Seiko Instruments Inc

Sakura Finetek Japan Co., Ltd.

Tatsuya Miyatani

Tetsumasa Ito

Koji Fujimoto

Kazutoshi Watanabe

Masatoshi Yasutake

Hirohito Fujiwara

Akira Egawa

Kunio Nakajima

Toshihiko Sakuhara

Akira Inoue

Masamichi Fujihira

Seigo Murakami

Fumiki Sakai

Yukimitsu Kijima

Masatoshi Nonoyama

A replacement blade supplying mechanism () includes a detection portion () which detects whether or not there is a cutting blade () in a layer below an uppermost cutting blade () through a through hole () of the uppermost cutting blade () when the uppermost cutting blade () is extruded by a lever portion (), and when the detection portion () detects that there is no cutting blade () in a layer below the uppermost cutting blade (), the detection portion stops the transport of the cutting blade () by a cutting blade transport mechanism ().

Replacement blade supplying mechanism

A thin-slice manufacturing device is a thin-slice manufacturing device for cutting an embedding block in which a biological sample is embedded by paraffin using a cutting blade relatively moved with respect to the embedding block along a virtual plane to cut out thin slices, the thin-slice manufacturing device includes a vertical illumination part configured to radiate light to the embedding block, and an inclination estimation part configured to detect a boundary line between a cutting surface cut along the virtual plane and a non-cutting surface based on reflection of light generated by the light radiated to the embedding block by the vertical illumination part, and estimate inclination information showing information related to inclination of the embedding block based on the detected boundary line.

Thin-slice manufacturing device and thin-slice manufacturing method

A thin section preparation device includes: a cutting blade () which cuts out a thin section (M) from an embedding block (B); a storage tank () in which the thin section (M) is floated on a liquid (W) and is spread; a thin-section-conveying-mechanism () which conveys the thin section (M) in a direction intersecting in an X axis direction in a state where a first side of the thin section (M) is parallel with the X axis direction; a slide-glass-handling-mechanism () which places the thin section (M) floating in the storage tank () on a slide glass (G) in a state where a first side of the slide glass (G) is parallel with the X axis direction; and a rotary body () which is rotated in a state where the thin section (M) is placed on an outer surface and conveys the thin section (M) toward the slide-glass-handling-mechanism ().

Thin section preparation device

An automatic thin section sample preparation device includes: a reading portion which reads the ID data; a first imaging portion which images a surface image of an embedding block; a sample preparation mechanism which prepares a thin section by thinly cutting the embedding block, fixes the thin section to a substrate, and prepares a thin section sample; a second imaging portion which images a thin section image of the thin section in the thin section sample; a recording portion which records individual data on the substrate in the thin section sample; and a control portion. The control portion includes a determination portion which determines whether or not the thin section is prepared from an original embedding block by collating the surface image and the thin section image, and a storage portion which stores the determination result from the determination portion in association with the ID data, as the individual data.

Automatic thin section sample preparation device

To provide a thin-section manufacturing apparatus capable of firmly receiving and transferring a thin-section made by sectioning an embedded block by bringing a transfer belt into a wet state, a thin-section manufacturing apparatusincludes a cutterof sectioning an embedded block B, a cutter fixing portionhaving a fixing baseof supporting the cutterand an cutter holderof squeezing the cutterfrom an upper side, a sample base of fixing the embedded block B, feeding meansfor moving the sample baserelative to the cutterin a predetermined feeding direction X, a liquid batharranged on a rear side of a cut edgeof the cutterfor storing a liquid W, and a transfer beltin an endless shape having a first turn back portionprovided on an upper side of the cutterand a second turn back portionprovided at an inner portion of the liquid bathfor transferring a thin-section Bto the liquid bath, an upper face of the cutter holderis formed with a liquid storing portionof storing the liquid W, and the first turn back portionof the transfer beltis arranged at an inner portion of the liquid storing portion

Thin-section manufacturing apparatus

A manufacturing system for producing thin sections of a biological sample embedded in a block. The system includes, a blade holder disposed at a rake angle relative to the block, a mounting plane on which a plurality of cutting blades are mounted, an adsorptive member on the mounting plane that maintains the posture of the cutting blades, a pressing member that presses a selected cutting blade against the mounting plane, a conveyor unit that slides out the cutting blades by sequentially conveying the plurality of cutting blades to feed them one by one on the mounting plane, a transportation unit that moves the block relative to the holder, such that the cutting blade cuts out a thin section from the sample, and a control unit that operates the conveyor unit to exchange the selected cutting blade.

Automatic thin-section manufacturing system

A sectioning instrument fabricates a section having an accurate and uniform thickness to be carried to a next step automatically without deforming a surface of an embedded block and while observing the surface of the embedded block. The sectioning instrument includes a sample base for fixing an embedded block, a cutter for fabricating a section by sectioning the embedded block, a carrier for carrying the section, and a feed mechanism for moving the sample base in a predetermined feed direction. The carrier includes a belt, a direction switching portion provided on an upper side of the cutter, and a rear roller. The belt is inserted to between the cutter and the direction switching portion from a rear side of the cutter, folded back to an upper side by the direction switching portion and is reeled back to the rear side of the cutter by the rear roller substantially in parallel with the feed direction of the feed mechanism in a plane view.

