JPH0322932B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device, and more particularly, to an automatic specimen enclosing device that allows air bubbles to remain inside when an adhesive is attached to a slide glass to which a thin specimen specimen is attached. The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device that can automatically adhere a cover glass without any trouble.

(Prior art and its problems) Generally, tissue specimens for microscopy used for pathology and cell tissue examination are produced through a process of dehydrating specimen material cut to an appropriate size using alcohol or the like. Starting from , embedding treatment with paraffin etc.
After slicing, a thin section of the specimen is attached to a slide glass, subjected to treatment steps such as staining, and then placed in a basket and stored in a xylene bath or the like. After such processing steps, the specimens are taken out of the xylene tank and sealed with a cover glass of about 0.09 to 0.1 mm using adhesive, and only then are they in a condition suitable for preservation.

When creating such specimens, it is necessary to prevent tissue destruction and the inclusion of air bubbles, which could lead to erroneous judgments, and to ensure that they are created quickly and accurately. However, in the past, most of the steps were done manually.

In recent years, each of these processing steps has become automated, but most of the coverslipping equipment, which uses adhesive and cover glasses to encapsulate specimens attached to glass slides, is fully automated. However, even those that have been developed still have various problems.

For example, an automatic specimen enclosing device of this kind was developed by Syandon Products Limited of the United Kingdom (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 109377/1983).
According to this example, a slide glass with the specimen attached side facing downward is guided onto the cover glass onto which the adhesive has been dripped, and the cover glass is directed toward the upper slide glass. By pushing up, the adhesive liquid is diffused between the slide glass and the cover glass, thereby enclosing the specimen between them.

However, in such automatic specimen mounting devices, the adhesive is not applied directly onto the specimen, but only penetrates into the specimen after the cover glass comes into contact with the slide glass. There was a risk that the liquid would not penetrate completely and bubbles would remain.

Furthermore, the size of the cover glass cannot be automatically selected and supplied according to the size of the specimen, and a single size cover glass is used. However, since this type of specimen is often prepared in units of several hundred sheets, it is not desirable to uniformly use expensive cover glasses, and it is preferable to be able to select from a wide variety of sizes. Furthermore, this example requires a device for pulling out the glass slides one by one.

(Object of the Invention) In view of the above-mentioned points, an object of the present invention is to continuously supply a cover glass to slide glasses that are successively guided to a fixed position on a conveyance path, and to continuously perform an enclosing operation. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic specimen enclosing device which prevents air bubbles from entering and allows high quality specimens to be obtained.

(Summary of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a structure that is provided below a predetermined position on a conveyance path on which slide glasses to which adhesive liquid is attached is continuously guided, and that has a tiltable upper surface and an arc-shaped structure. a pendulum-shaped holder having a lower surface and capable of holding the slide glass in an inclined state on the upper surface with a pendulum rod fixed downward; and a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the holder. an elevating member that rotatably supports the pendulum stand in the groove and is movable up and down; a regulating member that abuts the pendulum bar and limits rotation of the holding stand to only one side; and an elevating member a lifting means for raising and lowering the glass slide; and a lifting means disposed above the predetermined position, holding the cover glass horizontally and releasably on standby, and capable of supplying the cover glass onto the slide glass and retreating after supplying the cover glass. a cover glass supplying member; a pressing member guided above the eccentric position of the upper surface of the holding table in conjunction with the retracting operation of the cover glass supplying member; After supplying the cover glass, the cover glass supplying member is retracted, the pendulum table is further raised, the pressing member is brought into contact with the cover glass, and the cover glass is attached to the slide glass at the eccentric position on the upper surface of the holding table. control means for controlling the driving of the elevating means, the cover glass supplying means, and the pressing member so that the upper surface of the holding table is rotated so that the slope of the upper surface of the holding table returns to the horizontal direction by pressing the holding table toward the holding table; It is characterized by:

(Embodiment of the Invention) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the automatic specimen enclosing device of the present invention. Here, 100 is a slide glass shooter that supplies slide glasses 110 one by one to the transport device 200 at predetermined time intervals. A slide glass 110 supplied from the shooter 100 is transported from right to left in the figure by a transport device 200 that repeatedly moves and stops at predetermined time intervals.

