JP4820236B2 - Microtome - Google Patents

Description

The present invention is mainly that the pathological sample about the microtome to obtain a speculum specimen was cut into flakes.

  Conventionally, a sliding microtome for obtaining a microscopic specimen by mainly cutting a pathological sample into a thin piece is known. The sliding microtome has a cutting blade holder that holds the cutting blade on the rail so that it can move horizontally on the rail, and a sample holder vertical position adjustment mechanism that arranges the sample holder that holds the sample up and down. And. In the sliding microtome, the operator manually operates the sample holder vertical position adjustment mechanism so that the sample protrudes on the movement locus of the cutting blade of the cutting blade moving mechanism, and then the cutting blade of the cutting blade moving mechanism. By operating the holder manually and cutting the portion protruding upward from the movement trajectory of the cutting blade with the cutting blade, a spectroscopic specimen is obtained.

  By the way, when exchanging the sample in the microtome as described above, the cutting blade holder is separated from the sample holder via the cutting blade moving mechanism and is positioned at the standby position. However, since the distance between the sample holder and the cutting blade holder located at the standby position is short, there is a problem in that the technician's hand touches the cutting edge of the cutting blade held by the cutting blade holder and scratches the fingers. . For this reason, in order to solve this problem, Patent Document 1 proposes a configuration in which one side of a safety guard having a square frame shape is supported on the cutting blade holder so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction. In Patent Document 1, the safety guard is held by a magnet in a state where one side of the safety guard is positioned in front of the cutting edge of the cutting blade in advance, and the cutting operation is performed in this state. In Patent Document 1, the safety guard is flipped up to remove one side of the safety guard that is in front of the cutting edge of the cutting blade, and then the cutting blade is replaced. However, Patent Document 1 has the following problems.

  (1) Since one side of the safety guard is located in front of the cutting edge of the cutting blade when cutting the spectroscopic material, the safety guard passes above the sample during thin cutting. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult to see and annoying for an engineer who watches the cutting edge of the cutting blade and the sample.

  (2) The thinly cut sample is left in a curled state on the cutting blade holder, but when the technician collects this sample one by one with tweezers, the safety guard is in the way and it is difficult to collect it. There is.

  (3) Since the safety guard is rotatably supported, when the cutting blade is replaced, the safety guard is manually lifted up, and at the end of replacement, the safety guard is manually moved on one side of the cutting blade. Therefore, there is a problem in that the work of arranging the safety guard becomes complicated.

  (4) In addition, a mechanism for rotating and supporting the safety guard is required, and a mechanism is used, for example, a magnet is used to hold the cutting blade so that one side is positioned at the front upper side at the time of cutting. There is also a problem.

In order to solve this problem, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique in which a safety cover is detachably attached to a cutting blade holder, and a notch that opens a part on the operator side is formed at the center of the safety cover. Has been proposed.
Utility model registration number 3033094 JP 2003-130767 A

  In Patent Document 2, there is no problem of the above (1), (2), (4), but when replacing the cutting blade, the safety cover is removed or the cutting blade holder is removed from the side of the safety cover and replaced. There was a problem that it was necessary to replace the cutting blade. Further, in Patent Document 2, when the cutting blade holder is located at the standby position, a part of the safety cover is opened and the cutting edge of the cutting blade is exposed. There is a problem that the hand touches.

  The same problem occurs in the rotary microtome. In general, in a rotary microtome, a cutting blade holder is fixed at the time of cutting, and a sample holder is supported so as to be movable up and down. Then, the sample is cut into a thin piece by moving the sample holder to the cutting blade holder. Therefore, after exchanging the sample holder, when exchanging the sample in a standby position separated from the cutting holder, the technician's fingers touch the cutting blade held by the cutting blade holder, and the fingers are damaged. There is a problem that attaches.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and its purpose is that the cutting blade can be easily replaced, and a microtome that can prevent the finger of an engineer from touching the cutting blade during sample replacement. Is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a sample holder for holding a sample, a cutting blade holder for holding a cutting blade, and a standby state in which the cutting blade of the cutting blade holder is separated from the sample holder. In a microtome provided with a cutting blade moving mechanism for moving the cutting blade holder so as to include a region and a cutting region for cutting the sample of the sample holder, only when the cutting blade holder is located in the standby region, A safety guard having a guard portion that is positioned closer to the sample holder than the cutting blade and is positioned below the cutting blade to guard a human finger from touching the cutting edge of the cutting blade. The feature is a microtome.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the guard portion of the safety guard is arranged in parallel with the cutting edge of the cutting blade.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the base end of the guard portion of the safety guard is bent upward.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, the cutting blade moving mechanism is arranged on the cutting direction side with respect to a cutting edge of a portion of the cutting blade located above the cutting mechanism. A guard member is provided that is positioned and positioned below the cutting blade.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, when replacing the cutting blade, there is no safety guard that covers the cutting blade, so that the cutting blade can be easily replaced. This prevents contact with the fingers of the engineer.

