JPH07114684B2 - Transfer hand for jelly-like small items - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a transfer hand for transferring a jelly-like small article such as agar used for culturing bacteria from one container to another.

[Prior Art] Fig. 12 shows a plurality of cylindrical agar pieces (22) (hereinafter referred to as agar pieces) having a diameter of about 4 mm (for example, about 50 pieces) placed on a petri dish (21) at intervals. It is a perspective view which shows the opened state. For such agar pieces, leave as many agar pieces as possible on the dish (21) by pouring agar into the dish (21) and punching out the solidified agar medium, then removing the unnecessary parts. It is a thing. Conventionally, the necessary number (eg, 7) of agar pieces (22) from this petri dish (21) is transferred to another petri dish (23) as shown in FIG. I was doing the manual work of picking them up and moving them to another petri dish (23).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned manual work, how to apply force when twisting the agar piece (22) with tweezers, how to twist,
I had to rely on visual observation and the delicate touch of the hand, such as how to apply the force when placing it. Therefore, if you fail to grab the agar piece (2
2) was often crushed or deleted, and the success rate of transfer was not high. On the other hand, if you are too careful and careful not to lose the work, the work efficiency will decrease significantly. In any case, it is difficult to achieve both high reliability and high efficiency by manual work with tweezers, and improvement by mechanization has been desired. However, since the object is soft jelly-like agar, it requires a slight amount of force to handle, and it is very difficult to do it mechanically.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and can transfer small and jelly-like articles reliably and quickly, and can transfer small and small jelly-like articles with a simple and inexpensive structure. The purpose is to provide a hand.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the transfer hand for a jelly-shaped small article according to the present invention, a jelly-shaped small article having a substantially short cylindrical shape is placed with its substantially circular end surface being horizontal. Items to be transferred,
In a transfer hand that holds this by a pair of opposing arms that can approach and separate freely, and transfers the transferred article from one mounted position to another position while maintaining its posture, the pair of arms One of them has two first needle-shaped pieces that extend substantially horizontally and are arranged in parallel on substantially the same horizontal plane with a horizontal gap smaller than the width of the transferred article. The two first needle-shaped pieces are gripping arms and are gradually tapered toward the respective tips so that the transferred articles can be pierced and gripped from the side surface when the pair of arms approach each other. The other of the pair of arms is a peeling arm that is disposed substantially opposite to the gripping arm, and is the first arm.
A second one having substantially the same shape as each of the needle-shaped pieces and extending substantially in the middle downward of the two first needle-shaped pieces.
The second needle-shaped piece is inclined so that the tip of the second needle-shaped piece is lowered, and the tip of the second needle-shaped piece is inclined within a range smaller than the thickness of the transferred article. Is lower than that of the transfer target article, and is moved into the lower surface of the transferred article by the approaching operation of the pair of arms to separate the transferred article from the mounting surface, and to transfer the transferred article together with the two first needle-shaped pieces. In the relationship in the plan view, a pressing member for retaining the transferred article is provided at a position between the gripping arm and the peeling arm, and the pressing member always holds the gripping member. Before and after the first needle-shaped piece and the second needle-shaped piece start to be separated from each other by the separating operation of the pair of arms, while being located above the space between the arm for peeling and the arm for peeling and being movable up and down. To the transfer destination at the transfer destination Abut the item,
Thereby, a part of the bottom surface of the transferred article is brought into close contact with the mounting surface, and thereafter, the article is moved up and retracted upward from the transferred article. Is.

[Operation] In the present invention, the needle-shaped piece of the gripping arm pierces the jelly-shaped small article from the side surface, while the needle-shaped piece of the peeling arm is inserted below the bottom surface of the jelly-shaped small article. Is peeled from a petri dish or the like. The pressing member presses the jelly-shaped small articles in close contact with the petri dish, which is the transfer surface, before the needle-shaped pieces are moved away from the jelly-shaped small articles as the transfer destination, before the needle-shaped pieces are separated from each other.

