SAMPLE PLATE AND AUTO-SAMPLER

Abstract

The sample plate has a principal plane in which a plurality of wells is arranged. The sample plate has a plurality of through-holes each allowing a sampling needle to pass through in a region of the principal plane where the wells are not provided, and positions of the wells and positions of the through-holes are designed such that when two pieces of the sample plates are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship in a state in which respective principal planes are arranged in parallel each other, the through-holes of the sample plate arranged on an upper side is arranged at positions directly above respective wells of the sample plate arranged on a lower side.

Claims

1. A sample plate comprising: a principal plane, a plurality of wells being arranged in the principal plane; and a plurality of through-holes configured to each allow a sampling needle to pass through and provided in a region of the principal plane where the wells are not provided, wherein positions of the wells and positions of the through-holes are designed in a state in which two pieces of the sample plates are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship, respective principal planes of the sample plates being arranged in parallel each other, the plurality of through-holes of the sample plate arranged on an upper side is arranged at positions directly above respective wells of the sample plate arranged on a lower side.

2. The sample plate as recited in claim 1, further comprising: a protrusion provided on a lower surface side and configured to be inserted into the through-hole of the other sample plate arranged on a lower side of the sample plate in a state in which the sample plate is arranged on an upper side of the other sample plate.

3. The sample plate as recited in claim 2, wherein the protrusion has a shape with a pointed lower end.

4. The sample plate as recited in claim 2, further comprising: a downwardly protruding ridge portion provided on the lower surface side; and a groove provided on an upper surface side and configured to fit the ridge portion of the other sample plate arranged on an upper side of the sample plate in a state in which the sample plate is arranged on a lower side of the other sample plate, the sample plate and the other sample plate being stacked up and down with a predetermined positional relationship.

5. The sample plate as recited in claim 4, wherein an upper surface of the sample plate is covered with a sheet made of an elastic material to seal openings of the wells, and wherein the groove is provided on an upper surface of the sheet.

6. The sample plate as recited to claim 1, wherein an upper surface of the sample plate is covered with a sheet made of an elastic material to seal openings of the wells, and wherein a plurality of through-holes each allowing the sampling needle to pass through is provided in the sheet at positions corresponding to the plurality of through-holes of the sample plate.

7. An auto-sampler comprising: a sample plate installation member where the sample plate as recited in claim 1 is installed, the sample plate installation member being configured to allow a plurality of the sample plates to be arranged up and down in two stages with a predetermined positional relationship such that the through-holes of the sample plate arranged on an upper side is arranged at positions directly above respective wells of the sample plate arranged on a lower side; a movable sampling needle configured to suck or discharge liquid from or to the well of the sample plate; and a needle controller configured to drive the sampling needle such that when sucking or discharging the liquid from or to a target well which is the well of the sample plate arranged on the lower side of two pieces of the sample plates installed on the sample plate installation member up and down with the predetermined positional relationship, the sampling needle is lowered from a position directly above the through-hole of the sample plate arranged on the upper side directly above the target well to pass through the through-hole so that a tip end of the sampling needle reaches the target well.

8. The auto-sampler as recited in claim 7, wherein the sample plate installation member includes an upper sample rack and a lower sample rack where the sample plate arranged on the upper side and the sample plate arranged on the lower side are installed independently of each other, respectively, and wherein the upper sample rack is provided with a through-hole allowing the sampling needle to pass through at a position corresponding to the through-hole of the sample plate arranged on the upper side and installed on the upper sample rack.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a sample plate.

[0020] FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the state in which the sample plates of the example are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship.

[0021] FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining the positional relationship between wells and through-holes of the sample plates arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship.

[0022] FIG. 4 is a plan view and cross-sectional views showing an example of the sample plate in which protrusions are provided on a lower surface side.

[0023] FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining positions of through-holes into which protrusions provided on the lower surface of the sample plate are inserted.

[0024] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a modification of the shape of the lower surface side protrusion of the sample plate.

[0025] FIG. 7 is a plan view showing an example of a sheet covering the upper surface of the sample plate.

[0026] FIG. 8 is a plan view and cross-sectional views showing an example of a sample plate having a ridge portion on the lower surface side and a groove on the upper surface.