  According to the invention of claim 2, since the guard part of the safety guard is arranged in parallel with the cutting edge of the cutting blade, the arrangement of the guard part with respect to the cutting edge becomes efficient, and the cost can be reduced.

  According to the invention of claim 3, since the base end of the guard part of the safety guard is bent upward, the guard part can be brought closer to the blade edge than when not bent upward. The space area that touches the blade edge of a finger can be reduced.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the guard blade is located on the cutting direction side with respect to the cutting edge of the part located above the cutting blade moving mechanism in the cutting blade and below the part. Can prevent the engineer's fingers from being damaged.

(Implementation form)
Hereinafter, an embodiment embodying the sliding type microtome present invention with reference to FIGS. 1-4. In the present specification, in the movement direction of the cutting blade 15 to be described later, the cutting direction in which the cutting blade 15 cuts the sample S is defined as the front direction, and the case where the microtome 10 is viewed from the front is orthogonal to the moving direction. The direction to perform is the left-right direction.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the machine base 11 of the microtome 10 is formed in a substantially box shape, and a table 12 having a height higher than the machine base 11 is provided on the side of the machine base 11. The upper surface of the table 12 extends horizontally in the front-rear direction to form a sliding surface 12a. A slider 13 that moves along the front-rear direction is fitted on the sliding surface 12 a of the table 12. The slider 13 is provided with a handle portion 19 extending downward along the right side surface of the table 12, and an engineer can hold the handle portion 19 and operate it in the front-rear direction.

  A holder support 14 is provided on the upper surface of the slider 13, and a cutting blade holder 16 that holds the cutting blade 15 horizontally is provided on the holder support 14. As shown in FIG. 1, a recess 16 b is formed on the upper front surface of the cutting blade holder 16 so that the cutting blade 15 can be inserted. When the lever 16a provided on the upper part of the cutting blade holder 16 is operated with the cutting blade 15 being inserted into the recess 16b, a pressing member (not shown) presses the cutting blade 15 against the side surface of the recess 16b, so that the cutting blade 15 is moved. Removably attach.

  The cutting blade 15 is held by the cutting blade holder 16 so that the pulling angle θ is 0 to 90 ° with respect to the traveling direction of the cutting blade 15 (that is, the front direction A). In addition, by making the pulling angle θ less than 90 °, the radius of the tip of the cutting blade 15 can be reduced, and the sharpness is improved. In general, in a sliding microtome, the pulling angle θ is preferably 45 ° (in FIG. 2, the cutting blade 15 is illustrated with a pulling angle θ of 45 °).

  In this embodiment, the base provided at the lower part of the cutting blade holder 16 is fastened and fixed to the holder support 14 by the fastening bolts 17 screwed to the upper surface of the holder support 14 and tightened. The cutting blade holder 16 can be rotationally displaced about the tightening bolt 17 by loosening the tightening of the attaching bolt 17. Therefore, the pulling angle θ of the cutting blade 15 can be changed according to the rotational displacement of the cutting blade holder 16.

The slider 13 that slides on the table 12 having the sliding surface 12 a constitutes a cutting blade moving mechanism 20.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a sample holder 32 is provided on the upper surface of the machine base 11 via a holder support member 31 at a position closer to the front than the center. The holder support member 31 is operatively connected to a vertical position adjustment mechanism 33 disposed in the machine base 11.

  When the height adjustment handle 34 provided on the left side surface of the machine base 11 is rotated, the vertical position adjustment mechanism 33 roughens the height of the sample holder 32 via the holder support member 31 according to the amount of rotation. adjust. Further, when the sample thickness setting dial 35 provided on the front surface of the machine base 11 is rotated, the vertical position adjusting mechanism 33 is configured to move the sample holder 32 through the holder support member 31 in accordance with the rotation operation amount. Fine tune the height.