Reference numeral 300 denotes a discrimination device, and the slide glass 110 supplied onto the transport path 210 is first subjected to discrimination by the discrimination device 300 as to the size of a specimen (not shown) attached to its upper surface. Second
The figure shows an overview of the discrimination device 300. Here, 31
0 is a sensor array in which a plurality of photo sensors (not shown) are arranged, and 320 is a printed circuit board to which the sensor group is connected.

A lens box 3 in which the sensor array 310, the printed circuit board 320, and the lens assembly are built-in.
30 are both fixed above the transport device 200 and set toward the lower transport path 210. 340 is a light projection box provided on the lower surface side of the conveyance path 210, and the light projection box 340 has a slit 341 on the side in contact with the conveyance path 210;
A light shielding member 342 having a vertical plate 342A and line filament lamps 343 arranged before and after the vertical plate 342A are provided at the bottom position directly below the vertical plate 342A.

Therefore, the slit 34 of this vertical plate 342A
The upper surface 342B facing the lens 1 is finished in black to absorb light and not reflect it. Only this black top surface 342B is visible, and the lamp 343
As shown by the broken line in the figure, the light emitted directly upward from each lamp 343 is limited by the light shielding member 342 and the slit 341, and the lens box 330 The light is not received by the sensor group of the sensor array 310 via the sensor array 310.

Therefore, if the slide glass 110 is transported along the transport path 210 and there is no specimen on its upper surface, the sensor array 310 will not be exposed to any light due to the transparency of the glass. is never detected.

However, if specimen pieces 111A and 111B are placed on the slide glass 110 as shown in FIG. 3, when the slide glass 110 passes over the slit 341, these specimen pieces 111A and 111B Attached range
S1 and S2 receive light from the lamp 343 and generate scattered light.

This scattered light is received by the sensor disposed in this part of the sensor array 310 via the lens group, so that the specimen piece 11
The entire range to which the specimen pieces 1A and 111B are attached, that is, the limit length S3 to which the specimen pieces 111A and 111B are attached in the longitudinal direction of the slide glass 110 is detected. The detected length S3 is compared with lengths of a plurality of set types, and by being discriminated, a discrimination signal corresponding to the type can be supplied via a control section to be described later.

Therefore, when the size of the specimen on the slide glass 110 is detected by such a discrimination device 300, when the adhesive liquid is conveyed to the subsequent liquid injection device 400, the amount of adhesive liquid corresponding to the size of the specimen is be ejected.

500 is a cover glass sorting and supplying device. 5
Reference numeral 10 denotes the sorter, and the sorter 510 has a sorting section 511 that stores cover glasses of multiple types, four different sizes in this example, stacked one on top of the other. Only one cover glass of a corresponding size can be selectively pulled out by the extraction mechanism 530. Further, the pulled out cover glass is guided by the transfer mechanism 550 onto the slide glass 110 which has finished dropping the adhesive liquid and has been transported to the bonding position.

Below the slide glass 110 at this adhesion position, slide glass 11 is moved up and down at appropriate timing.
An adhesive enclosing device (hereinafter referred to as an adhesive device) 600 is provided for adhering 0 to the cover glass.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a bonding device 600, in which a case 601 of the bonding device 600 is fixed at a position below the conveyance path 210, and an upper plate 6 of the case 601 is fixed to a position below the conveyance path 210.
01A is attached with a spline socket 611 into which a lifting shaft 610 is fitted vertically.
612 is a holding stand holder (hereinafter referred to as a pendulum holder) fixed to the upper end of the lifting shaft 610, a pendulum holder 612
A groove 612A having an arc-shaped cross section is provided on the upper surface of the pendulum 612A, and a pendulum stand 613 corresponding to the shape of the groove 612A is swingably mounted via a roller bearing 614. 615 is a fixing pin 61 on the side of a holding stand (hereinafter referred to as a pendulum stand) 613.
A pendulum rod 617 is attached to the pendulum rod 6, and 617 is a weight attached to the lower end of the pendulum rod.Furthermore, a pendulum angle adjustment member 618 whose length can be freely adjusted is attached to the pendulum rod 615 from the case 601 through a bracket 602. It is protruded towards the

By adjusting the length of this angle adjustment member 618, the pendulum stand 6
13 can be maintained at an inclination of, for example, about 1 degree to about 7 degrees (see FIG. 5A), and in normal use, by giving the pendulum stand 613 an inclination of this degree. , the slide glass 110 can be maintained in a suitable posture during the bonding operation, which will be described later. Note that FIG. 5A shows that the slide glass 110 is still being conveyed onto the conveyance path 210.