[0027] FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the sample plates of the example are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship.

[0028] FIG. 10 is a plan view showing an example of a sheet having a groove on the upper surface.

[0029] FIG. 11 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of an auto-sampler.

[0030] FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing an example of an auto-sampler having a two-stage sample rack.

[0031] FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing the structure of the sample rack of the example.

EMBODIMENTS FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0032] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a sample plate and an auto-sampler according to the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

[0033] As shown in FIG. 1, in the sample plate 2 of this example, a plurality of wells 4 each for accommodating a sample is arranged in matrix within a principal plane. The sample plate 2 is provided with a plurality of through-holes 6 in a region of the principal plane where the wells 4 are not provided. The through-hole 6 is for allowing the sampling needle 24 of an auto-sampler 20 (see FIG. 11) to be described later to pass through.

[0034] As shown in FIG. 2, the sample plate 2 is configured to be used in an auto-sampler 20 (see FIG. 11) in a state in which two pieces of the sample plates 2 are arranged in a state of being stacked up and down. Hereinafter, of the sample plates 2 arranged up and down as shown in FIG. 2, the sample plate arranged on the upper side will be referred to as an upper sample plate 2a, and the sample plate arranged on the lower side will be referred to as a lower sample plate 2b.

[0035] As shown in FIG. 3, the wells 4 and the through-holes 6 of the sample plate 2 are provided at positions where the through-holes 6a of the upper sample plate 2a are arranged at positions directly above the wells 4b of the lower sample plate 2b when the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b are displaced from each other by a certain distance in the horizontal direction and become a predetermined positional relationship. With this, by lowering the sampling needle 24 of the auto-sampler 20 (see FIG. 11) from above the upper sample plate 2a to pass through the through-hole 6a, it is possible to make the sampling needle 24 access the well 4b of the lower sample plate 2b.

[0036] When arranging the sample plates 2 up and down, the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b may be stacked one on the other or may be spaced apart from each other. In the case of stacking the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b, both the sample plates 2a and 2b are preferably positioned with a predetermined positional relationship.

[0037] FIG. 4 shows an example of a structure for positioning the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b with each other. In the example of FIG. 4, a protrusion 8 extending downward is provided on the lower surface of each well 4 at the four corners of the sample plate 2. The protrusion 8 has an outer diameter substantially the same as the inner diameter of the through-hole 6. The protrusion 8 is a part to be inserted into the through-hole 6b of the lower sample plate 2b arranged below. In this embodiment, the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b are positioned with a predetermined positional relationship by inserting the protrusions 8 of the upper sample plate 2a into the through-holes 6b of the lower sample plate 2b surrounded by the thick line in FIG. 5. Note that the protrusion 8 is not always required to be provided at the bottom of the well 4 at the four corners and may be provided at any positions as long as it performs the same function.

[0038] As shown in FIG. 6, note that a sheet 14 for preventing evaporation of the liquid in the wells 4 is sometimes provided on the upper surface of the sample plate 2. The sheet 14 is made of a resilient material such as silicone that can be penetrated by a sampling needle 24 (see FIG. 11). In cases where such a sheet 14 covers the upper surface of the sample plate 2, the upper surface of the through-hole 6 is covered with the sheet 14, which makes it difficult to insert the protrusion 8 of the upper sample plate 2a into the through-hole 6b of the lower sample plate 2b. Therefore, by making the tip end of the protrusion 8 in a sharp shape as shown in FIG. 6, the sheet 14 can be pierced by the tip end of the protrusion 8, and therefore the protrusion 8 of the upper sample plate 2a can be easily inserted into the through-hole 6b of the lower sample plate 2b.

[0039] As shown in FIG. 7, a through-hole 16 corresponding to the through-hole 6 of the sample plate 2 may be provided in the principal plane of the sheet 14 covering the upper surface of the sample plate 2. This eliminates the need for the sampling needle 24 to penetrate the sheet 14 when the sampling needle 24 of the auto-sampler 20 (see FIG. 11) attempts to penetrate the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a, facilitating the passage of the through-hole 6a by the sampling needle 24.