[Embodiment] FIG. 4 is a front view showing an agar piece transfer device equipped with a transfer hand (51) for jelly-like small articles according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a side view thereof. In the figure,
The petri dish (21) on which the agar piece is placed and the petri dish (23) to which the agar piece is to be transferred are placed on the sample table (13). The column (12) is held vertically to the sample table (13) and rotatable about its axis by a driving means (not shown). The linear slider mounting plate (11) is fixed to the column (12). The transfer hand mounting plate (15) is slidably mounted in the vertical direction on the linear slider mounting plate (11) via the linear slider (14), and the L-shaped driving force transmission is fixed thereon. It is driven up and down by a piston (8a) of a cylinder (8) via a plate (10) and a slide plate pushing tool (9) fixed thereon. The chuck (6) is fixed to the lower part of the transfer hand mounting plate (15),
It holds the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4). The gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) are configured to approach / separate from each other by the chucking / unchucking operation of the chuck (6). Further, a cylinder (7) is attached through the housing of the chuck (6), and a pressing member (5) is attached to the tip of the piston (7a).
Is mounted so as to lie in the center of the transfer hand (51). Specifically, the pressing member (5) is preferably a round bar or a flat plate as shown.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged front view showing only the transfer hand (51) of FIG. 4, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are left side views and right side views, respectively. The gripping arm (3) and peeling arm (4) shown in FIG. 1 are in the closest position to each other,
At this time, the gap A between the tip of the gripping needle (1) and the tip of the peeling needle (2) is 0.5 mm when an agar piece having a diameter of about 4 mm is used as the transferred object. The distance C between the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) is 4 mm. The gripping needle (1) is attached horizontally, but the peeling needle (2) is attached with an inclination angle α (about 10 °) so that the tip of the peeling needle is lowered, and the vertical direction between the tips of these needles. The gap B in the direction is 0.5 mm. The inclination angle α is preferably in the range of 10 ° to 15 °. The diameter of the base portion of the needle is 0.5 mm for both the grasping needle (1) and the peeling needle. A pair of gripping needles (1) are provided as shown in FIG. 2, and the distance between them is 1 mm. The peeling needle (2) is one as shown in FIG. 3, and its center is at the midpoint between the pair of gripping needles (1, 1).

Next, the operation of the jelly-shaped small article transfer hand (51) of the agar piece transfer device configured as described above will be described in detail. 6 to 11 are front views showing only the lower end of the jelly-shaped small article transfer hand (51). First, the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) are connected to the cylinder (8) (fourth).
Driven by the figure) and descends to the descending end (6th
Figure). At this time, the tip of the peeling needle (2) has a petri dish (21).
Abut. Next, the chuck (6) (FIG. 4) performs a chucking operation, and the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) approach each other, so that the pair of gripping needles (1) side the agar piece (22). Then, the peeling needle (2) goes under the agar piece (22) and lifts it up a little (Fig. 7). At this time, the gap between the tip of the grasping needle (1) and the tip of the peeling needle (2) is 0.5 mm. The right half of the agar piece (22) is slightly lifted and deformed so that it is slightly slanted. Next, when the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) are lifted, the agar piece (2) supported by the three needles (1, 1, 2) installed in the arm.
2) peels off from the petri dish (21) and rises (8th)
Figure). Here, the transfer hand (51) includes the support column (12) (fourth).
Rotate horizontally about the shaft as shown in the figure to transfer the petri dish (2
3) Stop on. Next, lower the transfer hand (51) to the lower end, and place the agar piece (2) on the bottom of the dish (23).
Make a slight contact with 2) (Fig. 9). Next, the cylinder (7) (Fig. 4) is driven to lower the pressing member (5) to the lower end (Fig. 10). The agar piece (22), whose upper surface is pressed by the pressing member (5), slightly deforms the left half of the agar piece (22) in close contact with the bottom surface of the dish (23).
At this time, the mode of close contact between the agar piece (22) and the petri dish (23) is almost the same as in FIG. 7, that is, the state immediately before peeling. Next, when the pressing member (5) is first lifted and then the chuck (6) is unchucked, the gripping arm (3) and the peeling arm (4) are separated from each other, so that the gripping needle (1) moves to the agar piece (1). 22), and the peeling needle (2) slips through the bottom surface of the agar piece (22).
Since the pressing member (5) has already retracted upward when the three needles (1, 1, 2) have come off, the agar piece (22) is not pressed from above, but at the stage shown in FIG. Since almost half of it is once in close contact with the bottom surface of the petri dish (23), it does not follow the gripping needle (1) or the peeling needle (2), and no displacement occurs.

