CN113941383A

CN113941383A - Liquid transfer platform

Info

Publication number: CN113941383A
Application number: CN202111372862.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 饶润五; 兰佳文; 何帅旗
Original assignee: Shenzhen Second Intelligent Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Second Intelligent Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-18
Filing date: 2021-11-18
Publication date: 2022-01-18

Abstract

The invention discloses a liquid transfer platform, which comprises a rack, a mechanical movement device and a functional arm, wherein the functional arm comprises a liquid transfer device for processing a liquid sample; the rack is provided with a working platform comprising a plurality of functional areas, and each functional area comprises an information reading area for reading the information of the liquid sample and a liquid transferring area for transferring the liquid sample in; the mechanical motion device is erected on the rack, a movable plate is arranged on the mechanical motion device, the movable plate is located above the working platform and is driven by the mechanical motion device to move in the three directions of an x axis, a y axis and a z axis so that the movable plate can reach any functional area, the liquid transfer device is replaceably installed on the movable plate, after sample information is read, the liquid transfer device is moved to the information reading area to take out a liquid sample and is moved to the liquid transfer area to transfer the liquid sample into a container, the liquid transfer platform is diversified in function and can achieve multiple purposes, and due to the openness of consumable materials, the cost of the consumable materials is greatly reduced, and the use threshold of the liquid transfer platform is reduced.

Description

Liquid transfer platform

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of pipetting, in particular to a pipetting platform.

Background

In recent years, with the rise of concepts such as "precise medical treatment" and "in vitro diagnosis", the life science industry is vigorously developed, the equipment market related to life science is also unprecedentedly prosperous, and meanwhile, the efficiency requirements of various large laboratories and detection centers on related instruments and equipment are higher and higher, especially, pretreatment equipment, a plurality of large and high-throughput laboratories, such as blood screening laboratories, clinical diagnosis laboratories, disease control laboratories, entry and exit inspection laboratories, second-generation sequencing centers and the like replace original manual equipment with efficient, automatic and intelligent pretreatment equipment, wherein a liquid treatment workstation is the efficient and automatic pretreatment equipment which is favored by various large life science laboratories in recent years. However, the existing related equipment is mostly in a single machine type, mainly in a special type, less in function, generally capable of only performing single pipetting experiments, mostly in a manual operation mode, and lacking in an integrated workstation for pipetting treatment.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly aims to provide a pipetting platform and aims to solve the technical problem that the existing pipetting equipment is single in function.

Based on the above purpose, the pipetting platform provided by the invention comprises a rack, a mechanical movement device and a functional arm, wherein the functional arm comprises a pipetting device for processing a liquid sample;

the rack is provided with a working platform, the working platform comprises a plurality of functional areas, and the functional areas comprise an information reading area for reading the information of the liquid sample and a liquid transfer area for transferring the liquid sample in;

the mechanical motion device is erected on the rack, a movable plate is arranged on the mechanical motion device, the movable plate is located above the working platform and driven by the mechanical motion device to move in three directions of an x axis, a y axis and a z axis so that the movable plate can reach any one of the functional areas, the liquid transfer device is replaceably installed on the movable plate, and after sample information is read, the liquid transfer device moves to the information reading area to take out a liquid sample and moves to the liquid transfer area to transfer the liquid sample into a specified container.

Furthermore, the mechanical movement device comprises an x-axis slide rail assembly and at least one y-axis movement assembly, the x-axis slide rail assembly is arranged on the rack, the y-axis movement assembly is connected with the x-axis slide rail assembly and is driven by the x-axis slide rail assembly to move in the x-axis direction, a z-axis movement assembly is arranged on the y-axis movement assembly, the z-axis movement assembly is driven by the y-axis movement assembly to move in the y-axis direction, the moving plate is arranged on the z-axis movement assembly, and the liquid transfer device is detachably arranged on the moving plate and is driven by the z-axis movement assembly to move in the z-axis direction.