  Further, when the lever 36 provided on the left side surface of the machine base 11 is operated in the vertical direction, the vertical position adjusting mechanism 33 increases the height of the sample holder 32 via the holder support member 31 according to the number of operations. adjust.

  A fixed claw 32a protruding upward is formed on the upper surface of the sample holder 32, and the movable claw 32b can swing up and down against the fixed claw 32a against the urging force of a spring (not shown). Has been attached to. 2 and 3, the movable claw 32b is operated with an operating rod 32c protruding forward from the sample holder 32 in the vertical direction, so that the sample S is attached and detached in cooperation with the fixed claw 32a. Can be sandwiched freely.

  As the slider 13 slides on the sliding surface 12a as shown in FIG. 2, the cutting blade holder 16 moves in a moving region R extending in the front-rear direction. In FIG. 2, the movement region R is illustrated with reference to the displacement position of the rear end of the cutting blade holder 16. The moving area R is divided into a waiting area R1, an intermediate area R2, and a cutting area R3. The standby region R1 is a rear region of the moving region R, and is a region that waits when the cutting blade 15 does not perform cutting. The cutting region R3 is a region where the cutting blade 15 held by the cutting blade holder 16 cuts the sample S held by the sample holder 32 when the slider 13 moves. The intermediate region R2 is a region located between the standby region R1 and the cutting region R3.

  A safety guard 40 is attached to the rear side surface of the machine base 11. The safety guard 40 is formed from a single metal wire as shown in FIGS. The safety guard 40 includes a pair of mounting portions 40a that extend horizontally and in parallel, a columnar portion 40b that extends upward from the tip of each mounting portion 40a so as to have the same height, and a horizontal direction forward from the columnar portion 40b. It consists of a guard part 40e which connects between a pair of arm parts 40c and 40d extended in parallel and both arm parts 40c and 40d.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the pair of mounting portions 40 a are detachably inserted into a pair of mounting holes 11 b formed so as to be at the same height position with respect to the side wall 11 a of the machine base 11. In FIG. 4, a stopper 40f protrudes from the outer periphery of the attachment portion 40a, and the attachment position of the attachment portion 40a with respect to the attachment hole 11b is defined by the stopper 40f.

  The arm portions 40c and 40d of the safety guard 40 are located above the upper surface of the machine base 11 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 and below the cutting blade 15 held by the cutting blade holder 16. Are arranged to be. The arm part 40c located proximal to the table 12 is longer than the arm part 40d located distal to the table 12, and connects the arm parts 40c and 40d as shown in FIGS. In the present embodiment, the guard portion 40e is disposed so as to be parallel to the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15 held by the sample holder 32. That is, the guard part 40e is arrange | positioned so that it may match with drawing angle (theta) in this embodiment. Further, since the arm portions 40 c and 40 d are arranged so as to be positioned below the cutting blade 15, the guard portion 40 e is also positioned below the cutting blade 15.

  Moreover, the guard part 40e is arrange | positioned so that it may be located ahead rather than the blade edge | tip of the cutting blade 15, when the cutting blade holder 16 is located in standby area | region R1, as shown in FIG. Thus, when the cutting blade holder 16 is positioned in the standby region R1, the fingers of the engineer are prevented from touching the cutting blade 15 by the guard portion 40e.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) In the sliding microtome 10 of this embodiment, the sample holder 32 that holds the sample S, the cutting blade holder 16 that holds the cutting blade 15, and the cutting blade 15 of the cutting blade holder 16 are separated from the sample holder 32. And a cutting blade moving mechanism 20 that moves the cutting blade holder 16 so as to include the waiting region R1 and the cutting region R3 that cuts the sample of the sample holder 32. In addition, the microtome 10 is positioned on the sample holder 32 side of the cutting blade 15 and positioned below the cutting blade 15 only when the cutting blade holder 16 is positioned in the standby region R <b> 1. A safety guard 40 having a guard part 40e for guarding against human fingers is provided. As a result, in this embodiment, when replacing the cutting blade 15, there is no safety guard that covers the cutting blade 15, and there is no obstacle above the cutting blade 15 and the cutting blade holder 16. For this reason, the cutting blade 15 can be easily replaced. Further, when exchanging the sample S, the cutting blade holder 16 is moved to the standby region R1. In this state, the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15 is guarded by the guard portion 40e as shown in FIG. 2, and the finger of the engineer does not touch the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15. As a result, the technician's fingers are not injured when the sample S is replaced.

