Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Automatic and/or material-triggered control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-05
2003-05-27
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Automatic and/or material-triggered control
C156S539000, C156S556000, C156S563000, C156S573000, C422S091000, C118S677000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06568447
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cover glass adhering device, more precisely relates to a cover glass adhering device, which mounts a cover glass onto a mounting medium covering a microscope specimen on a slide glass.
A method of making a microscope specimen, e.g., a tissue slice of an affected part of a patient, is shown in FIG.
17
. The method comprising the steps of: slicing a tissue of the affected part; mounting the tissue slice
10
onto a slide glass
12
; removing fat from the tissue slice
10
; dyeing the tissue slice
10
; dropping a mounting medium, which includes a solvent, onto the tissue slice
10
on the slide glass
12
; and mounting a cover glass
16
onto a mounting medium pattern
140
, which is formed by dropping the mounting medium along the tissue slice
10
. The solvent in the mounting medium evaporates, and the mounting medium solidifies, so that the cover glass
16
is adhered on the slide glass
12
.
For example, in hospitals, a lot of microscope specimens must be made in a short time.
To automatically make the microscope specimens, a dropping device (see FIG.
18
), which automatically drops the mounting medium onto the specimens
10
on the slide glasses
12
, was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazettes No. 59-157533 and No. 61-66141. In
FIG. 18
, compressed air, which is compressed by a compressor
102
, is introduced into an upper inner space of a container
100
, in which the mounting medium including the solvent is reservoired, via a regulator
106
of a pressurizing pipe
104
. The mounting medium in the container
100
is pushed and sent, by the compressed air in the container
100
, to a tank
112
via a spouting pipe
108
, whose one end is opened in a lower part of the container
100
. The mounting medium in the tank
112
is dropped onto the specimen on the slide glass
12
from a drop nozzle
114
. Amount of dropping the mounting medium can be controlled by a control valve
110
, which opens and closes with regular time separations. A table
116
, on which the slide glass
12
is mounted, is slid in a direction of an arrow, so that the mounting medium can be dropped along the specimen
10
and the mounting medium pattern
140
having the prescribed pattern can be formed.
Usually, a plurality of cover glasses
16
, each of which will cover the specimen
10
on the slide glass
12
, are piled in a holder container. Thus, the uppermost glass
16
of the piled cover glasses must be taken out from the holder container.
The cover glass
16
has a thickness of 0.06-0.25 mm and flat surfaces, so the piled cover glasses
16
are mutually tightly fitted.
A device for taking out the uppermost cover glass of the piled cover glasses
16
from a holder container was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazette No. 58-30636. The device is shown in FIG.
19
.
In the device shown in
FIG. 19
, a press member
204
is pierced through an elevating member
202
, which can be moved in the vertical direction, and its lower end
205
is biased downward by a spring
203
. A sucking pad
206
is provided to the elevating member
202
. To take out the uppermost cover glass
16
a
of the piled cover glasses
16
in a holder container
200
, the elevating member
202
is moved downward to push one end of the uppermost glass
16
a
by the lower end
205
of the press member
204
, and the other end of the uppermost glass
16
a
is pulled upward by the sucking member
206
of the elevating member
202
. At that time, an upper end of the press member
204
is projected upward, against the elasticity of the spring
203
, from the elevating member
202
.
Next, the elevating member
202
is moved upward as shown in FIG.
19
. With this action, the other end of the cover glass
16
a
is pulled upward by the sucking member
206
, and the cover glass
16
a
is bent downward, so that the cover glass
16
a
can be removed from the piled glasses
16
and taken out from the holder container
200
.
A device for mounting and adhering the cover glass
16
, which has been taken out from the holder container
200
, onto the mounting medium pattern
140
, which has been formed on the slide glass
12
by dropping the mounting medium, was disclosed in the Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3-40367. The device is shown in FIG.
20
.
In the device shown in
FIG. 20
, a press member
306
is pierced through a holder member
300
, which can be moved in the vertical direction, and its lower end
304
is biased downward by a spring
302
. A sucking pad
308
is provided to the holder member
300
. To mount and adhere the cover glass
16
onto the mounting medium pattern
140
, which includes the specimen
10
and which is formed on the slide glass
12
by dropping the mounting medium, one end of the cover glass
16
is sucked by the sucking pad
308
. At that time, the other end of the cover glass
16
is pushed downward by the lower end
304
of the press member
306
, so that the other end of the cover glass
16
is located below the one end thereof.
Next, the holder member
300
is moved downward and toward the slide glass
12
, which has been horizontally mounted on a table
310
, until the other end of the cover glass
16
contacts an upper face of one end of the slide glass
12
. With further moving the holder member
300
downward, the one end of the cover glass
16
is gradually moved toward the upper face of the slide glass
12
. With this action, the cover glass
16
pushes the mounting medium pattern
140
toward the other end of the slide glass
12
and tightly fits thereon, so that air bubbles between the slide glass
12
and the cover glass
16
can be pushed out by the cover glass
16
.
Upon completing or immediately before completing the action of mounting the cover glass
16
, the sucking pad
308
releases the cover glass
16
and the holder member
300
is moved upward, so that the cover glass
12
can be left on the slide glass
12
.
The inventors of the present invention have studied a cover glass adhering device, which includes a unit for taking out the cover glass and a unit for mounting the cover glass, so as to automatically make a microscope specimen.
In the cover glass adhering device, the sequential steps for adhering the cover glass onto a specimen on a slide glass can be executed automatically.
However, the cover glass adhering device has following disadvantages: it is difficult to always drop fixed amount of mounting medium onto the specimen; it is difficult to always form a mounting medium pattern into a prescribed pattern; the device must be large in size; and a long cover glass cannot be used.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a cover glass adhering device, which is capable of dropping fixed amount of mounting medium, using cover glasses having various length, and being small in size.
The inventors have studied and found: the size of the device can be smaller than that of the conventional device, in which the slide glass is slid, by sliding a drop nozzle; and fixed amount of the mounting medium can be supplied by using a proper supply unit for supplying fixed amount of the mounting medium, e.g., a plunger pump, and removing a drop of the mounting medium dangling from said drop nozzle.
And, they found that mounting medium patterns can be always formed into a prescribed pattern by the steps of: stopping a movement of the drop nozzle at a position, at which the drop action of the mounting medium is begun; beginning the drop action thereof; and moving the drop nozzle along the slide glass.
Further, they found that a rotational angle of a holding member, which holds one end of the uppermost cover glass of a plurality of cover glasses, can be made narrower by slantingly piling the cover glasses in a holder container.
The cover glass adhering device of the present invention, which mounts a cover glass onto a mounting medium covering a microscope specimen on a slide glass, comprises:
a drop nozzle for dropping the mounting medium onto the specimen on a slide glass, which is held horizontally;
a removing
Iijima Kiyokazu
Sakai Takayoshi
Takizawa Seiichi
Tokudaiji Shinji
Yoshiike Takashi
Crispino Richard
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Kabushiki Kaisha Tiyoda Seisakusho
Purvis Sue A.
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