Further, the function arm further comprises a manipulator assembly used for taking and placing objects, the pipetting device comprises 8-channel pipettors and 96-channel pipettors, the number of the y-axis moving assemblies is three, each y-axis moving assembly is provided with a corresponding z-axis moving assembly, each z-axis moving assembly is provided with the moving plate, and the 8-channel pipetting processor, the manipulator assembly and the 96-channel pipettors are respectively arranged on the three moving plates of the z-axis moving assemblies.

Furthermore, the x-axis slide rail assembly comprises an x-axis linear motor, an auxiliary slide rail and an x-axis slide block, the x-axis linear motor and the auxiliary slide rail are arranged in parallel on the same horizontal line and are both erected on the rack, an x-axis guide rail is arranged on the x-axis linear motor, and the x-axis slide block is arranged on the x-axis guide rail and is controlled by the x-axis linear motor to slide on the x-axis guide rail;

the y axle removes the subassembly and includes y axle linear electric motor and y axle slider, y axle linear electric motor's one end fixed connection x axle slider, the other end with supplementary slide rail sliding connection, be provided with y axle guide rail on the y axle linear electric motor, y axle slider set up in on the y axle guide rail, and by y axle linear electric motor control is in slide on the y axle guide rail.

Further, the frame includes two support frames, two the support frame symmetry erects work platform's both sides edge, two through connecting plate fixed connection between the support frame, x axle slide rail set spare is located the support frame top.

Further, the functional area includes the consumptive material storage area, the consumptive material storage area is provided with accomodates the frame, accomodate the frame and be used for accomodating the suction head box that is equipped with the suction head and be used for placing the perforated plate of sample container.

Further, the functional area comprises a recovery area, the recovery area is located at a position, close to the top end edge, of the working platform, and a recovery box for recovering the waste suction heads is arranged on the recovery area.

Further, the functional zone comprises a temperature control zone, a temperature control device is arranged on the temperature control zone, the temperature control device comprises a chamber for accommodating the sample container, and a cooling module and a heating module are arranged on the chamber wall of the chamber.

Further, the functional area still includes and vibrates the district, it is provided with the oscillation device that is used for vibrating the sample container to vibrate on the district to vibrate.

Further, the functional area also comprises a weighing area, and a weighing device used for weighing the sample is arranged on the weighing area

The liquid-moving platform provided by the invention is provided with a plurality of functional areas, the functional arms are controlled by the mechanical movement device to realize the corresponding functions of the functional areas, and the liquid-moving device is replaceably arranged on the movable plate, so that the liquid-moving device can be directly disassembled when needing to be replaced, and then the liquid-moving device required by the position replacement can be replaced.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a pipetting platform according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the pipetting platform in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of a pipetting platform according to another embodiment of the invention.

The implementation, functional features and advantages of the objects of the present invention will be further explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. It is to be understood that the described embodiments are merely a few embodiments of the invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be noted that all the directional indicators (such as up, down, left, right, front, and rear … …) in the embodiment of the present invention are only used to explain the relative position relationship between the components, the movement situation, etc. in a specific posture (as shown in the drawing), and if the specific posture is changed, the directional indicator is changed accordingly.

In addition, the descriptions related to "first", "second", etc. in the present invention are for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In addition, technical solutions between various embodiments may be combined with each other, but must be realized by a person skilled in the art, and when the technical solutions are contradictory or cannot be realized, such a combination should not be considered to exist, and is not within the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