[0040] As shown in FIG. 8, a ridge portion 10 may be provided on the lower surface side of the sample plate 2, and a groove 12 may be provided on the upper surface of the sample plate 2 to fit the ridge portion 10. The ridge portion 10 and the groove 12 are designed such that the ridge portion 10 of the upper sample plate 2a fits into the groove 12 of the lower sample plate 2b so that the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b can be positioned with a predetermined positional relationship. In the example of FIG. 8, the peripheral edge portion of the sample plate 2 extends downward to form the ridge portion 10, and the upper surface of the sample plate 2 is provided with the groove 12 having a shape corresponding to the shape of the ridge portion 10.

[0041] In cases where the upper surface of the sample plate 2 is covered with a sheet 14, by providing a groove 18 for fitting the ridge portion 10 of the sample plate 2 on the upper surface of the sheet 14, the same positioning function as providing the groove 12 on the upper surface of the sample plate 2 can be exerted.

[0042] An example of an auto-sampler using the above-described sample plates 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 11.

[0043] The auto-sampler 20 of this example is provided with a sample rack 22 (sample plate installation member) for installing a plurality of sample plates 2 (the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b) in a state in which they are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship, a sampling needle 24 held in a state in which the tip end faces vertically downward above the sample rack 22, a drive mechanism 26 for driving the sampling needle 24 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, and a needle controller 28 for controlling the operation of the drive mechanism 26. Although a pair of the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b is shown in FIG. 11, the sample plate installation member 22 may be configured such that a plurality of pairs of the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b can be installed.

[0044] The needle controller 28 is realized by a dedicated computer or a general-purpose computer and functions obtained by executing a predetermined program by arithmetic elements provided in the computer. The needle controller 28 has information about the position of each well 4a of the upper sample plate 2a and information about the position of each well 4b of the lower sample plate 2b, and is configured to control the operation of the drive mechanism 26 based on the information to cause the sampling needle 24 to access the position of a desired well 4a or 4b.

[0045] For example, in cases where the sampling needle 24 sucks the sample from the well 4b of the lower sample plate 2b, the sampling needle 24 is lowered from a position directly above the target well 4b. Since the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a is provided directly above each well 4b of the lower sample plate 2b, when the sampling needle 24 is lowered from a position directly above the target well 4b, the sampling needle 24 can pass through the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a and the tip end of the sampling needle 24 can reach the target well 4b.

[0046] As shown in FIG. 12, the auto-sampler 20 may be provided, as a sample plate installation member, with an upper sample rack 22a for mounting the upper sample plate 2a and a lower sample rack 22b for mounting the lower sample plate 2b. In this case, the upper sample rack 22a and the lower sample rack 22b are configured such that, when stored at a predetermined position in the auto-sampler 20, the sample plates 2a and the 2b placed on the respective racks 22a and 22b are arranged up and down with a predetermined positional relationship.

[0047] As described above, in cases where the upper sample plate 2a and the lower sample plate 2b are mounted on the separate sample racks 22a, 22b, the upper sample rack 22a needs to be structured so that the sampling needle 24 that has passed through the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a can reach the lower sample plate 2b.

[0048] FIG. 13 shows the example in which a through-hole 30 corresponding to the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a is provided in the base plate 23a of the upper sample rack 22a positioned below the upper sample plate 2a. The structure of the upper sample rack 22a is not limited to this, and any structure may be used as long as the structure does not hinder the lowering and rising of the sampling needle 24 that passes through the through-hole 6a of the upper sample plate 2a.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS

[0049] 2 :sample plate [0050] 2a :upper sample plate [0051] 2b :lower sample plate [0052] 4, 4a, 4b :well [0053] 6, 6a, 6b :through-hole (sample plate) [0054] 8 :protrusion [0055] 10 :ridge portion [0056] 12 :groove (sample plate upper surface) [0057] 14 :sheet [0058] 16 :through-hole (sheet) [0059] 18 :groove (sheet) [0060] 20 :auto-sampler [0061] 22, 22a, 22b :sample rack (sample plate installation member) [0062] 24 :sampling needle [0063] 26 :drive mechanism [0064] 28 :needle control unit [0065] 30 :through-hole (sample rack)