number of dead blood cells, the number of platelets, red blood cell pigment concentration, hematocrit value, etc. with good reproducibility and high accuracy. When testing blood with such a test device, a test tube containing blood is placed at the measurement sample setting position of the test device, and the sample in the test tube is aspirated by an aspirator extending from the test device and measured. It is supplied to the feet.

By the way, when blood as a specimen is supplied to this blood test apparatus, the blood in the test tube immediately before being sucked by the aspirator must be kept in a uniform suspended state. Therefore, in the past, inspectors had to shake the bottoms of test tubes with their hands to stir the test tubes. However, such manual stirring operation causes large variations in the stirring state of each test tube, making it impossible to achieve uniform stirring, and it is difficult to obtain a good suspension state without destroying red blood cells, white blood cells, etc. There were drawbacks such as the need for skill in performing thorough stirring. Furthermore, with such manual stirring operations, apart from when testing blood directly or in a hole, when testing the blood of many patients at any time in a hospital, etc., it is necessary to process several specimens. First, there is a problem in that in such a case, a large number of inspectors and their labor and time must be spent on the stirring work.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for stirring the sample inside the test tube using the entire bottom of the test tube.

To summarize the stirring device of the present invention, it includes a holder that rotatably supports a test tube containing a sample, a device that supports the holder in a swingable manner, and a device that swings the test tube while rotating forward and backward. It is configured to include a device.

The stirring apparatus of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, and FIGS. 1 to 3 show an embodiment of the stirring apparatus of the present invention. ing. The stirring device 10 in this embodiment includes a unit 12 that has two rollers 11 and 1 lbk spaced apart from each other in the same plane and rotatably supports them. That is, this roller support unit (hereinafter simply referred to as the unit) 12i"t bears two shafts 13a and 13b extending in the vertical direction and disposed in parallel f', and the unit 1
At the lower end of each shaft 13a, 13b protruding from the lower surface of 2, there are rubber ring members 141L, 14b, respectively. r
Installation 7' (o-ra lla, llb are fixed.

It was. These axes 13a.

At the upper end of 13b are gears 1 and 12, respectively.
5a and 15b are fixed, and these gears 15a.

15b is operatively connected via two idle gears 15c and 15d. For this, one roller
When a rotates, the rotation is transmitted to the other roller llb via the gear train 15a to 15dk, and both rollers 11
a and 11b rotate in opposite directions.

This unit 12 has two guide rods 16a.

16b is fixed, and the guide rods 16a, 16b extend outward in the roller alignment direction from the unit side wall. And this guide rod 16a.

16b is tightly and slidably inserted into a hole formed in a supporting portion 18 protruding from a suitable fixed support wall 7 of the stirring device IO. For this, two rollers
The unit 12 having the rollers la and 11b4 is supported so as to be movable in the direction in which the rollers are aligned.

Next, a gear box 19 attached to the fixed support wall 17 is disposed below the support part 18 that slidably supports the unit 12, and a drive source, that is, a motor 20 is attached to the lower surface of the gear box 19. ing. The drive shaft of this motor 20 is connected to the input side gear of a reduction gear train 21 in the gear box 19.

On the other hand, a shaft 22 connected to the output gear extends upwardly through a center hole of a spur gear 23 fixed immovably to the upper surface of the gear box 19, and a disc 24 is fixed to the upper end of the shaft 22. ing. A short shaft 25 is rotatably attached to the disk 24 at a radially outer position, that is, at an eccentric position, and extends through the disk 24, and at the lower end of the shaft 25 protruding toward the lower surface of the disk 24. , a ratio gear 26 that meshes with the above-mentioned fixed spur gear 23 is fixed, and a plate-shaped actuating rod 27 is attached to the upper end of the shaft 25.
One end of the pulley 29 is loosely fitted, and a pulley 29 is also fixed. On the other hand, a T-pulley 30 is provided on the lower surface of the roller lla of the unit 120 mentioned above, which is closely fixed with the rotation center axis aligned with the roller, and the lower end of the shaft 13a extends downward via the roller lla and the pulley 30'. The other end of the actuating rod 27 is loosely fitted into. A rubber belt 31 is placed over the two rubber belts 29 and 30 to transmit the rotation of the pulley 29 to the pulley 30.

These conditions are clearly shown in the respective cross-sectional views (FIGS. 4 and 5) taken along the lines ``--'' and ``v--'' in FIG. 1.

Furthermore, two rollers 11a in the unit 12.

At the interval 11b, a test tube 32 is arranged by means of a device 33 that supports it rotatably and swingably.

