Automated Analyzer

• US 20190317119A1
• Filed: 11/13/2017
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: AKUTSU, Masashi, MAKINO, Akihisa, MISHIMA, Hiroyuki, YASUI, Akihiro
• Granted Patent: US 11,486,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00752 bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0094 optimisation; experiment design
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0412 Block or rack elements with a single row of samples
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0496 Other details
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00732 Identification of carriers, materials or components in automatic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/0092 Scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/0095 introducing urgent samples with priority, e.g. Short Turn Around Time Samples [STATS]
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/02 using a plurality of sample containers moved by a conveyor system past one or more treatment or analysis stations G01N35/0098 and G01N35/0099 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/026 having blocks or racks of reaction cells or cuvettes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/04 Details of the conveyor system G01N35/021 - G01N35/028 take precedence

Abstract

The present invention is provided with a sample rack insertion unit 12 that is capable of holding one or more sample racks 5 having mounted therein one or more sample containers 6 accommodating a sample to be analyzed, one or more analysis devices 2, 3 for analyzing the sample accommodated in the sample containers 6, a sample rack conveyance unit 14 for conveying the sample racks 5 from the sample rack insertion unit 12 to the analysis devices 2, 3, and a control device 4 for acquiring, for each analysis device 2, 3, load information that is information expressing an operating condition of the analysis device 2, 3, and, if there is an analysis device 2, 3 for which the load information is larger than a predetermined conveyance permission value, carrying out control so as to stop the conveyance of the sample racks 5 from the sample rack insertion unit 12 to the analysis device(s) 2, 3. As a result of this configuration, it is possible to mitigate in-device sample conveyance congestion occurring as a result of the insertion of many samples and keep the sample environment and analysis processing power at high levels.

Claims

1. to 4. (canceled)

5. An automatic analysis device comprising:

a specimen rack input unit which can hold one or more specimen racks on which one or more specimen containers each containing a specimen as an analysis target are mounted;

one or more analysis units which analyze the specimen contained in the specimen container;

a specimen rack transportation unit which transports the specimen rack between the specimen rack input unit and the analysis unit; and

a control unit which performs control such that the transportation of the specimen rack from the specimen rack input unit to the analysis unit is stopped in a case where load information as information representing an operation status of the analysis unit is acquired for each analysis unit and there is an analysis unit of which the load information is greater than a predetermined set value,

wherein the load information of each analysis device is obtained by the product of the number of analysis items, which correspond to non-processed dispensing processes among dispensing processes corresponding to predetermined analysis items with respect to the specimen container mounted on the specimen rack transported to the analysis unit, and a load factor, which represents a time required for a dispensing process by a specimen dispensing mechanism of the analysis unit.

6. The automatic analysis device according to claim 5,

wherein the control unit includes

a number-of-requested-items calculation unit which acquires the number of analysis items which is predetermined for the specimen container mounted on the specimen rack transported to the analysis unit,

a load information calculation unit which calculates the number of analysis items corresponding to non-processed dispensing processes among the number of analysis items obtained by the number-of-requested-items calculation unit, and load factor representing a time required for a dispensing process, and

a load information comparison unit which compares the load factor obtained by the load information calculation unit with a predetermined set value.

7. The automatic analysis device according to claim 5, further comprising:

an urgent specimen rack input unit which inputs a specimen rack on which a specimen container containing an urgent specimen is mounted,

wherein the control unit performs control such that the specimen rack input to the urgent specimen rack input unit is transported from the urgent specimen rack input unit to the analysis unit regardless of the magnitude between the predetermined set value and the load information.