JPH07253432A - Stirrer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce carry-over and to increase a life of an agitating rod by selecting a preferable agitating rod in response to a using reagent. CONSTITUTION:When reagent 4 is dispensed in a reaction tube 5 from a reagent unit 8, an agitator 11 selects an agitating rod 22 of a material corresponding to the dispensed reagent 4 from a containing vessel 24. This selection of the using rod corresponding to the reagent is previously registered by a user according to measuring conditions of a system, and instructed by a system controller 18 based on it. A drive motor 11 is disposed on the rod 22 to be selected of the vessel 24 by the rotation of a rotary shaft of the agitator 11, and moved down. The motor 21 and the rod 22 are made at least at one of a permanent magnet, and magnetically coupled. After coupling, a cylinder electromagnet of a container 28 for containing the selected rod 22 is controlled by a controller 18, and energized, fixing of an arm is eliminated, the rod 22 is lifted, finished for mounting, and agitated. Thus, the rod 22 of the material corresponding to the reagent can be automatically selected thereby to reduce carry-over.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stirrer used in an automatic analyzer such as a biochemical analyzer and an immunoanalyzer, and more particularly to a technique for automatically selecting a material of a stir bar according to a reagent used. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an automatic analyzer is used to measure the concentration of a specific component by adding a desired reagent to a sample such as serum collected from a human body and reacting it. In such an automatic analyzer, a stirring device is attached to stir the inside of the test tube containing the sample and the reagent.

In the conventional stirring device, a stirring rod having a small motor, for example, an iron needle as a shaft and a stirring rod formed of polypropylene (PP) like a screw of a ship is fixed and attached to each stirring sample. It was being stirred while being sequentially washed.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional stirring device, the same stirring rod is always used for all the reagents to be used. However, there is a drawback that the measurement accuracy is lowered because the so-called carry-over occurs that the stirring is performed this time without completely cleaning the reagent. Further, there is a problem that the life of the stirring bar is shortened.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a conventional problem, and an object thereof is to appropriately select a stirring rod made of a suitable material according to a reagent to be used for stirring. The object is to provide a stirring device capable of

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a stirrer for stirring a liquid injected into a container used in an automatic analyzer, the stirrer being inserted into the container, A plurality of types of stirring rods that stir the liquid, a stirring drive unit that is configured to be attachable to and removable from the stirring rod, and that applies a rotational driving force to the stirring rod, and a selection unit that selects the stirring rod attached to the stirring drive unit. , And an attaching / detaching means for performing an operation to attach the stirring rod selected by the selecting means to the stirring drive section.

Further, in the present invention, there is provided a storage container for storing each of the plurality of types of stirring rods, and the storage container has a water intake port for introducing cleaning water therein and a discharge port for discharging the introduced cleaning water therein. It is desirable to have it.

Further, it is desirable to provide a plurality of stirring rods of the same type.

Further, it is desirable that the plural kinds of stirring rods have at least a material of gold, stainless steel or Teflon.

[0010]

According to the present invention constructed as described above, a suitable stirring rod is selected according to the reagent to be used, and is automatically attached / detached to / from the stirring drive unit. In addition, in the storage container, each stirring rod is always washed with washing water. Therefore, it is possible to reduce carryover and extend the life of the stirring rod.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the outline of an automatic analyzer in which the stirring device according to the present invention is used.

The automatic analyzer shown in the figure has a sample section 7 in which a plurality of sample tubes 6a containing samples 6 such as serum collected from a human body are arranged, and a reagent 4 corresponding to a test item for each type. Reagent part 8 having reagent tube 4c inserted
And a reaction part 9 having a plurality of reaction tubes 5 for reacting the sample 6 by mixing the sample 6 and the reagent 4.

An operation unit 15 for inputting information such as test items, a CRT 16 for displaying measurement results, and a printer 1
7 and a system controller 18 that controls the entire automatic analyzer.

The sample section 7 has a sample suction / dispensing mechanism 7a for sucking and dispensing the sample 6 in the sample tube 6a. The sample suction / dispensing mechanism 7a is controlled by the system controller 18. , Desired sample tube 6a
Is selected, and a predetermined amount of the sample in the sample tube 6a is sucked, and then it can be dispensed into a predetermined reaction tube 5 of the reaction section 9.