  (2) In the present embodiment, the guard portion 40 e of the safety guard 40 is disposed in parallel with the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15. As a result, the guard portion 40e can be efficiently arranged with respect to the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15, and the guard portion 40e can be made to the minimum size (length). Therefore, the cost can be reduced by reducing the material cost. be able to.

( Reference example )
FIGS. 5 (a) Reference Example microtome 100 follows the B Tari type will be described with reference to (b). FIG. 5A is a schematic view of a rotary microtome 100.

  In the microtome 100, a mechanism case 102 is provided on a pedestal 101, and a sample holder 103 is supported by the mechanism case 102 so as to be movable up and down. That is, the mechanism unit case 102 is provided with a vertical movement mechanism unit 104 as a sample holder moving mechanism that converts a rotary motion into a linear motion of a vertical motion, and rotates an operation knob 105 provided on a side surface of the mechanism unit case 102. By operating, the vertical movement mechanism unit 104 moves the sample holder 103 up and down according to the amount of rotation operation. In the present embodiment, the range of vertical movement of the sample holder 103 is a moving region R shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the moving region R <b> 10 is illustrated with reference to the displacement position of the central axis of the sample holder 103. As shown in FIG. 5B, a safety guard 106 having a substantially U shape is attached to the sample holder 103. The safety guard 106 includes a pair of arm portions 106a and 106b extending in parallel with each other in the vertical direction and a guard portion 106c that connects the arm portions 106a and 106b. Both ends of the guard portion 106c are bent toward the cutting blade holder 200 as shown in FIG. The guard portion 106c is disposed at a position where it does not interfere with a cutting blade 205 attached to a cutting blade holder 200, which will be described later, and is disposed in parallel.

  Further, a cutting blade holder 200 is disposed on the pedestal 101, and the cutting blade holder 200 can be moved closer to the mechanism case 102 by a guide rail 108 provided on the pedestal 101, and also by a lock device (not shown). Locked and can hold position. As shown in FIG. 5A, a channel-shaped attachment groove 204 is formed in the upper portion of the cutting blade holder 200, and the cutting blade 205 is disposed in the attachment groove 204. The cutting blade 205 is extended in the direction orthogonal to the paper surface in FIG. That is, the cutting angle of the cutting blade 205 is 90 °. The cutting blade 205 is fastened and fixed via a pressing member 207 disposed in the mounting groove 204 by tightening a bolt 206 screwed from the upper surface of the cutting blade holder 200. Further, the cutting blade 205 can be replaced by loosening the bolt 206 and releasing the clamping of the pressing member 207 to the cutting blade 205.

  A region that is cut by the cutting blade 205 when the sample holder 103 is moved with the cutting blade 205 attached to the cutting blade holder 200 as shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the region where the sample holder 103 waits without being cut by the cutting blade 205 (standby region R12) is one point that is the upper end of the moving region R10.

  When the sample holder 103 is positioned in this one-point standby region R12, the guard portion 106c of the safety guard 106 is disposed above the cutting edge of the cutting blade 205 as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). . When the sample holder 103 is positioned at this position, the interval between the cutting blade 205 and the guard portion 106c is such that fingers do not enter.

Therefore, in the rotary microtome 100 of the reference example , only when the sample holder 103 is positioned in the standby region R12, the sample holder 103 is positioned closer to the sample holder 103 than the cutting blade 205 and guards against human fingers. A safety guard 106 having a guard portion 106c is provided. As a result, when the cutting blade 205 is replaced, there is no safety guard that covers the cutting blade 205, so that the cutting blade 205 can be easily replaced. Further, when exchanging the sample S, it is possible to prevent the finger of the engineer from touching the cutting edge of the cutting blade 205 by the guard portion 106c, thereby preventing the finger from being damaged.

In addition, you may change the said embodiment into the following another aspects.
In addition to the configuration of the sliding microtome embodiment, a guard member 50 may be provided on the holder support 14 as shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, for convenience of explanation, the cutting blade holder 16 and the cutting blade 15 provided on the holder support 14 are omitted. The guard member 50 is formed in a substantially U shape with a metal wire, and both ends thereof are fixed to the left and right sides of the holder support 14. And between the front-end | tips of a pair of arm part 50a, 50b extended horizontally from the both ends ahead is connected by the 2nd guard part 50c. In this example, the guard part 40e of the safety guard 40 is the first guard part. The second guard portion 50c protrudes forward (cutting direction side) from the cutting edge of the cutting blade 15 held by the cutting blade holder 16 as indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. It is located below the cutting edge and is arranged in parallel with the guard part 40e.