Referring to fig. 1-2, the pipetting platform provided by the present invention comprises a rack 100, a mechanical motion device, and a functional arm, wherein the functional arm is a device controlled by the mechanical motion device and implementing a certain function, such as a manipulator or a pipettor, in this embodiment, the functional arm comprises a pipetting device 300 for processing a liquid sample; the rack 100 is provided with a working platform 110, the rack 100 comprises a chassis and a bottom plate, the bottom plate is laid on the chassis to form the working platform 110, the working platform 110 comprises a plurality of different functional areas, for example, an information reading area 111 for reading information of a liquid sample, a liquid transfer area 112 for transferring the liquid sample, a consumable storage area 140, a recovery area 113, a temperature control area, a vibration area, a weighing area and a magnetic separation area, different functional areas are correspondingly provided with working devices for realizing different functions, for example, the information reading area 111 is provided with a bar code reader and a sample injector 150, the sample injector 150 can be used for placing sample containers, for example, sample tubes, the test tubes are pasted with bar codes, and the bar codes are scanned by the bar code reader, so that the information and the position information of the sample tubes are obtained. The pipetting module 112 is provided with a plurality of holders for holding a multi-well plate 142, and the multi-well plate 142 is provided with a plurality of wells for holding sample tubes into which the pipetting device 300 can discharge the liquid sample obtained when pipetting.

It should be noted that the present embodiment does not limit the specific location of each functional area, and the location of each functional area can be allocated according to the actual requirement.

In this embodiment, the mechanical motion device is erected on the frame 100, the mechanical motion device is provided with a moving plate 210, the moving plate 210 is controlled by a motor to move, the moving plate 210 is located above the working platform 110, and moves in three directions of x-axis, y-axis and z-axis under the driving of the mechanical motion device, that is, the moving plate 210 can be controlled by the motor to move at any position of the working platform 110, so that the moving plate 210 can reach any functional area, the directions of the x-axis, the y-axis and the z-axis are three directions perpendicular to each other in the three-dimensional space, in this embodiment, the directions of the x-axis, the y-axis and the z-axis can refer to the directions of the xyz coordinate system in fig. 1, wherein the z-axis direction is a direction moving up and down, the pipetting device 300 is replaceably mounted on the moving plate 210, that is, the moving device mounted on the moving plate 210 can also move to any functional area under the driving of the mechanical moving device. The pipetting device 300 may be an 8-channel pipette 310, a 96-channel pipette 320.

After the sample information is read by the barcode reader, the mechanical movement device drives the liquid transfer device 300 to move to the information reading area 111 to take out the liquid sample, and move to the liquid transfer area 112 to transfer the liquid sample into a designated container, which may be a sample test tube.

The liquid-moving platform provided by the invention is provided with a plurality of functional areas, the functional areas are controlled by the functional arms through the mechanical movement device to realize corresponding functions, and the liquid-moving device 300 is replaceably arranged on the movable plate 210, so that the liquid-moving platform can be directly disassembled when needing to be replaced, and then the liquid-moving device 300 required by the position replacement can be replaced.

In one embodiment, the mechanical movement device includes an x-axis slide assembly 220 and at least one y-axis moving assembly 230, the x-axis slide assembly 220 is disposed on the rack 100, the y-axis moving assembly 230 is connected to the x-axis slide assembly 220 and is driven by the x-axis slide assembly 220 to move in the x-axis direction, the y-axis moving assembly 230 is provided with a z-axis moving assembly 240, the z-axis moving assembly 240 is driven by the y-axis moving assembly 230 to move in the y-axis direction, the moving plate 210 is disposed on the z-axis moving assembly 240 and is driven by the z-axis moving assembly 240 to move in the z-axis direction, and the pipetting device 300 is detachably disposed on the moving plate 210, for example, by a threaded connection, a snap connection, or the like, and is driven by the z-axis moving assembly 240 to move in the z-axis direction, i.e. move up and down in this embodiment.

It should be noted that the number of the y-axis moving assemblies 230 is not limited in this embodiment, and a plurality of y-axis moving assemblies may be provided according to actual requirements, for example, 2, 3 or 5, for example, when two y-axis moving assemblies are provided, two y-axis moving assemblies may be both 8-channel pipettors 310, or both two y-axis moving assemblies may be both 96-channel pipettors 320, or one y-axis moving assembly may be both 8-channel pipettors 310 and one y-axis moving assembly may be the 96-channel pipettors 320.