The reagent section 8 has a reagent suction / dispensing mechanism 8a for sucking and dispensing the reagent 4 corresponding to the test item in the reagent tube 4c from the nozzle 1. The reagent suction / dispensing mechanism 8a and the system controller. Under the control of 18, a desired reagent tube 4c is selected, and a predetermined amount of reagent 4 in this reagent tube 4c is sucked and then dispensed into the reaction tube 5 of the reaction section 9. .

The reaction section 9 includes a stirring section 11 for stirring a mixed liquid of the sample 6 and the reagent 4 dispensed in the reaction tube 5, and a reaction before and after the analysis when the analysis is performed in the reaction section 9. It has a cleaning section 13 for cleaning the inside of the tube 5, and a constant temperature section 14 for keeping the mixed solution in the reaction tube 5 constant so that stable measurement can be performed.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of the stirring section 11. As shown in the figure, the agitator 11 has a drive motor 21 mounted on a plate branched in a Y-shape from a rotary shaft 23, and the drive motor 21 can be attached to and detached from the drive motor 21 by a magnetic attraction force. A stir bar 22 is attached. Then, the stirring rod 22 is inserted into the desired reaction tube 5 by the rotational movement and vertical movement of the rotary shaft 23, and the drive motor 2
The operation of 1 causes stirring.

The stirring rod 22 can be made of various materials depending on the type of the reagent 4 to be dispensed into the reaction tube 5, and is stored in a storage container 24 as shown in FIG. The storage container 24 shown in the figure includes a plurality of storage portions 28 (three in the figure) for storing the stirring rods 22 made of various materials, and each storage portion 28 is washed from the water supply passage 25. Water is injected, drained from the drainage channel 26, and the stirring rod 22 is washed. Further, in order to control attachment / detachment of the stirring rod 22, a cylinder box 27 for switching between fixing and releasing each stirring rod 22 is provided.

4 and 5 are explanatory views showing the detailed structure of the cylinder 29 arranged in the cylinder box 27. FIG. 4 is a side view and FIG. 5 is a plan view. As shown, a spring 33 is provided in the cylinder 29,
One end of the spring 33 is connected to the end of the cylinder 29, and the other end is connected to the metal plate 31. In addition, the electromagnet 32 is placed at a position slightly separated from the metal plate 31 in the cylinder 29.
When the electromagnet 32 is energized, the metal plate 31 comes into contact with the electromagnet 31 to move the stroke of the cylinder 29 inward, and when the energization is released, the spring 33 is attached.
The stroke moves outward due to the urging force of.

The stirring rod 22 is provided at the tip of the stroke.
A fixing arm 30b is attached, and an arm 30a is attached at a position facing the arm 30b. Therefore, it is possible to control the fixing and releasing of the stirring rod 22 by the stroke operation of the cylinder 29.
The cylinder 29 is used by the system controller 18
Works under the control of.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
When the reagent 4 is dispensed from the reagent unit 8 to the reaction tube 5 shown in FIG. 1, the stirring unit 11 selects the stirring rod 22 made of a material corresponding to the dispensed reagent 4 from the storage container 24 shown in FIG. ..

The selection of the stirring rod is carried out by the user in advance by registering which stirring rod corresponding to the reagent is used according to the measurement conditions of the system, and based on the information, the system controller 18 issues a command. Further, which stirrer to use is determined by the system controller 18 by a certain criterion,
For example, a standard method such as FEP (Teflon type) for oxygen type reagents and SUS for latex type reagents may be incorporated in advance.

The rotating shaft 23 of the stirring section shown in FIG.
And the drive motor 21 is moved to the storage container 24 shown in FIG.
The drive motor 2 is positioned above the stirring rod 22 to be selected.
Lower 1 At this time, the drive motor 21, the stirring rod 22
Since at least one of them is a permanent magnet, the drive motor 21 and the stirring rod 22 are coupled by a magnetic force.

Thereafter, the electromagnet 32 of the cylinder 29 of the storage portion 28 in which the selected stirring rod 22 is stored is energized by the control of the system controller 18, and the arm 30
The fixing by a and 30b is released, the stirring rod 22 is pulled up, the attachment of the stirring rod 22 is completed, and stirring is performed.

