JP3473383B2 - Dispensing head - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dispensing head used for dispensing a liquid such as a sample or a reagent.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In tests and analyzes in the field of biochemistry and the like, a dispensing operation is carried out in which a liquid such as a sample or a reagent is subdivided and transferred to a microplate which is a dedicated sample container. For this dispensing operation, a dispensing head having a predetermined number of dispensing nozzles for sucking and discharging liquid is used. The microplate is provided with a large number of small holes (for example, 96) for sample storage, and the tip of the dispensing tip mounted on the dispensing nozzle is inserted into these small holes to make small holes inside the dispensing tip. Dispensing is performed by sucking and discharging the liquid in the hole.

[0003]

By the way, when dispensing to a microplate, the dispensing is not always performed in the same manner, and when dispensing to all the small holes of the microplate. Or, there may be a case where only some of the small holes are dispensed. In such a case, conventionally, it is necessary to use different dispensing heads each having a different number of dispensing nozzles each time, and the dispensing heads are replaced or a plurality of dispensing devices having a dedicated dispensing head are used. Had to be prepared and a separate device was used to perform a dispensing operation as required.

However, in recent years, in order to efficiently carry out tests and analyzes, dispensing can be performed in various modes as needed (for example, dispensing different kinds of liquids to only a part of the microplate). The demand is increasing, and therefore, the conventional dispensing head cannot meet such demand, and there is a problem that it is difficult to improve the efficiency of the dispensing work.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a dispensing head which can dispense in various modes and improve the efficiency of the dispensing work.

[0006]

A dispensing head according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a plurality of suction tools for sucking and discharging liquid from the lower end, and a first holding member for holding these suction tools in a row. , One side end portion of the first holding member is a guide rail
And a slider to hold the second slide vertically
A holding member, a plurality of plungers to be fitted into respective inner holes provided in the suction tool, and an upper portion of these plungers.
The end is fixed and one side end is the guide rail.
Is fixed to a slider that is slidably attached to
A movable vertically movable member relative to the first holding member.
Connect the connecting block and the plurality of plungers to the suction tool.
The connecting block for the first drawing
A pulling means for moving up and down relatively with respect to the holding member of
And a lifting means for simultaneously lifting the suction device and the plunger relative to the second holding member, said抽挿means and lifting means are arranged on the second holding member, dispensing by said each portion Configure the head unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a plurality of the dispensing head units are arranged side by side in a direction orthogonal to the row of the suction tools.

According to the invention described in each of the claims, there are provided a drawing means for simultaneously drawing and pulling the plungers of a plurality of suction tools in a row, and an elevating means for moving the suction tools and the plungers up and down at the same time. By disposing the dispensing unit on the holding member, it is possible to dispense only a specific portion of the microplate by individually using only the rows of the specific suction tools of the multiple suction tools. .

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a perspective view of a dispensing head according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the dispensing head, FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of the dispensing head, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the dispensing head. It is a figure.

First, the structure of the dispensing head will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a state where two sets of dispensing head units 1 having the same structure are opposed to each other and combined. In FIG. 1, the block 2 holds a plurality of dispensing nozzles 3 in a row. Therefore, the block 2 is a first holding member. A disposable dispensing tip 4 is attached to the lower end of the nozzle 3. In the present embodiment, the nozzle 3 and the dispensing tip 4 constitute a suction tool. The suction tool may not use the disposable dispensing tip 4. A slider 5 is fixed to one side end of the block 2, and the slider 5 is slidably fitted in a vertical direction on a guide rail 7 provided on a vertical plate 6. Therefore plate 6 is block 2
Is a second holding member for holding the above in a vertically slidable manner.

As shown in FIG. 3, cylindrical nozzles 3 are fitted in the holes 2a provided in the block 2 in plural numbers (eight in the present embodiment). A plunger 8 is fitted in the hole 3a. Plunger 8
Has a stepped shape, and the upper end portion 8a of the stepped portion is fixed to the connecting block 9. In FIG. 1, one side end of the connecting block 9 is fixed to a slider 10 slidably mounted on the guide rail 7, and a slider 11 is mounted on the other side end. A slider 12, which forms a pair with the slider 11 and slides on each other, is fixed to the block 2. Therefore, the connection block 9
Can move up and down relatively to the block 2.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a motor 13 is arranged on the upper surface of the connecting block 9, and the motor 13 drives the feed screw 14 to rotate. Lead screw 14 is block 2
It is screwed into the nut 15 fixed to the. When the motor 13 is driven, the connecting block 9 moves up and down relative to the block 2, and the plurality of plungers 8 fixed to the connecting block 9 are simultaneously drawn into the inner hole 3a of the nozzle 3. That is, the motor 13, the connecting block 9, the feed screw 14, and the nut 15 serve as a drawing means for drawing the plunger 8 into the nozzle 3 all at once. By pulling the plunger 8 into the inner hole 3a of the nozzle 3, the liquid is sucked into the inside of the dispensing tip 4 from the tip of the dispensing tip 4 and the sucked liquid is discharged.

A motor 17 is arranged on the upper end of the plate 6 via a bracket 16, and the motor 17 drives a feed screw 18 to rotate. The feed screw 18 penetrates an opening provided in the connection block 9 and is screwed into a nut 19 fixed to the block 2. By driving the motor 17, the block 2 moves up and down. At this time, the motor 1
When the motor 17 is driven in a state where 3 is stopped and the rotation is locked, the connection block 9 is also moved up and down at the same time. That is, the motor 17, the feed screw 18, and the nut 19 are
And the plunger 8 are simultaneously moved up and down.