In one embodiment, there are three y-axis moving assemblies 230, each y-axis moving assembly 230 is provided with a corresponding z-axis moving assembly 240, each z-axis moving assembly 240 is provided with a moving plate 210, and each moving plate 210 can be mounted with a different pipetting device 300 or other devices, and specifically, the functional arm further includes a manipulator assembly 330 for picking and placing objects, the three functional arms are respectively provided as an 8-channel pipettor 310, a manipulator assembly 330 and a 96-channel pipettor 320, and the 8-channel pipettor 310, the manipulator assembly 330 and the 96-channel pipettor 320 are sequentially provided on the moving plates 210 of the three z-axis moving assemblies 240.

In this embodiment, the manipulator assembly 330 includes a moving module and an electric claw, the moving module includes a stepping motor and a lead screw, the electric claw includes a plurality of gripping structures, the stepping motor is mounted on the moving plate 210, the lead screw is connected to the stepping motor and the electric claw, and the electric claw is controlled to grip a device by the stepping motor.

In this embodiment, above-mentioned 8 passageway pipettor 310 contains 8 ADP pipettors, the ADP pipettor includes plunger pump and 8 passageway removal modules, every 8 passageway removal modules comprises a small-size servo motor and a lead screw, it reciprocates to drive the plunger pump, 8 passageway pipettors 310 still include the branch apart module, this branch apart module includes minute apart step motor and forked structure, 8 ADP pipettors set up in forked structure, the pipettor that realizes eight passageways independently reciprocates, and separately remove separately respectively, specific certain distance (9mm-18mm) can be adjusted to between each passageway, and any one ADP pipettor of independent control inhales and annotates the liquid.

In this embodiment, the 96-channel pipette 320 is composed of a 96-channel moving module, a 96-channel liquid suction and discharge module, and a tip removing module, where the 96-channel moving module includes a 96-channel stepping motor and a lead screw to drive the 96-channel liquid suction and discharge module to move up and down, the 96-channel liquid suction and discharge module includes a servo motor and 96 plunger pumps arranged in an array, the tip removing module is disposed on the 96-channel liquid suction and discharge module, and includes a tip stepping motor and a tip adapting structure, and the tip adapting structure is used for connecting a tip.

In one embodiment, the x-axis slide rail assembly 220 includes an x-axis linear motor 221, an auxiliary slide rail 223, and an x-axis slider 222, wherein the x-axis linear motor 221 and the auxiliary slide rail 223 are disposed in parallel on the same horizontal line and both mounted on the frame 100, for example, mounted on the frame 100 through the support 131, and respectively located above the two side edges of the working platform 110, an x-axis guide rail is disposed on the x-axis linear motor 221, and the x-axis slider 222 is disposed on the x-axis guide rail and controlled by the x-axis linear motor 221 to slide on the x-axis guide rail; the y-axis moving assembly 230 comprises a y-axis linear motor 231 and a y-axis slider 232, one end of the y-axis linear motor 231 is fixedly connected with the x-axis slider 222, the other end of the y-axis linear motor 231 is connected with the auxiliary slide rail 223 in a sliding manner, a y-axis guide rail is arranged on the y-axis linear motor 231, and the y-axis slider 232 is arranged on the y-axis guide rail and is controlled by the y-axis linear motor 231 to slide on the y-axis guide rail.

Specifically, the device further comprises a bearing plate 250, wherein one end of the bearing plate 250 is fixedly connected to the x-axis slider 222, the other end of the bearing plate 250 is slidably connected to the auxiliary slide rail 223, and the y-axis linear motor 231 is fixedly arranged on the bearing plate 250; the z-axis moving assembly 240 includes a z-axis motor, a z-axis guide rail, and a z-axis slider, wherein the top end of the z-axis guide rail is fixed on the y-axis slider 232, and the z-axis motor controls the z-axis slider to move on the z-axis guide rail.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 3, the rack 100 includes two supporting frames 130, where the supporting frame 130 may be a portal frame, and specifically includes a top plate 133 and pillars 131 disposed at two ends of the top plate 133, the two supporting frames 130 are symmetrically erected at two side edges of the working platform 110, that is, the bottom ends of the pillars 131 are connected to the corner ends of the working platform 110, so that the two supporting frames 130 are fixedly connected through a connecting plate 132, two ends of the connecting plate 132 are specifically connected to the same side pillars 131 of the two supporting frames 130, and the x-axis sliding rail assembly 220 is disposed at the top end of the supporting frame 130, and specifically disposed on the top plate 133. The x-axis slide rail assembly 220 is laterally disposed by a baffle 134, and the baffle 134 is fixedly disposed on the frame 100.