Sectioning instrument

An automatic slicing apparatus reduces the likelihood of failure to make a sliced piece specimen even if continuously operated. The apparatus, on the basis of an exchange command signal, detaches a sample block attached to a cutting base and attaches a new sample block to the cutting base. The apparatus cuts a sliced piece of a predetermined thickness by moving a knife with respect to the sample block having been attached to the cutting base. The apparatus also observes the sliced piece having been cut and judges the sliced piece by comparing an observation data obtained by the observation means and a sample block cut face data. When the apparatus judges that the sliced piece is good, the apparatus transmits an exchange command signal.

Automatic slicing apparatus

Thin-section slide samples are manufactured from respective embedding blocks containing a biological sample and held in an embedding cassette having imprinted thereon individual data. The embedding cassette is transported to a cutting position where an embedding block is cut into sheet-like thin sections, and the individual data is read out. Each of thin sections is flattened and transferred onto a substrate to form a thin-section slide sample. A memory part stores the individual data read out and a condition table into which is input manufacturing conditions for manufacturing the thin sections. Thereafter, it is evaluated whether or not each of the thin sections is prepared in accordance with the manufacturing conditions input into the condition table.

Automatic thin-section slides manufacturing system and method

A thin-section conveyor apparatus for transporting thin sections that have been prepared by thinly cutting an embedded block, which transports the thin sections to a liquid bath by mounting them on the upper plane of a conveyor belt having a longitudinal linear body extended along the direction of transportation and a transverse linear body disposed perpendicular to the longitudinal linear body, provided that the density of the transverse linear body for the part on which the thin sections are to be mounted is lower than that of the transverse linear body of the other places. It provides thin sections almost free of entraining bubbles. A thin-section scooping tool and a method for transporting thin sections are also proposed.

Thin-section conveyor apparatus, thin-section scooping tool, and method for transporting thin sections

To fabricate automatically a high quality sliced piece by preventing a temperature change of a surface of an enveloped block, there is provided an automatic sliced piece fabricating apparatus including a fixed base for mounting to fix an enveloped block, cutting means including a cut blade arranged on the fixed base for cutting out a sliced piece from the enveloped block by moving the cut blade and the fixed base relative to each other, a cabinet for containing the fixed base and the cutting means at inside thereof, sliced piece carrying means for carrying the cut-out sliced piece to outside of the cabinet, and temperature adjusting means for adjusting at least a surrounding temperature of the enveloped block to a predetermined temperature by supplying cold wind a temperature of which is controlled from outside at inside of the cabinet.

Automatic sliced piece fabricating apparatus and automatic sliced piece sample fabricating apparatus

The container comprises a cylindrical memberwhich constitutes the side wall member, a bottom memberwhich is in contact with the bottom plane of the cylindrical memberand which constitutes the bottom part, and an engaged fixing partfor engaging the cylindrical memberwith the bottom member; the cylindrical memberand the bottom membersandwiches the carrier tape T from one side Tof the carrier tape T and from the other side Tof the carrier tape T, respectively, such that one of the plural thing section samples Pmay be disposed inside the cylindrical member. Accordingly, without cutting a sequence of tapes carrying thereon the thin section samples of biomedical tissues, each of the thin section samples of the biomedical tissues can be individually processed with different chemicals depending on the required observation for various types of biomedical tissues.

Container for processing section samples, processing method for section samples, and processing apparatus for section samples

A scanning probe microscope comprises scanning control means for controlling raster scanning of an XYZ translator, and displacement detection means for detecting amount of displacement of the XYZ translator, and is configured so that of the two raster scanning axes, only displacement of the XYZ translator along a low frequency scanning axis is feedback controlled, displacement of the XYZ translator along a high frequency scanning axis is made larger than a region to be observed, and sampling of an amount of displacement of the XYZ translator starts at the same time as a relative position of a probe enters into the observation region.

Scanning probe microscope

A scanning probe microscope capable of producing high precision sample images repeatedly has a driving unit for driving a sample or probe relative to the other microscopically in X, Y and Z directions, displacement detectors for measuring displacement of the driving unit in each of the X, Y and Z directions, and an image correction unit for storing output values of the displacement detectors as a data array for each of the X, Y and Z directions, performing a correction process on the data arrays, and producing an image of the sample based on the corrected data. A controller controls a measuring unit and output values of the displacement detectors are supplied to an operation/display unit connected to the controller and then supplied to an image correction device for image correction.

A signal having a resonant frequency of a cantilever is output by a first oscillator, and supplied to a vibrating element and a control unit to oscillate a probe. A low frequency signal having a large amplitude is output by a second oscillator and supplied to a piezoelectric scanning apparatus. The probe is periodically and relatively moved with respect to the sample between a position where the sample surface is penetrated by the probe and another position where the probe does not penetrate the sample surface and is outside the range of atomic forces caused by the sample. During this movement, the probe movement may be analyzed to obtain a plurality of physical characteristics about the sample, e.g., hardness information of the sample, surface shape information, information related to an adsorption layer of the sample, and information related to physical qualities (for example, electromagnetic field, adsorption force, surface reaction force, electric double layer force in fluid) irradiated from the sample surface along a depth direction.

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Chiba, Japan

Tatsuya Miyatani