In this way, a series of transfer operations for one agar piece (22) is completed, and then the same operation is repeated for the next agar piece.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the jelly-like small article is pierced and held by the two first needle-shaped pieces provided substantially horizontally, and the tip is lowered. It is inclined within the range in which the tip is smaller than the thickness of the transferred article.
Since the second needle-shaped piece, which is lower than the height of the tip of the jelly-shaped piece, is inserted under the bottom surface of the jelly-shaped small article, the jelly-shaped small article is peeled from the container. The small article is easily peeled from the container, stably carried by the first and second needle-shaped pieces, and transferred.
Further, since each needle-shaped piece is provided with a pressing member that presses the jelly-shaped small article in close contact with the petri dish before the needle-shaped pieces start to move away from each other in order to withdraw from the transfer destination jelly-shaped small article, The jelly-like small articles will not be displaced even when they leave. Thus, according to the transfer hand of the present invention, it is possible to transfer the jelly-like small articles quickly and extremely reliably with a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a front view showing a transfer hand according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are left and right side views thereof, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are respectively FIG. The front view and the side view showing the configuration of the entire agar piece transfer device having the transfer hand shown in FIGS. 6 to 11 are front views showing the procedure of transferring the agar piece using the transfer hand shown in FIG.
12 and 13 are perspective views showing an example of transfer of the agar piece, FIG. 12 is a petri dish on which the agar piece to be transferred is placed, and FIG. 13 is another petri dish on which the agar piece is transferred. Show. In the figure, (1) is a grasping needle, (2) is a peeling needle, and (3)
Is a gripping arm, (4) is a peeling arm, (5) is a pressing member, and (22) is an agar piece. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Koji Ohba 1-2-12 Hinode, Hachimanto-ku, Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture (72) Inventor Hiroshi Yamaguchi 625-3 Sue, Munakata City, Fukuoka Prefecture

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transfer article comprising a jelly-like small article having a substantially short cylindrical shape and having a substantially circular end surface thereof placed horizontally, and the article is a transfer article which can be opposed to and separated from one another. In a transfer hand that is gripped by a pair of arms and transfers the transferred article from one mounted position to another position while maintaining its posture, one of the pair of arms extends substantially horizontally. A gripping arm provided with two first needle-like pieces that are provided and arranged in parallel on a substantially horizontal plane with a horizontal interval smaller than the width of the transferred article. The first needle-like pieces are tapered toward the respective tips so that the transferred article is pierced and grasped from the side surface in the approaching operation of the pair of arms. The other is the gripping arm Qualitatively an oppositely stripping arm arranged, the first
A second one having substantially the same shape as each of the needle-shaped pieces and extending substantially in the middle downward of the two first needle-shaped pieces.
The second needle-shaped piece is inclined so that the tip of the second needle-shaped piece is lowered, and the tip of the second needle-shaped piece is inclined within a range smaller than the thickness of the transferred article. Is lower than that of the transfer target article, and is moved into the lower surface of the transferred article by the approaching operation of the pair of arms to separate the transferred article from the mounting surface, and to transfer the transferred article together with the two first needle-shaped pieces. In the relationship in the plan view, a pressing member for retaining the transferred article is provided at a position between the gripping arm and the peeling arm, and the pressing member always holds the gripping member. Before and after the first needle-shaped piece and the second needle-shaped piece start to be separated from each other by the separating operation of the pair of arms, while being located above the space between the arm for peeling and the arm for peeling and being movable up and down. To the transfer destination at the transfer destination Abut the item,
As a result, a part of the bottom surface of the transferred article is brought into close contact with the mounting surface, and thereafter, the article is moved up and retracted upward from the transferred article. Transfer of small items.