Details of this are shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. This sixth
To explain with reference to the figure, the test tube 32 is placed in a columnar holder 34 having an inner diameter somewhat larger than the outer diameter of the tube.
The lower half of the receiver is supported by inserting it into the hole. Therefore.

The test tube 32 is rotatable with respect to its holder 34 about its longitudinal central axis within the bore. Further, the holder 34 is preferably made of a material 5 having a very small coefficient of friction, such as silica resin, so as to reduce friction as much as possible against the rotation of the test tube 32.

This columnar holder 34 is a holder holding member, and consists only of a pair of opposing side walls 35a, 35b and a bottom wall 35c, and has a U-shaped holder holding member (hereinafter referred to as (simply referred to as a holding member) 35. At a position above half of the height of the test tube 32 positioned through the holder 34 at the upper part of one side wall 35a of the holding member 35, the test tube 32 is loosely inserted into an opening formed at the upper end of the support member 36. The protruding tip of the pin 37 is fixed by a set screw 38. Since the head of the pin 37 has seven flange having a diameter υ larger than the opening of the support member 36, the bottle 37 does not come out of the opening and can freely rotate. Therefore, the holding member 35 can swing relative to the support member 36 with the bottle 37 as a pivot. The lower end of this support member 36 is fixed to a support rod 39.

A protective cover 40 is attached to the holding member 35 for opening and closing the pair of open opposing sides. The protective cover 40 is made of a member having a U-shaped cross section, and is attached from the other side wall 35b of the holding member 35 to cover the open side of the holding member. Since this protective cover 40 is only for preventing the holder 34 from falling off from the holding member 35, it has a height slightly longer than approximately half the height of the holding member 35, and its lower end It is attached to the holding member 35. Namely.

A hole 41 formed across the entire bottom wall 35c of the holding member 35 is a large diameter hole 41a by a certain length from the support member 36 side, and a small diameter hole 41b is formed into the koneyo p@wall 35b.
It is said that A coiled spring 42 is inserted into this large diameter hole 41n, and a rod 43 is inserted through the inner space of this spring 42 and attached to the side wall 3 of the hole 41n.
5b side end portion is fixed to a wall portion of the protective cover 40 that abuts the side wall 35b. The other end of the rod 43 is provided with a large-diameter head that can enter the large-diameter hole 41a and compresses the spring 42 from the end thereof. In addition to this, this protective cover 40 has a spring 42
The elastic force of the retaining member 35 always maintains the attached state as shown in FIG. 6, and the opening side of the holding member 35 can be opened by pulling out the protective cover 40 from the side wall 35b as shown in FIG. I can do it.

The operation of the stirring device 10 constructed in this way will be explained next.

First, a test tube 32 containing sample blood is prepared.

The test tube is placed into the hole of the holder 34.

Next, the holder 34 is placed in the holding member from the open side by pulling out the protective cover 40 attached to the holding member 35 to open the side of the holding member. Then, this test tube 32 is placed on the alignment line (M connecting the centers) between the two rollers 11a and 11b as shown in FIG. Positioned.

Thereafter, when the motor 20 is started, the rotation of the motor is transmitted to the shaft 22 via the reduction gear train 21, and the disk 24 is rotated by f'L. Due to this rotation of the disk 24, the shaft 25 attached to the eccentric position of the disk 24 rotates (revolutions) around the rotation center axis of the disk 24 and meshes with the stationary gear 23 due to this revolution. The gear 26 at the lower end of the shaft 25 rotates, and the shaft 25 also rotates (rotates on its own axis).

Accordingly, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the unit 12 is slidably supported.

The crank motion of the actuating rod 27 causes the rod to reciprocate and hang in the air. At the same time, the rotation of the shaft 25, that is, its rotation, is caused by the rotation of the axis IJ.
29, 30 and the rubber belt 31, the roller
transmitted to a. The rotation of this roller lla is unit 1
2 through gear trains 15a to 15d'
b, and these two rollers 111! L,ll
As mentioned above, the buttons b rotate in opposite directions.

In this way, the two rollers 11a of the unit 12,
llb rotates itself while reciprocating in the alignment direction. As a result, as shown in FIG.
The test tube 32, whose head is fully positioned and supported in a swingable manner between
, llb, the holder 34 and the holding member 35 are swung about the bottle 37 as a pivot. At that time, the head of the test tube 32 is -2 on each day.
11 a T 1 l b K Each time they come into contact with each other alternately, they are rotated within the holder 34 by receiving a rotational force due to frictional engagement with the roller that came into contact with them. The rotation of this test tube 32 is
As mentioned above, each roller 11a.

11b are in opposite directions.

