Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.

Boehringer Mannheim Gmbh

Hiroyasu Uchida

Katsuhiro Kambara

Shigenori Watari

Ryo Miyake

Takeshi Shibuya

Hajime Katou

Ryuji Tao

Tomonori Mimura

Takenori Okusa

Miki Taki

Akira Inagaki

Yoichiro Suzuki

Mitsuru Oonuma

Isamu Takekoshi

Atsushi Katayama

Katsuhiro Kanbara

Hiroshi Mitsumaki

Yasuhiko Sasaki

Hajime Kato

Takao Terayama

Akira Koide

Tetsuaki Abe

Atushi Ninomiya

Atsushi Ninomiya

Yasuhiro Yoshimura

Masaru Yokoyama

Yasumasa Matsuda

Takashi Sato

Yoshihiro Nagaoka

Tomoyuki Tobita

Naruo Watanabe

Mitsuru Ohnuma

Akira Nagasu

Hiroaki Ishizawa

Syoji Sagae

Yutaka Sakurai

Takeo Nagata

Akihiro Shimase

Yasuaki Komiyama

Masatoshi Kasahara

Takehide Sato

Kenichi Itoh

Yosimi Yamamoto

Yasushi Niiyama

Youichirou Suzuki

Chemical analysis apparatus for inserting a sample serving as an analyzable substance and a reagent into a reaction container and agitating by irradiating sound waves to the reaction container, the chemical analysis apparatus including: a piezoelectric element generating sound waves; and a driver for driving the piezoelectric element, and including: a wave form producing device for producing an oscillation waveform having a fundamental frequency of the sound waves to be irradiated; an auxiliary waveform producing device for producing an oscillation wave form having a frequency lower than that of the oscillation waveform; a multiplying circuit creating a multiplied waveform between the waveform and the wave form; and, a power amplifier for power-amplifying the multiplied waveform, wherein it is intermittently irradiated with the sound wave in the reaction container, and further, the wave form producing device has a function capable of frequency-modulation with a prescribed frequency width.

Chemical analysis apparatus and chemical analysis method

A chemical analysis apparatus comprising reaction containers containing therein a substance to be analyzed; an agitating mechanism spaced from the substance to be analyzed and agitating said substance to be analyzed with a liquid in said reaction container; and, a measuring portion for measuring physical properties of the substance to be analyzed, said agitating mechanism having a sound supply portion supplying sound waves to the substance to be analyzed, wherein said sound supply portion comprises a mechanism changing, in time, intensity of ultrasonic waves to be irradiated so as to apply pulsation to a swirl flow in the reaction container.

Multiple piezoelectric elementsare arranged in a row along the top of liquid level in the reaction vessel. An ultrasonic reflecting materialis installed on the bottom of the portion of the heat insulating bathwhere heat insulating mediumis stored. A lateral ultrasonic waveis generated on the lower side is generated by actuation of the piezoelectric element. Waveis reflected by the ultrasonic reflecting material. As a lower ultrasonic waveadvances along the wall surface of the reaction vessel, it collides with the specimen liquid level, thereby causing a portion of the liquid level closer to the piezoelectric elementto be raised. When the lateral ultrasonic waveis applied to this portion, it reaches the inclined portion of the raised liquid level of the specimen. Swirling flow by agitationis produced by the acoustic radiation pressure of the ultrasonic wave. The specimen and reagent are mixed and agitated by this swirling flow.

Automatic analyzer

An automatic analyzer which is applied to a device for analyzing specimen by the transfer of a specimen holding rack to an analysis unit and designed not to complicate the transfer system of the rack even if the number of the analysis units is one or increased to two or more, wherein a rack standby disk capable of rotating and stopping under the condition that a plurality of racks are waiting is installed, an exclusive rack reciprocatingly transfer line is provided between each analysis unit and the rack standby disk, only a single rack is led to each rack reciprocatingly transfer line, and the rack is returned to the rack standby disk after the sampling and treatment of the specimen have been completed.

Automatic analyzer and rack transfer device

A reagent dispensing mechanism (), first and second dispensing-mechanism transfer means (), and a second reagent vessel (reagent cassette) carrying-in/out mechanism (), which are constructed by employing an XY-mechanism, are arranged so as to travel above a reagent table () to carry in/out a reagent cassette (). As compared with the case where the reagent cassette carrying-in/out mechanism () is installed radially of the reagent table (), the area of an automatic analyzer in the horizontal direction can be reduced and a reagent vessel () can be moved to a predetermined position in a shorter time by combining the rotation of the reagent table () with the movement of the XY-mechanism. Further, as compared the case of dispensing reagents from reagent vessels in a matrix pattern by using the reagent dispensing/transferring mechanism, the travel distance of the transferring mechanism can be shortened and so can be the travel time. Thus, an analyzer adaptable as a machine of high processing capability with a shorter cycle time can be constructed.

Provided is a chemical analysis apparatus comprising a mechanism which can efficiently agitate a substance to be agitated so that a sample and a reagent are agitated and mixed together in a shorter time with a saved consumption power, incorporating a plurality of sound sources or reflecting plates, and a reaction container is located between one of the sound sources and another of the sound sources or one of the reflecting plates, whereby sound waves can be irradiated toward the reaction container in several directions in order to efficiently fluidize a solution in the reaction container.

