JPH0322933B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device, and in particular, the present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device that automatically attaches adhesive liquid to a slide glass to which a thin specimen specimen is attached without leaving any air bubbles inside. The present invention relates to an automatic specimen enclosing device that is capable of adhering a cover glass automatically.

[Prior art] In general, tissue specimens for microscopy used for pathology and cell tissue examination begin with a process of dehydrating specimen material cut out to an appropriate size using alcohol, etc. Embedding treatment by etc.
After slicing, a thin section of the specimen is attached to a slide glass, subjected to processing 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 bath and sealed with a cover glass of about 0.09 to 0.1 mm using adhesive.

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, there is an automatic specimen enclosing device for such specimens developed by Syandon Southern Products Limited in the UK (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1983-1999).
No. 109377). 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.

[Objective] In view of the above-mentioned points, the object of the present invention is to provide a method in which a cover glass supplied to a slide glass is used to perform a continuous covering operation, and there is no risk of air bubbles being mixed in, so that a high-quality specimen can be obtained. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic specimen enclosing device.

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a conveying means for successively guiding slide glass to which an adhesive is attached to a predetermined position, and a transport means provided below the predetermined position to guide the slide glass to a predetermined position. A slide glass holder has an upper surface and an arc-shaped lower surface that can hold the glass in a freely tilted state, and a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the slide glass holder, and a slide glass holder that can be freely rotated in the groove. an elevating member that pivotally supports the slide glass holder and is movable up and down; a pendulum rod fixed to the slide glass holder; A regulating member that regulates the rotation of the holding table only to the side where the tilt angle of the upper surface of the holding table decreases so that the tilt angle can be adjusted; a cam that raises and lowers the elevating member; and a cam that drives the cam. a driving means; a switch means for controlling the driving means so as to stop the slide glass holder at least at a first predetermined raised position and a lowermost position for a predetermined time; a cover glass supply means capable of holding a cover glass horizontally and waiting at the first predetermined raised position of the holding table, releasing the cover glass and supplying the cover glass to an inclined slide glass on the slide glass holding table; releasing the cover glass at the first predetermined raised position where an edge of the cover glass can come into contact with an edge of the slide glass on the slide glass holder;
The present invention is characterized by comprising a control means capable of performing a series of operations such as supplying the cover glass supply member onto the slide glass to form a bonded state, and then retracting the cover glass supply member.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example 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;
There is a vertical plate 342A at the bottom position directly below 1.
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.

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 discriminating device 300, the adhesive liquid is transferred to the liquid injection device 400 shown in FIG. The amount is injected according to the amount.

500 is a cover glass sorting and supplying device. 5
Reference numeral 10 designates 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 above 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 conveyed to the bonding position 533A.

Slide glass 110 at this bonding position 533A
An adhesive enclosing device (hereinafter referred to as an adhesive device) 600 is provided below to move up and down at appropriate timing to bond the slide glass 110 and 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.
Reference numeral 612 designates a pendulum support as an elevating member fixed to the upper end of the elevating shaft 610, and a groove 612A having an arc-shaped cross section is provided on the upper surface of the pendulum support 612, and a slide corresponding to the shape of the groove 612A is provided in the upper surface of the pendulum support 612. Glass holding stand (hereinafter referred to as pendulum stand) 6
13 is swingably mounted via a roller bearing 614. 615 is a pendulum bar attached to the side of the pendulum stand 613 via a fixing pin 616; 617
is a weight attached to the lower end of the pendulum rod, and a pendulum angle adjustment member 618 whose length can be freely adjusted is attached to the pendulum rod 61 from the case 601 via a bracket 602.
It protrudes towards 5.

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 sorting/supplying 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 at the transfer position 533 (here, the cover glass 518 pulled out from the cover glass sorter 510 shown in FIG.
is transferred from the extraction mechanism 530 to the transfer mechanism 550), and 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 lever 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 lever 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 disk cam 634 having a circular disk cam 634 is coaxially fixed, and position detection switches 631 and 632 shown in FIG. 4 can be operated by notches 631A and 632A of these disk 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 highest 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, as shown in FIG. 5A, the arm 551
A pressing member 560 as shown by a broken line may be provided at the tip of the holder. In addition, such a pressing member 5
60 is not provided directly at the tip of the arm 551, but is a branch arm 5 branched from the arm 551.
It is preferable that the member 560 is loosely fitted into a support hole 561A provided at the tip of the member 560, 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 and to diffuse the adhesive liquid using its own weight.
As shown in the figure, the cover glass 518 is attached at bonding position 5.
33A, the pressing member 560 and the branch arm 561 supporting it are at a retracted position different from the bonding position 533A. Next, the adhesive sealing operation in the adhesive device configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6F.