This dispensing head unit 1 is constructed as described above, and if this dispensing head unit 1 is used alone, eight dispensing nozzles 3 can be used at the same time, and FIG. As shown in the figure, if two sets are opposed to each other and used in combination, a dispensing head having 16 dispensing nozzles 3 is obtained. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, an arbitrary plurality (12 sets in the example of FIG. 4) of the dispensing head units 1 can be arranged side by side in a direction orthogonal to the row of the nozzles 3 and used in combination. Hereinafter, the dispensing head 20 of the combination shown in FIG.
Taking as an example, the dispensing operation of the dispensing head will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the dispensing head 20 is positioned on the microplate 21. The microplate 21 is provided with a large number of wells 22 that are small holes for accommodating samples, and the intervals between the nozzles 3 of the dispensing head 20 correspond to the intervals between the wells 22. After positioning the dispensing head 20 with respect to the microplate 21 so that the positions of the nozzles 3 of the dispensing head 20 coincide with these wells 22, the dispensing head 20 is lowered onto the microplate 21 to a predetermined height. Stop it.

Next, the motor 17 is driven to drive the block 2
And the connecting block 9 is lowered. As a result, the tip of the dispensing tip 4 attached to the lower end of the nozzle 3 held by the block 2 is inserted into the well 22. Then, the motor 13 is driven to raise the connecting block 9 relative to the block 2. As a result, the plunger 8 is simultaneously extracted from the inner hole 3a of the nozzle 3, a negative pressure is generated in the inner hole 3a, and the liquid in the well 22 is dispensed into the dispensing tip 4
Is inhaled from the tip of. By controlling the motor 13 and extracting the plunger 8 by a predetermined amount, the dispensing tip 4
If a predetermined amount of liquid is sucked into the motor 17 again,
Is driven to raise the block 2 and the connecting block 9 at the same time.

After that, the dispensing head 20 is moved onto the other microplate 21 to be transferred, and the same operation as described above is performed to insert the tip of the dispensing tip 4 into the well 22. Then, the motor 17 is driven in reverse to drive the plunger 8
Is inserted into the inner hole 3a of the nozzle 3. As a result, the liquid sucked into the dispensing tip 4 is discharged into the well 22 from the tip of the dispensing tip 4.

When performing such a dispensing operation, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, a specific well row (for example, L1 and L2 in the case of FIG. 4) of the well row L of the microplate 21
When it is desired to perform dispensing only on the target, only the dispensing head unit 1 corresponding to the well rows L1 and L2 is driven in the dispensing operation. This allows a large number of wells 2
It is possible to perform dispensing by specifying an arbitrary well row in the microplate 21 provided with 2.

Further, at this time, since the motors 13 can be individually controlled for the respective dispensing head units, it is possible to set the suction / discharge amounts individually for each row, and it is possible to set them individually. With the dispensing head, it is possible to perform various types of dispensing as compared with the conventional method. Therefore, it is possible to perform efficient dispensing by saving the time and labor of using a plurality of dedicated dispensing heads each time, and reducing the equipment cost required when equipped with multiple sets of dispensing heads. be able to.

[0020]

According to the present invention, there are provided a drawing means for simultaneously drawing and pulling the plungers of a plurality of nozzles in a row, and an elevating means for elevating and lowering the nozzles and the plungers at the same time. Since it is configured to form a unit, it is possible to individually drive only a specific nozzle row of the numerous nozzle rows that make up the dispensing head, and to select any well row of the many wells of the microplate. It becomes possible to dispense only for the target. Therefore, 1
One dispensing head can perform more diverse forms of dispensing, and it is possible to save time and trouble of using a plurality of dedicated dispensing heads each time, and perform efficient dispensing. It is possible to reduce the facility cost required when the dispensing head is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dispensing head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the dispensing head according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of a dispensing head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a dispensing head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 dispensing head unit 2 blocks 3 nozzles 3a inner hole 4 dispensing tips 6 plates 8 Plunger 9 connecting blocks 13,17 motor 21 Micro Plate

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-9-127133 (JP, A) JP-A-5-87820 (JP, A) JP-A-9-119936 (JP, A) JP-A-11-160328 (JP , A) JP 5-126690 (JP, A) JP 62-43140 (JP, B2) JP 1-46032 (JP, B2) JP 5861 (JP, Y2) JP 63-17005 (JP, Y2) JKH 1-25326 (JP, Y2) JKH 2-8219 (JP, Y2) Registered utility model 3002709 (JP, U) Utility model registration 2557155 (JP, Y2) (58) ) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01N 35/00-35/10 G01N 1/00-1/44 JISST file (JOIS)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of suction tools for sucking and discharging a liquid from a lower end portion, a first holding member for holding these suction tools in a row, and one side end portion of the first holding member. The second which is held slidably in the vertical direction by the guide rail and slider
Holding member, a plurality of plungers fitted into respective inner holes provided in the suction tool, upper ends of these plungers are fixed, and one side end is slidably mounted on the guide rail. A connecting block that is vertically movable relative to the first holding member by being fixed to a slider, and the connecting block for simultaneously pulling out the plurality of plungers from the suction tool. The first
A pulling means for moving up and down relatively with respect to the holding member of
An elevating means for elevating and lowering the suction tool and the plunger at the same time with respect to the second holding member is provided, and the drawing means and the elevating means are arranged on the second holding member and dispensed by the respective parts. Dispensing head characterized by constituting a head unit. 2. A plurality of the dispensing head units are arranged side by side in a direction orthogonal to a row of the suction tools.
The dispensing head according to claim 1 .