JPH0472185B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to chemical manipulators and, more particularly, to novel improvements for automating the supply heating, cooling and analysis steps of liquids on the order of microliters.

The supply and analysis of microliter-sized liquids that have been used in the past are extremely complicated processes that are difficult to automate, so much of the process has to be done manually by researchers.

However, there have been various disadvantages such as reduced efficiency in terms of time and cost, and the use of chemicals that are dangerous to the human body.

The present invention aims to provide extremely effective means for quickly eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks, and in particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a centrifugal separator having a plurality of reaction vessels on a rotating table, and a centrifugal separator having a plurality of reaction vessels on a rotary table. It consists of a constant temperature bath and mixer upper and lower devices provided in the lower part of the centrifugal separator, and a nozzle holder provided in the upper air position of the centrifugal separator and having a reagent discharge nozzle and a drying suction nozzle.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the chemical manipulator according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the drawings, the reference numeral 1 indicates a centrifugal separator, and a rotary table 4 having a plurality of reaction vessels 3 at its peripheral end is rotatably mounted on a drive shaft 2 of the centrifugal separator 1. . A detection disk 5 is provided approximately at the center of the drive shaft 2, and one end of the detection disk 5 is arranged so as to overlap a rotational positioning sensor 6, which has a U-shape as a whole. The rotational position of the table 4 can be detected.

A nozzle up/down device 10 having a nozzle holding plate 9 having a reagent discharge nozzle 7 and a drying suction nozzle 8 is disposed at the upper part of the centrifugal separator 1, and this nozzle holding plate 9 is integrally provided. A shaft 11 is slidably provided on a holding cylinder 12, and the shaft 11 moves up and down in the direction of arrow A by the operation of an electromagnetic plunger 13.

Furthermore, at the lower position of the centrifugal separator 1,
A holding plate 1 having at its peripheral end a constant temperature bath 14 and a mixer 15 (for example, an eccentrically rotating mixer) that shakes the reaction vessel 3 to stir the contents in the vessel.
6 and a mixer up/down device 17 are arranged, and a shaft 1 integrally provided on this holding plate 16.
8 is provided in a holding cylinder 20 having an electromagnetic plunger 19 so as to be movable up and down in the direction of arrow B, and by operating the electromagnetic plunger 19, the holding plate 16 can be moved up and down in the direction of arrow B. It is the composition. In addition, drive shaft 2, shaft 1
1 and 18 are located on the same center line.

The reagent discharge nozzle 7 includes a reagent liquid feeding device 21.
The drying suction nozzle 8 is connected to a condenser 23 which is connected to a cooling device 22, and the output of this condenser 23 is connected to a vacuum pump 24.

The constant temperature bath 14 is connected to a temperature control device 25 and controlled to a constant temperature, and the output control signal from the sequence controller 26 is transmitted to the vacuum pump 24, the rotational drive motor 1a of the centrifugal separator 1,
Electromagnetic plunger 19 of constant temperature bath and mixer up/down device 17, reagent liquid feeding device 21, and nozzle up/down device 1
It is supplied to the electromagnetic plungers 13 of No. 0 and controls each of them.

In the above configuration, when the chemical manipulator according to the present invention is operated, the reagent sent from the reagent liquid feeding device 21 is transferred to the electromagnetic plunger 13, the holding plate 9 is lowered, and the reagent is sent to the reagent discharge nozzle. 7 is injected into the reaction container 3 in units of μl while it is connected to the reaction container 3. Furthermore, other reaction vessels 3 provided on the rotary table 4
When injecting a reagent into the rotary drive motor 1, a control signal from the sequence controller 26 causes the rotation drive motor 1 to be injected.
a by a predetermined angle to rotate and move the other reaction container 3 to a position corresponding to the reagent discharge nozzle 7.

When the electromagnetic plunger 13 is operated again in this state, the holding plate 9 is lowered and the reagent in μl is injected into the reaction vessel 3 from the reagent supply pipe 7a of the reagent discharge nozzle 7 by the same operation as described above.

Furthermore, when removing the moisture inside the reaction container 3, the rotary drive motor 1a is operated to rotate the rotary table 4, the reaction container 3 is positioned at a location corresponding to the drying suction nozzle 8, and the electromagnetic plunger 13 When activated, the holding plate 9 descends and the drying suction nozzle 8 comes into close contact with the reaction vessel 3, and the liquid that has become vapor under reduced pressure inside the reaction vessel 3 after centrifugation is passed through the condenser 23 and pumped by the vacuum pump 24. It is suctioned, condensed in a condenser 23, and separated and removed.

In addition, when the temperature of the sample in the reaction container 3 is suddenly raised or lowered, the electromagnetic plunger 19 is operated to raise the holding plate 16, and the thermostatic chamber 14 is raised, causing the reaction container 3 to be placed inside the thermostatic chamber 14. The temperature inside the reaction vessel 3 is changed to the temperature set in the constant temperature bath 14 within a certain period of time.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, operations such as centrifugation of the sample in the reaction container 3, reagent injection, drying, temperature change, and mixing can be performed extremely easily by the sequence controller without any manual intervention.
It can be done accurately and automatically. Moreover, the effect of being able to quickly perform difficult tasks that have been performed by many researchers in the past is extremely beneficial.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the main part of an embodiment according to the present invention. 1... Centrifugal separator, 3... Reaction container, 4...
Rotary table, 6...Rotation position sensor, 7...
... Reagent discharge nozzle, 8 ... Drying suction nozzle, 1
0...Nozzle up and down device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A centrifugal separator having a rotary table that has a plurality of reaction vessels and is rotatably provided, a rotational position detection unit for detecting the rotational position of the rotary table, and the centrifugal separation device. A reagent discharge nozzle that is provided at the upper part of the device and moves up and down with respect to the reaction container, and is connected to a reagent feeding device to supply reagent to the reaction container, and a through hole that is connected to a vacuum pump via a condenser. a nozzle holding plate provided with a suction nozzle for drying which is formed into a suction nozzle for drying and is brought into close contact with the opening of the reaction vessel by descending to exhaust the inside of the reaction vessel from the through hole; and a constant temperature bath provided at a lower position of the centrifugal separator. and a mixer, and a constant temperature bath and a mixer vertical device provided movably in the direction of the support shaft, and for controlling the operation of the reagent discharge nozzle, the drying suction nozzle, the centrifugal separator, the constant temperature bath, and the mixer vertical device. A sequence controller is provided, which supplies a reagent from a reagent discharge nozzle to a reaction container provided on the rotary table, sucks steam from a drying suction nozzle to dry the contents in the reaction container, and also dries the contents in the reaction container in the constant temperature bath. A chemical manipulator characterized by having a configuration capable of heating and cooling a sample.