When removing the stirring rod 22, the above-mentioned mounting procedure may be performed in reverse. That is, the stirring rod 22 attached to the drive motor 21 is attached to the arms 30a, 3
0b is placed in the empty storage portion 28 in the released state, and the electromagnet 32 is de-energized. As a result, the arms 30a,
The stirring rod 22 is fixed by 30b, and when the drive motor 21 is pulled up in this state, the stirring rod 22 is removed.

In this way, the stirring rod 22 made of a material corresponding to each reagent 4 can be automatically selected.

Next, the material of the stirring rod 22 suitable for each reagent 4 will be described. Table 1 below shows the carryover (%) when using the materials of each reagent 4 and each stirring rod 22.
Is shown. In addition, this result shows the value when the stirrer is used without cleaning, and is a comparison of the degree of contamination of each material alone. The addition of the cleaning system according to the present invention can be expected to further reduce carryover.

[0028]

[Table 1] “FEP” and “PFA” shown in Table 1 are types of Teflon-based materials. In addition, "AST" of the reagent shown in Table 1 is glutamic acid oxaloacetate transaminase (GO
T), "ChE" is cholinesterase, "γ-GT"
Is γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, and “ALT” is glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GP
T), "LD" indicates lactate dehydrogenase, and "CRP" indicates C-reactive protein.

From the data shown in Table 1, it can be seen that carryover is reduced as compared with the conventional stirring bar.
Further, by selecting one of the materials of FEP, gold, PFA, and stainless that has the smallest carryover according to each reagent, the influence of carryover can be reduced as much as possible. For example, the reagent “CR
It is preferable to use a stainless stir bar in order to stir the reaction tube in which "P" is dispensed.

In this way, according to the present embodiment, the stirring rod 22 suitable for each reagent is appropriately selected for stirring, so carryover can be reduced and the life of the stirring rod can be extended. Can be planned.

Further, when the stirring rod 22 is put in the storage container 24 shown in FIG. 3, since it is designed to be successively washed with the washing water from the water suction passage 25, reliable washing can be performed. In the above embodiment, the storage container 24
Although a plurality of types of stirring rods 22 are provided in the above configuration, a plurality of stirring rods 22 made of the same material may be provided.
In this case, for example, if the stirring rods made of the same material are used alternately, the cleaning efficiency is improved and the carryover can be expected to be further reduced.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the material of the stirring rod can be automatically selected according to the reagent to be used, carryover can be reduced and the life of the stirring rod can be extended. Further, since the inside of the storage container that stores each stirring rod is washed with the washing water, the washing efficiency is improved. Further, if a plurality of stirring rods made of the same material are prepared, the cleaning efficiency can be further improved, and the carryover can be further reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an automatic analyzer to which a stirring device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a stirring unit.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a storage container that stores a stirring rod.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing fixation of a stirring rod by a cylinder.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing fixation of a stirring rod by a cylinder.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Nozzle 4 Reagent 5 Reaction Tube 6 Sample 7 Sample Part 8 Reagent Part 9 Reaction Part 11 Stirring Part 18
System controller 21 Drive motor 22 Stirring bar 23 Rotating shaft
24 Storage Container 25 Water Supply Channel 26 Drainage Channel 29 Cylinders 30a, 30b Arm 31 Metal Plate 32 Electromagnet 33 Spring

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A stirring device for stirring a liquid injected into a container used in an automatic analyzer, comprising a plurality of types of stirring rods inserted into the container to stir the liquid in the container, and the stirring rod. And a stirring drive unit that gives a rotational driving force to the stirring rod, a selection unit that selects the stirring rod to be attached to the stirring drive unit, and the stirring rod that is selected by the selection unit is the stirring drive unit. An agitating device comprising: an attaching / detaching means for performing an operation so as to be attached to a section. 2. A storage container for accommodating each of the plurality of types of stirring rods, the storage container having a water inlet for introducing cleaning water and an outlet for discharging the introduced cleaning water. The stirring device according to claim 1, which is characterized in that. 3. The stirring device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of stirring rods of the same type are provided. 4. The stirrer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of stirring rods include at least materials of gold, stainless steel, and Teflon (registered trademark).