Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Disassembling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-26
2001-03-20
Rosenbaum, I Cuda (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Disassembling
C029S426500, C029S235000, C029S801000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202278
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically removing sealing plugs, stoppers or caps (hereinafter referred to as plugs) from drawn blood tubes or test tubes (hereinafter referred to as containers) at the time of clinical or laboratory examination and also a method therefor.
In the field of clinical examination, open drawn blood tubes and vacuum drawn blood tubes have been widely used as containers for materials to be tested or examined such as blood (hereinafter referred to as samples). A sample drawn and collected by a syringe is in general poured into an open drawn blood tube and kept therein being closed and sealed with a plug or cap. In this case, the tube (the container) does not have to keep the the sample in a vacuumed state, and the container and plug are usually made of plastic such as polyethylene or the like. A sample that must be kept in a vacuumed state is contained in a vacuum tube, and a rubber plug or the like is used in order to stably maintain the vacuumed state within the tube for a long time.
In advance of removal of a plug from of a container for analysis, a collected sample needs to be put in a centrifuge to separate the components thereof. There have been automatic plug removing methods using apparatus as well as manual plug removal by a person's hands at work. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No.263558/1989 (Tokukaihei 1-263558) discloses an automatic plug removing apparatus having a cap holding down member with a recess. In this apparatus, a cap provided on a drawn blood tube is fitted into the recess of the apparatus and the cap holding down member is actuated to apply a twist and the like to the cap in the recess so as to loosen the seal between the cap and the drawn blood tube and then the cap is removed from the tube.
The centrifuging process and transportation prior to the plug removal usually cause samples to adhere to a plug on the container. Such sample adhering to the plug might scatter due to a shock at the time of removing the plug from the container or might drop down due to swinging, vibration or the like at the time of disposal. Such scatter or drops of the sample may inadvertently enter other containers and end up with contamination of samples in the other containers. As a result, correct analysis for the respective samples can not be obtained even if high-accuracy analysis is conducted. Such contamination causes a serious error in the results of clinical examination and the like, and therefore must be absolutely avoided.
Manual plug removal by a person at work tends to cause injury, infection to the person due to the scatter of samples, and contamination of samples in other containers.
In order to avoid scattering and splashing of samples, some of conventional automatic plug removing apparatus provide improved arrangements. For example, one gives a twist or a circular arc oscillating movement to a plug and then removes it from a container with a lighter force, or another reduces a plug removing speed just before a plug is removed away from a container. There is another apparatus which has a dish for receiving and collecting liquid drops from a plug in order to prevent inadvertent sample drops at the time of disposing the plug. However, these conventional apparatus fail to prevent samples from scattering or splashing completely. Especially when a plurality of containers are simultaneously put under the plug removing process on a batch basis, complete prevention of contamination cannot be obtained by the conventional apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for automatically removing plugs from containers without contamination between samples in the containers and a method therefor.
The apparatus of the present invention is an automatic plug removing apparatus having a conveying section and a plug removing section, in which, while a plurality of containers sealed with plugs are being conveyed on a batch basis, the plugs are automatically removed from the containers. The plug removing section includes a holding means for holding a plurality of containers with plugs in an immovable state, a grasping means for grasping the plugs provided to the containers and then removing them from the containers, driving means for rocking and vertically moving the plug grasping means, and partition plates which are insertable into gaps between the plurality of containers. The apparatus may further includes an adjusting mechanism for the level of containers so as to allow the plug removing process to be done irrespective of the length of the containers on the batch. Furthermore, the apparatus may include a suction block which is positioned in the vicinity of the upper openings of the containers at the time of the plug removing process.
The method for automatic plug removal during conveyance of the present invention includes a prerequisite step of providing a plurality of containers sealed with a plurality of plugs on a conveying section on a batch basis, a first step of holding the plurality of containers with plugs in an immovable state, a second step of grasping the plugs which seal the containers, a third step of inserting partition plates into gaps between the plurality containers, and a fourth step of loosening the seal between the plugs and the containers and then lifting the plugs up to remove them from the containers. Here, the second and the third step are done in random order after the first and before the fourth step.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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patent: 4068798 (1978-01-01), Rohde
patent: 4217798 (1980-08-01), McCarthy et al.
patent: 4465200 (1984-08-01), Percarpio
patent: 4522089 (1985-06-01), Alvi
patent: 4704539 (1987-11-01), Dequesnes et al.
patent: 4726264 (1988-02-01), Bost
patent: 4841818 (1989-06-01), Plapp et al.
patent: 5313858 (1994-05-01), Stitt
patent: 5340544 (1994-08-01), Nishikawa et al.
patent: 5490321 (1996-02-01), Kaneko
patent: 0 629 858 (1994-12-01), None
patent: 1-263558 (1989-10-01), None
patent: 5-228379 (1993-09-01), None
Akiyama Akio
Goda Fumio
Nakayama Naoki
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld L.L.P.
Compton Eric
Cuda Rosenbaum I
Daisen Sangyo Co., Ltd.
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