However, here 551 is the transfer mechanism 550
In FIG. 5A, this arm 551
A state in which a suction disk 552 attached to the tip of the cover glass 518 supplied from the farewell supply device 500 has been sucked and guided onto the slide glass 110 at the bonding position 533A is shown. In addition, in FIG. 4, the arm 551 is transferred to a transfer position 553 (at this position 553, the cover glass 518 pulled out from the cover glass sorter 510 shown in FIG. 1 is transferred from the extraction mechanism 530 to the transfer mechanism 5.
50) is rotated as shown by the arrow and moved to the bonding position 533A.

619 is the lower end of the lifting shaft 610 and the case 601
This is an elevating shaft holding spring held between a spring receiving member 603 attached to the elevating shaft 610, and the elevating shaft 610 is biased toward the uppermost position by the spring force of this spring 619. Furthermore, a cover 621 is connected to the lifting shaft 610 and is rotatable around a shaft 620.
A cam guide 622 is formed at the other end of the cover 621.

Reference numeral 623 designates an eccentric disk-shaped cam driven by a motor 624 (see FIG. 5B), which is fixed to the output shaft of the motor 624, and the cam guide 622 maintains contact with the cam surface. As the motor 624 rotates clockwise, the lever 6
21 around the shaft 620, the lifting shaft 6
10 can be moved up and down.

Furthermore, a notch 631 is provided on the output shaft 624A of the motor.
Disc cam 633 and notch 632A with A
A disc cam 634 having a diameter is coaxially fixed, and position detection switches 631 and 632 shown in FIG. 4 can be operated by notches 631A and 632A of these disc cams 633 and 634, respectively. 631B and 632B
are operating levers of switches 631 and 632, respectively.

635 is a cam guide 62 provided on the lever 621
This is a position detection switch arranged in relation to No. 2. The operating lever 635B of the switch 635 is always in contact with the top surface of the cam guide 622, and when the lever 621 is lifted by the cam 623 to the uppermost position as shown in the figure, that is, the pendulum stand 613 is at the lowest position. It detects this and operates when the

Furthermore, in FIG. 5A, 560 indicated by a broken line at the tip of the arm 551 is a pressing member, and the pressing member 560 is not directly provided at the tip of the arm 551, but is branched from the arm 551. The member 560 is loosely fitted into a support hole 561A provided at the tip of the branch arm 561, and a smooth surface is formed at the tip of the member 560.

The operation of this pressing member 560 will be described later, but it is used to remove air bubbles between the cover glass 518 and the slide glass 110 by its own weight and to diffuse the adhesive liquid. is brought to the bonding position 533A, the pressing member 560 and the branch arm 561 supporting it are in the bonding position 533A.
It is in a different retracted position from A. Subsequently, the adhesive sealing operation in the adhesive device configured as described above is performed in the sixth step.
This will be explained with reference to Figures A to F.

FIG. 6A shows the same state as shown in FIG. 5A, in which the switch 635 (see FIG. 4) for detecting the lowest position of the pendulum stand 613 is in the "on" state. At the start of the adhesive enclosing operation, the motor 624 is driven to rotate each cam 623, 633, and 634, and the pendulum stand 613 is gradually raised via the lifting shaft 610.

Thus, as shown in FIG.
cam 634 at a point where one edge of slide glass 110 contacts or near the edge of cover glass 518.
When the notch 632A is detected by the detection switch 632, the motor 624 is stopped. Here, the relative positions of the switch 632 and the notch 632A are adjusted in advance in this manner. A slip stopper 613A is provided on the sloped edge of the top surface of the pendulum stand 613, and the slide glass 110 is prevented from sliding down due to the slip stopper 613A. held in place above.

The state shown in FIG. 6B is maintained for a while, during which time the adhesive liquid 480A flows between the slide glass 110 and the cover glass 510 due to capillary action and the slope of the slide glass 110.
It is spread between. Subsequently, by stopping the supply of vacuum pressure to the suction disk 552 that has sucked the cover glass by vacuum pressure, the cover glass 5
18 is gently tilted onto the surface of the slide glass 110, and overlaps with the slide glass 110 as shown in FIG. 6C.