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.
13 in place.

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, but if the above-mentioned pressing member 560 is provided here, the branch arm 561 and the pressing member 560 provided at its end come to this position instead. Do it like this. FIG. 6D shows such a state, and the pendulum stand 613 and its lifting shaft 610 remain in the stopped state from when they are stopped in the state shown in FIG. 6B until they are brought to the state shown in FIG. 6D. will be maintained as is. 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, but
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 560 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 (10 in this example), the extrusion mechanism 730 automatically pushes them out every 10 to the tray (receiving tray) 750. 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 provided 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. In addition,
820 is a switch box equipped with a button switch for starting and stopping the specimen encapsulation device.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, the slide glass to which adhesive is attached is provided with a transport means for continuously guiding the slide glass to a predetermined position, and a transport means provided below the predetermined position to transport the slide glass to a predetermined position. a slide glass holder having an upper surface and an arcuate lower surface capable of holding the slide glass in a freely tilted state, and a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the slide glass holder; an elevating member that pivotally supports a slide glass holder and is movable up and down; a pendulum rod fixed to the slide glass holder; A regulating member that regulates the rotation of the holding table only to the side where the inclination angle of the upper surface of the holding table decreases so that the inclination angle can be adjusted, a cam that raises and lowers the elevating member, and a drive that drives the cam. means, a switch means for controlling the driving means so as to stop the slide glass holder at least at the first predetermined raised position and the lowest position for a predetermined time; a cover glass supply means capable of holding a cover glass horizontally on standby at the first predetermined raised position of the table, releasing the cover glass and supplying the cover glass to an inclined slide glass on the slide glass holding table; releasing the cover glass at the first predetermined raised position where the edge of the glass is in contact with the edge of the slide on the slide glass holder;
The control means is capable of performing a series of operations such as supplying the cover glass supply member onto the slide glass to form a bonded state and then retracting the cover glass supply member, so that the slide glass is held at the first raised position. For glass slides held at an angle on a table, adhesive can be supplied with the edge of the cover glass in contact with the edge of the slide glass, so the adhesive can be applied in an inclined direction from the edge. During the diffusion, air bubbles can be prevented from remaining, and by repeating the above operations, high-quality encapsulated specimens can be continuously prepared. Furthermore, by adjusting the regulation of the pendulum rod by the regulation member, the slope of the top surface of the slide glass holder can be suitably adjusted according to the bonding conditions.

Note that by making the regulating member that regulates the pendulum bar from the side adjustable, the inclination of the upper surface of the holding base can be adjusted via the pendulum bar according to the bonding conditions.

It goes without saying that the stopping time of the holding table at the first raised position, the uppermost position, and the lowermost position can be made suitable according to the bonding conditions by adjusting the timer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

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 ... Operating 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. A transport means for continuously guiding the slide glass to which adhesive is attached to a predetermined position; and a transport means provided below the predetermined position to hold the slide glass in a freely tilted state. a slide glass holder having a flexible upper surface and an arc-shaped lower surface; a groove having a shape corresponding to the lower surface of the slide glass holder; the slide glass holder is rotatably supported in the groove; and a lifting member that is movable up and down; a pendulum rod fixed to the slide glass holder; and a pendulum rod disposed on the side of the pendulum rod to control the rotation of the holder via the pendulum rod. a regulating member that makes it possible to adjust the inclination angle by restricting the inclination angle of the upper surface only to the decreasing side; a cam that raises and lowers the elevating member; a drive means that drives the cam; and a slide glass holder. a switch means for controlling the driving means so as to stop the driving means for a predetermined period of time at least at a first predetermined raised position and a lowest position; a cover glass supply means capable of holding a cover glass horizontally on standby, releasing the cover glass and supplying the cover glass to an inclined slide glass on the slide glass holder; The cover glass is released at the first predetermined raised position where it can come into contact with the edge of the slide glass on the table, and is supplied onto the slide glass to form an adhesive state, and then the cover glass supply member is retracted. An automatic specimen enclosing device characterized by comprising a control means capable of performing a series of operations as described above.