In one embodiment, the functional area includes a consumable storage area 140, the consumable storage area 140 can be disposed at a position close to a side of the work platform 110, the consumable storage area 140 is provided with a storage rack 141, the storage rack 141 is used for storing a pipette tip box 143 and a porous plate 142 for placing sample containers, pipette tips are installed in the pipette tip box 143, the porous plate 142 is provided with a plurality of holes, and the sample containers can be inserted into the holes.

In one embodiment, the functional area includes a recovery area 113, the recovery area 113 is located at a position near the top edge of the working platform 110 opposite to the information reading area 111, and a recovery box 160 for recovering waste tips is disposed on the recovery area 113.

In one embodiment, the functional zone comprises a temperature control zone, a temperature control device is arranged on the temperature control zone, the temperature control device comprises a chamber for accommodating the sample container, a cooling module and a heating module are arranged on the chamber wall of the chamber, and the cooling module and the heating module are used for controlling the temperature in the chamber to reach the required temperature.

In a specific embodiment, the functional area is still including shaking the district, shakes and is provided with the oscillation device that is used for shaking sample container in the district, and this oscillation device is including shaking support and shaking the motor, shakes and sets up the tight structure of clamp of placing sample container on the support, can place porous plate 142 in this tight structure of clamp, opens and shakes the motor, drives to shake the support and vibrate.

In a specific embodiment, the functional area further comprises a weighing area, and a weighing device for weighing the sample is arranged on the weighing area.

Taking the pipetting process by the 8-channel pipettor 310 as an example, the pipetting platform performs the process of processing the liquid sample:

firstly, manually injecting samples, putting sample test tubes into a sample injector 150 and an information reading area 111, scanning the test tubes by a bar code reader, and recording sample information and position information of the test tubes; initializing each functional arm, controlling the manipulator assembly 330 to go to the consumable storage area 140, taking out the suction head box 143 and the porous plate 142, and placing the suction head box and the porous plate 142 on the support of the liquid transfer area 112; then controlling the 8-channel pipette 310 to move to the position above the position of the suction head stored in the consumable storage area 140, descending and compressing, taking out the suction head, moving to the position above the sample injector 150 in the information reading area 111, descending to the liquid level, monitoring the change of air pressure in the test tube through the suction head, pausing at the liquid level, continuing to move downwards to the proper liquid level depth, and sucking the liquid sample with the corresponding volume; then the 8-channel liquid shifter 310 is controlled to move upwards along the Z axis, move to a safe position, accurately move to the position above the porous plate 142, descend to a proper position, discharge the liquid sample with the corresponding volume into a specified container, and ascend to the safe position along the Z axis direction after the discharge is finished; then, controlling the 8-channel pipette 310 to move to the upper part of the recovery device, descending to a proper position, and dropping the used pipette tip into the recovery box 160 through air exhaust, wherein when the pipette tip is detected to drop, the 8-channel pipette 310 is lifted to a safe position; the above liquid taking operation is repeated, another liquid is sucked and injected into a container containing the former liquid, and the mixed liquid can be uniformly mixed by sucking and discharging the liquid for multiple times at a fixed position.

The 96-channel pipette 320 is the same as the 8-channel pipette 310 in operation, and will not be described herein again, and when other functional regions are required, such as magnetic separation, temperature treatment, and oscillation, the manipulator assembly 330 may be used to place the container with liquid into a corresponding device corresponding to the functional region for treatment.

