JPH07114985B2 - Decantation equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically performing a decantation operation of gently pouring out a sample or the like in a container.

[Prior art]

As one of the gene manipulation techniques, a method of connecting a target gene to a plasmid by gene recombination operation, putting it in a microorganism such as Escherichia coli, and culturing the Escherichia coli in a large amount is often used. Are known. From the Escherichia coli mass-produced in this way, only the plasmid will be taken out. Various functions are required to automate this plasmid separation process, and one of them is decane that transfers or discards the supernatant of the sample centrifuged in a test tube-like container to another container. There is a rotation operation function. Conventionally, to automatically perform this decantation operation,
As shown in the figure, it is performed by an electric pipette 42 attached to a moving mechanism 41 that can move in the front-rear, left-right, and up-down directions, or as shown in FIG. By rotating the portion 53 corresponding to the wrist and tilting the container 51, only the supernatant liquid portion is poured out.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

By the way, in the decantation mechanism using the electric pipette 42 as described above, the tip 43 at the pipette tip must be replaced with a new one in order to prevent contamination each time the type of the separated liquid is different, and many A great deal of time and chips are required to separate the sample and perform it automatically. When using the robot hand 52, the robot hand 52
A rotation drive motor 54 for rotating the wrist portion 53 and other mechanisms are required, and a complicated and high-grade robot hand is required. In addition, since the container 51 is directly gripped by the robot hand 52, "slip" or the like is likely to occur and the grip becomes unstable. The present invention has been made in view of such conventional technical problems in order to effectively solve them. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a decantation device that can be operated with a simple automatic mechanism and can perform a reliable decantation operation.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The decantation apparatus according to the present invention has the following configuration in order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems and achieve the object. That is, a container holding part that is attached to a moving means that can move in the front-rear direction in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction in the vertical direction, and that can support the sample tube-shaped container rotatably around a horizontal axis at a position on the upper opening side thereof, And a horizontal bar member capable of contacting a lower portion of the container held by the container holding portion.

[Operation and effect of the invention]

In the decantation apparatus according to the present invention, with the horizontal bar member in contact with the lower portion of the container held by the container holding portion, the moving means moves horizontally and vertically to hold the container. The container is swung and tilted. The container is very stable because it is supported at two places, the container holding part and the horizontal bar member, and it is extremely suitable for the operation of giving the delicate operation of gently and slowly pouring out the supernatant liquid in the container to the container. The structure is convenient, and the structure is also extremely simple.

【Example】

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a schematic view for planarly explaining a schematic configuration in one embodiment of a plasmid separating apparatus in which the decantation apparatus of the present invention is adopted, and FIG. 2 is a plasmid separating apparatus in which the decantation apparatus of the present invention is adopted. It is a simplified perspective view which shows one Example. Also,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the decantation device of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the sample container for the plasmid separating apparatus of this embodiment employs a quadruple tube 1 in which four test tube-like tubes are connected and integrated by a frame 2. The plasmid separating apparatus of this embodiment has four tubes 1 in a space on the left side of the plasmid when viewed two-dimensionally.
A tube rack 3 for stocking is stored, and various mechanical parts for separation processing are arranged in a space on the approximately right half. Further, in the plasmid separating apparatus of the present embodiment, the sample is put in the above-mentioned quadruple tube 1, and a certain amount of reagent is injected from the liquid supplying device 14 into the liquid supplying nozzle 15, and further this is centrifuged by the centrifuge 13. The process is automatically performed according to a series of processes such as centrifuging with, or reversing the rotation direction in small increments to stir, and removing and discarding the supernatant liquid by decantation operation. The plasmid will be isolated. In this series of processes, the quadruple tubes 1 are reciprocated between the tube rack 3 and the centrifuge 13 and between the centrifuge 13 and the decanting position so that the robot hand 9 shown in FIG. And other transportation means. These moving means are arranged on the upper part of the entire plasmid separating apparatus of the present embodiment, and are shown in the upper side of FIG. 1 and extend in the left-right direction, and are connected to the X-axis driving motor 4 by an X-axis driving screw 5. It is composed of a Y-axis drive screw 7 connected to the Y-axis drive motor 6 traveling on the X-drive dynamic screw 5 and extending in the vertical direction in the figure, and a slider 8 traveling on the Y-axis drive screw 7. ing. The robot hand 9 described above is attached to the slider 8 as a container holding unit. The robot hand 9 is provided with two grip finger portions 11 extending straight in a substantially downward direction. On the other hand, a rotating shaft 10 projecting in the longitudinal direction is provided at both ends of the quadruple tube 1, and the rotating shaft 10 is rotatably supported at the tip of the grip finger portion 11. A receiving portion 12 formed in a keyhole shape is provided. 4-tube 1
The frame 2 is assembled on the relatively upper side of the tubes with the open side of each tube facing upward, and the rotation shaft 10 of the frame 2 is supported by the receiving portion 12 of the grip finger portion 11 to form four consecutive frames. The tube 1 is rotatably suspended by the robot hand 9, and the quadruple tube 1 is transported to a target position in a suspended state as the slider 8 moves. In addition, the two grip finger portions 11 expand and contract with respect to each other to engage and disengage from the rotary shaft 10 of the quadruple tube 1. Reference numeral 16 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 denotes a decantation stage, which is a place where the supernatant of the centrifuged sample is collected in another quadruple tube 1. Next to it is a waste liquid port 17, which is a port of a waste liquid duct 18 for discarding the supernatant liquid that has become unnecessary by centrifugation. The decantation stage 16 and the waste liquid port 17 are provided with a bar member 19 which is installed substantially horizontally as shown in FIG. For the decantation operation, that is, the operation of gently and slowly pouring out only the supernatant liquid from the sample container, the lower portion of the quadruple tube 1 suspended by the robot hand 9 is brought into contact with the bar member 19, and further the bar member 19 is placed. After the robot hand 9 is horizontally moved so as to exceed the range, the robot hand 9 is lowered downward. At this time, the quadruple tube 1 is rotated and inclined centering on the lower part thereof so as to lower the opening, and the supernatant liquid in each tube is gradually poured out little by little.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view for planarly explaining a schematic configuration in one embodiment of a plasmid separating apparatus in which the decantation apparatus of the present invention is adopted, and FIG. 2 is a plasmid separating apparatus in which the decantation apparatus of the present invention is adopted. FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a view showing an embodiment of the decantation device of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a conventional decantation device, and FIG. It is a figure which shows another example of the decantation apparatus. 1 ... 4 tubes as a sample tube container, 4
...... X-axis driving motor as moving means, 5 ... X-axis driving screw as moving means, 6 ... Y-axis driving motor as moving means, 7 ... Y-axis driving screw as moving means, 8 ...
... Slider as moving means, 9 ... Robot hand as container holding part, 19 ... Horizontal bar member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tube-shaped container (1) for a sample, which is attached to a moving means (4,5,6,7,8) capable of moving in the front-rear direction in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction in the vertical direction, at a position on the upper opening side thereof A container holding part (9) capable of pivoting about a horizontal axis and a horizontal bar member (19) capable of contacting the lower part of the container (1) held by the container holding part (9). The container holding part (9) is moved horizontally and vertically with the horizontal bar member (19) in contact with the lower part of the container (1) held by the container holding part (9). Due to
A decantation device, wherein the held container (1) is rotated and tilted.