A chemical analysis apparatus in which a sample to be analyzed and a reagent are placed into a reaction container, and sound waves are irradiated to said reaction container so as to agitate them, wherein said chemical analysis apparatus comprises a piezoelectric element producing said sound waves, and drivers for driving said piezoelectric element, said sound waves being intermittently irradiated into said reaction container.

A sample dispensing apparatus is realized which can detect a dispensing abnormality occurred during the sample dispensing operation regardless of the type and the extent of the abnormality. A pressure sensor is connected to a dispensing flow passage system, including a sample probe and a dispensing syringe, and a plurality of output values of the pressure sensor during the sample dispensing operation are taken in. A multi-item analysis (based on the Mahalanobis distance) is carried out by using, as items, the plurality of taken-in output values of the pressure sensor. Whether the dispensing is normally performed or not is determined by comparing an analysis result with a threshold. A highly reliable determination result is obtained in spite of variations of sensitivity of the pressure sensor.

Sample dispensing apparatus and automatic analyzer using the same

A sample, a reagent, etc. in a reaction containeris agitated with an ultrasonic wave generated from a piezoelectric transducer (). A power supply unit () applies, to the piezoelectric transducer, a voltage having been subjected to frequency modulation at frequencies over an optional frequency range. An analyzing section () measures a reaction product produced as an analysis target from the reagent, etc. and the sample under agitation, and then analyzes components of the sample. With such a construction, adjustment work needed in an agitating section can be simplified, and satisfactory analyzed results can be obtained regardless of differences in frequency characteristics of ultrasonic wave generators used for ultrasonic agitation.

Multiple piezoelectric elements are arranged in a row along the top of liquid level in a reaction vessel . An ultrasonic reflecting material is installed on the bottom of the portion of the heat insulating bath where heat insulating medium is stored. A lateral ultrasonic wave is generated on the lower side by actuation of the piezoelectric element . Wave is reflected by the ultrasonic reflecting material . As lower ultrasonic wave advances along the wall surface of the reaction vessel, it collides with the specimen liquid, thereby causing a portion of the liquid level closer to the piezoelectric element to be raised. When lateral ultrasonic wave is applied to this portion, it reaches the inclined portion of the raised liquid level of the specimen. Swirling flow by agitation is produced by acoustic radiation pressure of the ultrasonic wave. The specimen and reagent are mixed and agitated by this swirling flow.

Biochemical analysis machine

A chemical analyzing apparatus comprises a reaction cell holder which holds a plurality of reaction cells that are supplied with samples and reagents at a predetermined position, a measurer for measuring characteristics of the sample, a plurality of reagent containers, a liquid deliverer provided below each of the plurality of reagent containers, one or more sound wave generators provided outside the reaction cells, and storage containers for storing cleansing liquid with different contamination states. The cleansing liquid with different contamination states is reused according to the contamination levels of the reaction cells.

Chemical analyzing apparatus

Heretofore, there has been demanded an automatic analysis apparatus which can prevent cross-contamination between reagents, which can prevent dust and gas from entering a reagent supply device, which can always know a remaining quantity of the reagent while can reduce the quantity of waste. According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic analysis apparatus in which a reagent supply device for supplying a reagent from a reagent container into a reaction container is removably attached to the reagent container, a protective door is provided in the reagent supply port in order to aim at preventing dust from entering the reagent supply device, and further the reagent container and the reagent supply device are provided with recording mediums for recording therein conditions thereof, a time of replacement thereof or the like, and which can inform whether the setting is proper or not.

Automatic analysis apparatus

An object of the present invention is to provide a small and compact analytical apparatus. An input/output device for directing the analytical apparatus and displaying analytical results and operation conditions is detachably provided on a body of the apparatus. Since the input/output device can be fixed to an upper position of the body, the apparatus saves space and can be placed on a desk. The analytical apparatus includes a sample disk and a reagent disk. The diameter of the reagent disk is greater than that of the sample disk, and both disks are arranged at the front of the apparatus so that the center of the sample disk is nearer the operator side than the center of the reagent disk. Therefore, the whole arrangement is compact, and the apparatus itself is compact.

Apparatus for automatically analyzing sample

Magnetic particles are used as the solid phase to carry out immunoassay. In a reaction vessel, the magnetic particles are mixed with a sample containing TSH as an analyte and a labeled antibody. A chemiluminescent label material is bound onto the magnetic particles with an immunoreaction. A fluid including the above mixture is introduced to a chamber inside a flow through cell, the chamber being sized to have a width greater than a depth. The magnetic particles in the fluid are trapped by a magnet so as to be spread in the planar form over a predetermined area within the chamber, while useless materials are discharged outwardly of the chamber. The chamber is then filled with a buffer solution containing an attractant. By applying a voltage to electrodes disposed in the chamber, the label material on the magnetic particles is excited to emit an electro-chemiluminescence. The luminescence is detected by a photomultiplier.

Immunoassay method and analyzer using magnetic particles

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Hiroyasu Uchida