The suction disk 55 has finished supplying the cover glass 518
2 and its arm 551 are immediately retracted, and the branch arm 561 and the pressing member 560 provided at its end come to this position instead. Figure 6D
shows such a state, and the pendulum stand 613 and its elevating shaft 610 are maintained in a stopped state from the state shown in FIG. 6B to the state shown in FIG. 6D. Ru. The stopping time during this period is preferably about 2 to 3 seconds, for example.

After this set stop time, the motor 6
24 is driven, and the pendulum stand 613 continues to rise,
When the notch 631A of the cam 633 coincides with the operating lever 631B of the position detection switch 631,
By keeping the cam guide 622 of the lever 621 at the lowest position by the eccentric disk cam 623, the pendulum stand 61
3 is kept at the highest level, and in this state, the motor 624 is stopped again by the switch 631.

FIG. 6E shows such a state, in which the pressing member 5
Since the axial center of the pendulum bar 60 is eccentric from the axial center of the pendulum bar 615, when the pressing member 560 lightly presses the cover glass 518 toward the slide glass 110 with its own weight, the pendulum stand 613 receives an eccentric load. It can be tilted slightly as shown. However,
This state is maintained for a while, for example, for 2 to 3 seconds.

After such a set stop time due to pressing operation,
The motor 624 is driven again to lower the pendulum stand 613 and move the slide glass 110 onto the transport path 210.
At the same time that the branch arm 561 supporting the pressing member 560 is returned to the top, the branch arm 561 that supports the pressing member 560 also returns to its original inclined state, and during this time, the branch arm 561 and the pressing member at its tip are moved via a link mechanism that operates the arm 551. It will be done. FIG. 6F is shown in FIG. 6A after the enclosing is completed in this way.
The state in which the pendulum stand 613 and its elevating shaft 610 have returned to the position shown in FIG.

Thus, even if air bubbles remain in the state where the cover glass 518 is stacked on the slide glass 110 (the state shown in FIG. 6C), the pressing operation during the above-mentioned stop time (the state shown in FIG. 6E) Then,
Air bubbles can be released in all directions around the tip of the pressing member 560. Note that if the air bubbles are not removed sufficiently, the weight or the shape of the tip of the pressing member 620 may be changed, and it goes without saying that such adjustment is easy.

The slide glass 110 that has completed the adhesive encapsulation process by the adhesive device 600 described above is again moved along the transportation path 210 by the transportation device 200, and is pushed out to the product pool 710 of the storage device 700 shown in FIG. . When a predetermined number of glass slides as products accumulate in the product reservoir 710 (in this example, 10 slides), the extrusion mechanism 730 automatically pushes out every 10 slides to the tray (receiving tray) 750 and adds up the total number of glass slides. With 40 products stored in the tray 750, one gigantic slide glass enclosing operation is completed.

Furthermore, 800 is a control unit that controls these series of automatic sample enclosing operations by a microcomputer (CPU) not shown, and 810 is an operation panel thereof. The operation panel is equipped with a display, switches, various display means for when an abnormality occurs, etc., and the specimen encapsulation device can be operated and its operation can be monitored via the operation panel 810. Note that 820 is a switch box equipped with a button switch for starting and stopping the specimen encapsulation device.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, the slide glass to which the adhesive liquid is attached is provided below a predetermined position on the conveyance path where the slide glass is continuously guided, and has a freely tiltable upper surface and an arcuate shape. a pendulum-shaped holder having a lower surface and capable of holding the slide glass in an inclined state on the upper surface with a pendulum rod fixed downward; and a groove shaped to correspond to the lower surface of the holder. an elevating member that rotatably supports the pendulum stand in the groove and is movable up and down; a regulating member that abuts the pendulum bar and limits rotation of the holding stand to only one side;
an elevating means for elevating and lowering the elevating member; and an elevating means disposed above the predetermined position, holding a cover glass horizontally and releasably on standby, supplying the cover glass onto the slide glass and evacuation after supplying the cover glass. a cover glass supplying member capable of moving the coverglass supply member; a pressing member guided above the eccentric position of the upper surface of the holding table in conjunction with the retracting operation of the cover glass supplying member; After supplying the cover glass, the cover glass supplying member is retracted, the pendulum table is further raised, the pressing member is brought into contact with the cover glass, and the cover glass is placed at the eccentric position on the upper surface of the holding table. a control means for controlling the driving of the lifting means, the cover glass supplying means, and the pressing member so as to rotate the holding table so that the slope of the upper surface of the holding table returns to horizontal by pressing it toward the slide glass; After the cover glass is supplied onto the slide glass held on the top surface of the holding table, the pendulum table is raised via the pendulum table receiving lifting member, and the cover glass is lifted by the end of the pressing member at an eccentric position on the top surface of the pendulum table. Pressure can be applied from the top surface with almost constant pressure, and this pressure tends to return the slide glass to a horizontal position together with the cover glass, which not only promotes the diffusion of the adhesive but also removes air bubbles from the four peripheries of the cover glass. This can be done to prevent air bubbles from being mixed into the specimen.