Reverse the direction each time the roller that comes into contact changes. Therefore, the test tube 32 also rotates forward and backward while swinging. At this time, since the swinging fulcrum of the test tube 32 (position R of the bottle 37) is positioned above half of the height of the test tube, the bottom of the test tube in particular swings significantly. As a result, the blood in the test tube 32 can be stirred to a good suspended state without completely destroying red blood cells, white blood cells, etc., and there is no variation between test tubes.

After the stirring operation has continued for a certain period of time, the state shown in Fig. 1 is restored again.
33 is directly below the unit 12 due to the extension of the support rod 39? : passed through and advanced to the measurement sample setting position 51 of the blood test device 50 located behind the unit 12 as seen in FIG. 1 (indicated by imaginary lines in FIG. 2), and into the test tube. Aspirator of blood test device 50
(not shown) enters the test tube, sucks up only a portion of the blood in the test tube, and performs various measurements.

In the stirring device lO of the embodiment described above, there are two rollers lO.
Although the test tube is oscillated by the forward movement of a and llb in the alignment direction, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as in another embodiment shown in FIG. 8, rollers 45a are provided on both sides of the movement line of the device 33 that supports the test tube in a fully swingable manner.

45b'r At least two rollers arranged in a staggered manner? A similar effect can be obtained by rotating the test tubes in opposite directions and then advancing the device 33 that swingably supports the test tubes so that the test tube heads alternately abut against the rollers 45a and 45b.

Further, the holder 34 in the first described embodiment is
Although the four vertically elongated parts having an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the test tube were formed from the upper end surface of a columnar member, it may be of the type shown in FIG. 9.

Another example of a holder 46 shown in FIG. 9 is of a U-shape with upper and lower overhangs 47a and 47b, respectively.
The upper projecting portion 47a has an opening 48 into which a test tube can be loosely inserted.
is formed, and the lower projecting portion 47bK is formed with a dish-shaped recess 49 for receiving the bottom of the test tube. Such a holder 46 has the advantage that the test tube can be rotated smoothly because there are very few contact parts between the test tube and the holder.

Yet again. As shown in FIG. 10, a recessed groove 51 is provided on the outer side of the holder 50, and the recessed groove 51 is engaged with a removable pin provided on the recessed groove holding member 52.

Holder 50 in holding member 52? It is also possible to adopt a mechanism that holds ff.

According to the stirring device of the present invention, the stirring operation, which was conventionally performed manually, can be performed mechanically, thereby achieving significant labor savings when processing a large number of specimens. Moreover, since there is no variation in the stirring state for each test tube, uniform stirring can be obtained and a good suspension state can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing one embodiment of the stirring device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the stirring device shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows the operating state of the device shown in Fig. 1. 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views taken along lines IV-IV and v-v in FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a device that swingably supports a test tube. Surface diagram. Fig. 7 is a drawing similar to Fig. 6 showing the next state in which the protective cover of the device shown in Fig. 6 is fully open, and Fig. 8 is a drawing in which the test tube can be swung in another embodiment of the stirring device of the present invention. a plan view schematically showing the relationship between the supporting device and the two rollers;
9 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the holder, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another example of the holder and the holding member. 10... Stirring device, lla, llb... roller. 23... Spur gear, 24... Disc, 25... Shaft, 2
6... Gear, 27... Operating rod, 29, 30
Pulley. 31...Rubber belt, 32...Test tube, 33...
Swingably supporting device, 34... holder, 37.
··pin. Patent applicant Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, Ltd. No. 31! 1 12 Fig. 4 Fang 5WJ 16 Fig. 42 43 Age 8 Fig. Fang 9 Fig. 9 Fig. 10 22

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) A test tube containing a sample is placed in the longitudinal direction of the test tube.
A holder that supports rotation around the heart axis. A stirring device including a device for supporting the holder in a swingable manner, and a device for swinging the test tube while rotating the test tube in full forward and reverse directions. (2. In the stirring device according to claim 1, devices for rocking the test tube while rotating it forward and backward are arranged at intervals near the head of the test tube, and each Two p-ra rotating in opposite directions,
A stirring device comprising: the two rollers; and a device for reciprocating one of the test tubes relative to the other such that the test tube heads alternately abut the peripheral edges of the two rollers. (3) In the stirring device according to claim 2, the two rollers are arranged on the same plane, and the test tube is placed on the center distance line of the two rollers with respect to the two rollers. A stirring device characterized by relative reciprocating motion. (4) In the stirring device according to claim 1, 2, or 3, the device that swingably supports the holder is a swing fulcrum for the test tube supported by the holder. A stirring device comprising a pivot portion configured to place the test tube above half the length of the test tube. (5) Claims 1, 2, 3, or 4
2. The stirring device according to item 1, wherein the sample contained in the test tube is blood.