The liquid-moving platform provided by the invention is communicated with the motion control card through software, and then all devices are controlled to be mutually matched through a driver in a CAN bus mode to finish corresponding operation. The liquid transfer platform is moderate in size, convenient to transport, stable in performance, long in service life and low in maintenance cost.

The liquid transfer platform provided by the invention is an automatic liquid treatment platform system, can replace the traditional liquid transfer tool, automatically complete high-precision liquid treatment tasks such as gradient dilution, liquid transfer and liquid combination, and can be used together with a detection instrument to realize efficient and precise detection on a target object. The full-automatic operation process can not only enable experimenters to get rid of complex experimental operation, effectively reduce artificial errors, improve the repeatability of experiments and reduce the cost, but also can carry out process control and tracing, and can be widely applied to biological engineering, DNA plasmid purification, drug screening, ELISA reaction, PCR pretreatment, DNA sequencing treatment, clinical test sample treatment and blood station system high-throughput sample analysis.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all modifications of equivalent structures and equivalent processes, which are made by using the contents of the present specification and the accompanying drawings, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, are included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A pipetting platform comprising a rack, a mechanical movement device and a functional arm comprising a pipetting device for processing a liquid sample;

2. The pipetting platform of claim 1, wherein the mechanical movement device comprises an x-axis slide assembly and at least one y-axis moving assembly, the x-axis slide assembly is disposed on the frame, the y-axis moving assembly is connected with the x-axis slide assembly and is driven by the x-axis slide assembly to move in the x-axis direction, a z-axis moving assembly is disposed on the y-axis moving assembly, the z-axis moving assembly is driven by the y-axis moving assembly to move in the y-axis direction, the moving plate is disposed on the z-axis moving assembly, and the pipetting device is detachably disposed on the moving plate and is driven by the z-axis moving assembly to move in the z-axis direction.

3. The pipetting platform of claim 2, wherein the functional arms further comprise a manipulator assembly for picking and placing objects, the pipetting device comprises 8-channel pipettors and 96-channel pipettors, three y-axis moving assemblies are provided, each y-axis moving assembly is provided with a corresponding z-axis moving assembly, each z-axis moving assembly is provided with the moving plate, each moving plate is provided with one functional arm, and the three functional arms are the 8-channel pipetting processor, the manipulator assembly and the 96-channel pipettor in sequence.

4. The pipetting platform of claim 3, wherein the x-axis slide assembly comprises an x-axis linear motor, an auxiliary slide and an x-axis slide, the x-axis linear motor and the auxiliary slide are arranged in parallel on the same horizontal line and are both erected on the rack, an x-axis guide rail is arranged on the x-axis linear motor, and the x-axis slide is arranged on the x-axis guide rail and is controlled by the x-axis linear motor to slide on the x-axis guide rail;

5. The pipetting platform of claim 4, wherein the rack comprises two support frames, the two support frames are symmetrically erected at two side edges of the working platform and fixedly connected through a connecting plate, and the x-axis slide rail assembly is arranged at the top end of the support frames.

6. The pipette platform of claim 1, wherein the functional zone comprises a consumable storage area provided with a rack for receiving tip cassettes containing tips and multi-well plates for placing sample containers.

7. The pipetting platform of claim 1, wherein the functional zone comprises a recovery zone located near the top edge of the working platform and having a recovery cassette disposed thereon for recovering waste tips.

8. Pipetting platform according to claim 1, characterized in that the functional zone comprises a temperature control zone on which a temperature control device is arranged, which temperature control device comprises a chamber for accommodating sample containers, the chamber walls of which chamber are provided with a cooling module and a heating module.

9. A pipetting platform as recited in claim 1 wherein the functional zone further comprises a shaking zone on which is disposed a shaking device for shaking the sample container.

10. Pipetting platform according to claim 1, characterized in that the functional area further comprises a weighing area on which weighing means are arranged for weighing the sample.