Furthermore, since the member that restricts the pendulum bar from the side is made adjustable, the inclination of the top surface of the pendulum stand can be adjusted via the pendulum bar depending on the bonding conditions.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the automatic specimen enclosing device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a line diagram showing an outline of the discrimination device of the automatic specimen enclosing device as an example, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing how the specimen is attached. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the adhesive sealing device of the automatic specimen device of the present invention, FIGS. 5A and B are a front view thereof and a side view of its cam mechanism,
FIGS. 6A to 6F are explanatory diagrams showing the operations of the adhesive sealing device in order. 100... Shooter, 110... Slide glass, 111A, 111B... Specimen piece, 200...
Transport device, 210...Transport path, 300...Discrimination device, 310...Sensor array, 320...Printed circuit board, 330...Lens box, 340...Light emitter, 341...Slit, 342...Light blocking member,
342A...Vertical plate, 342B...Top surface, 343
...Lamp, 400 ...Liquid injection device, 480A
... Adhesive liquid, 500 ... Cover glass sorting and supply device, 510 ... Sorter, 511 ... Sorting section, 5
18...Cover glass, 530...Extraction mechanism, 5
50... Transfer mechanism, 551, 561... Arm, 552... Suction plate, 553, 553A... Position, 560... Pressing member, 561A... Support hole,
600... Adhesive device, 601... Case, 601
A...Top surface, 602...Bracket, 603...
Spring receiving member, 610... Lifting shaft, 611... Spline socket, 612... Pendulum support, 61
2A...Groove, 613...Slide glass holder,
613A... Anti-slip, 614... Roller bearing, 615... Pendulum bar, 616... Fixed pin,
617... Weight, 618... Angle adjustment member, 61
9...Spring, 620...Shaft, 621...Lever,
622...Cam guide, 623...Cam, 624
...Motor, 624A ...Motor shaft, 631,6
32...Position detection switch, 631A, 632A
... Notch, 631B, 632B ... Actuation lever, 633, 634 ... Cam, 635 ... Switch, 700 ... Storage device, 710 ... Product reservoir,
730...Extrusion mechanism, 750...Saucer, 800
...Control unit, 810...Operation panel, 820...Switch box.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Provided below a predetermined position on a conveyance path along which slide glasses to which adhesive liquid is attached are continuously guided, and having a freely tiltable upper surface and an arc-shaped lower surface,
a pendulum-shaped holding stand capable of holding the slide glass in an inclined state on the upper surface by a pendulum bar fixed downward; and a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the holding stand; an elevating member that rotatably supports the pendulum stand and is movable up and down; a regulating member that abuts the pendulum bar and limits rotation of the holding stand to only one side; and an elevating means that moves the elevating member up and down. , a cover glass supply member disposed above the predetermined position, holding a cover glass horizontally and releasably on standby, and capable of supplying the cover glass onto the slide glass and retreating after supplying; a pressing member that is guided above the eccentric position on the upper surface of the holding table in conjunction with the retracting operation of the cover glass supplying member; By retracting the glass supply member, further raising the pendulum stand, and bringing the pressing member into contact with the cover glass to press the cover glass toward the slide glass at the eccentric position on the upper surface of the holding stand. An automatic specimen comprising control means for controlling the driving of the elevating means, the cover glass supplying means, and the pressing member so as to rotate the upper surface of the holding table so that the inclination of the upper surface of the holding table returns to the horizontal direction. Encapsulation equipment.