  By configuring the guard member 50 in this way, the guard member 50 is located on the cutting direction side of the cutting blade 15 with respect to the cutting edge side of the portion positioned above the cutting blade moving mechanism 20 and below the portion. Thus, it is possible to prevent the finger of the engineer from being damaged by the cutting edge of the part.

  In the configuration of the sliding microtome embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the base end that is each end of the guard portion 40 e of the safety guard 40 may be bent upward. By comprising in this way, compared with the case where the base end is not bent upwards, the guard part 40e can be brought closer to the blade edge of the cutting blade 15, and the space area which touches the blade edge of a finger can be reduced. .

  In the embodiment of the sliding microtome, the arm portions 40c and 40d of the safety guard 40 extend horizontally and in parallel. However, the embodiment is not limited to the horizontal shape, and is more columnar than the embodiment. The height of 40b may be lowered, and the arm portions 40c and 40d may be extended obliquely upward. Or, conversely, the height of the columnar part 40b may be made higher than in the above embodiment, and the arm parts 40c and 40d may be extended obliquely downward and arranged horizontally in the middle. In the above-described embodiment, the arm portions 40c and 40d are arranged in parallel to each other. However, the arm portions 40c and 40d are not limited to being parallel, and may be non-parallel.

  In the embodiment of the sliding microtome, the mounting portion 40a of the safety guard 40 is detachably inserted into the mounting hole 11b of the side wall 11a of the machine base 11, but the mounting part protruding into the machine base 11 in FIG. A nut may be removably screwed to 40a. In this case, the machine base 11 is provided with an operation port through which the nut can be operated from the outside.

  In the embodiment of the sliding microtome, a plurality of connecting members that connect the arm portions 40c and 40d of the safety guard 40 may be arranged in a lattice shape. With this connecting member, it is possible to prevent fingers from entering between the arm portions 40c and 40d, thereby making it safer. For example, the connecting member may be disposed in parallel to the guard portion 40e or non-parallel.

  In the embodiment of the sliding microtome, the safety guard 40 is formed of a metal wire, but is not limited to a metal wire, and may be formed of plastic or wood. Alternatively, a plate material may be used instead of the wire material.

○ the arm portion 40c of the safety guard 40 in implementation form, is provided with the difference in length 40d, it may be the same.
In the reference example , the standby region R12 is one point, but may have a width as in the above-described embodiment.

Front view of a microtome implementation embodying the present invention. A plan view of the microtome. The perspective view which similarly shows a microtome. Sectional drawing which similarly shows the support structure of a guard. (A) Schematic explanatory drawing of the microtome of a reference example , (b) is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of the safety guard 106 and the cutting blade 205 when the sample holder 103 is located in standby area | region R12. Explanatory drawing of the safety guard of other embodiment. Explanatory drawing of the safety guard of other embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10, 100 ... microtome, 13 ... slider, 15 ... cutting blade,
16 ... Cutting blade holder, 20 ... Cutting blade moving mechanism, 32 ... Sample holder, 50 ... Guard member,
S ... Sample, R ... Movement area, R1 ... Standby area.

Claims (4)

A sample holder for holding a sample, a cutting blade holder for holding a cutting blade,
In a microtome comprising a standby region where the cutting blade of the cutting blade holder is separated from the sample holder, and a cutting blade moving mechanism that moves the cutting blade holder so as to include a cutting region for cutting the sample of the sample holder,
Only when the cutting blade holder is located in the standby area, the finger is positioned on the sample holder side with respect to the cutting blade and below the cutting blade so that the finger of the cutting blade does not touch human fingers. A microtome comprising a safety guard having a guard portion for guarding.   The microtome according to claim 1, wherein the guard portion of the safety guard is disposed in parallel with the cutting edge of the cutting blade.   The microtome according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a base end of the guard portion of the safety guard is bent upward. In the cutting blade moving mechanism,
4. A guard member that is located on the cutting direction side of the cutting blade and located below the cutting edge of the portion located above the cutting mechanism and further below the cutting blade. The microtome according to any one of the above.

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