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EP-4242665-B1 - SAMPLE ANALYZER

EP4242665B1EP 4242665 B1EP4242665 B1EP 4242665B1EP-4242665-B1

Inventors

  • RAO, WEI
  • YIN, LI
  • TANG, Junhui
  • ZHU, LIANG
  • HU, YI
  • YI, Wanguan
  • TONG, Shuai
  • LI, JIANG

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20230308

Claims (14)

  1. A sample analyzer, comprising: an incubation mechanism (400), which is used for performing incubation on liquid in a reaction vessel; and a uniform mixing mechanism (300), which is independently arranged relative to the incubation mechanism (400) and has a transport station (321) and a uniform mixing station (322), wherein the uniform mixing mechanism (300) comprises a carrying member (310) for carrying the reaction vessel, and the carrying member (310) drives the reaction vessel to circularly move between the transport station (321) and the uniform mixing station (322); and the carrying member (310) conveys the reaction vessel, which is input from the transport station (321), to the uniform mixing station (322), so as to uniformly mix the liquid, and conveys the reaction vessel from the uniform mixing station (322) to the transport station (321), so as to output the reaction vessel to the incubation mechanism (400); and wherein the incubation mechanism (400) is fixedly arranged, the incubation mechanism (400) is divided into a first region (410) and a second region (420), a width of the first region (410) is less than a width of the second region (420), such that the first region (410) and the second region (420) together enclose a mounting notch (430), and characterized in that the carrying member (310) is at least partially accommodated in the mounting notch (430).
  2. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carrying member (310) is rotatably arranged, so as to drive the reaction vessel to perform circular movement; the carrying member (310) is rotated by 180° , such that the reaction vessel arrives at the uniform mixing station (322) from the transport station (321).
  3. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 2, wherein the uniform mixing mechanism (300) further has a first transfer station (331) and a second transfer station (332), positions of the first transfer station (331) and the second transfer station (332) are different from positions of the transport station and the uniform mixing station, the reaction vessel is input at the first transfer station (331) to the carrying member (310), and the carrying member (310) is rotated by 180° , such that the reaction vessel arrives at the second transfer station (332) from the first transfer station (331), so as to be output.
  4. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 3, wherein a connecting line between the first transfer station (331) and the second transfer station (332) intersects with a connecting line between the transport station and the uniform mixing station, and both the transport station and the uniform mixing station are spaced apart from each other by 180° in a rotation direction of the carrying member (310).
  5. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a first gripper and a second gripper, wherein both the incubation mechanism (400) and the transport station (321) are located within a movement range of the first gripper, wherein the first region (410) is located beyond a movement range of the second gripper, the first transfer station (331) is located within the movement range of the second gripper, and the transport station is located beyond the movement range of the second gripper.
  6. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, wherein the second transfer station (332) is located within the movement range of the first gripper, and is located beyond the movement range of the second gripper.
  7. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, wherein a straight line for connecting centers of the transport station (321) and the uniform mixing station (322) is a first straight line, a straight line for connecting centers of the first transfer station (331) and the second transfer station (332) is a second straight line, both the first straight line and the second straight line pass through the incubation mechanism (400), the incubation mechanism (400) has a first edge and a second edge at the mounting notch (430), the first straight line neither overlaps nor intersects with the second edge, such that the first straight line is spaced apart from the second edge, the second straight line neither overlaps nor intersects with the first edge, such that the second straight line is spaced apart from the first edge.
  8. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, wherein the second region (420) of the incubation mechanism (400) is located within the movement range of the second gripper, the first region is closer to the transport station relative to the second region, and the second region is closer to the first transfer station (331) relative to the first region.
  9. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a cleaning mechanism and a measurement mechanism, which are oppositely and independently arranged and are located beyond the movement range of the first gripper, wherein the second gripper inputs the reaction vessel from the incubation mechanism to the cleaning mechanism, and inputs the reaction vessel from the cleaning mechanism to the measurement mechanism, and the second gripper further inputs, at the first transfer station (331), the reaction vessel on the cleaning mechanism to the carrying member (310).
  10. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a carrying mechanism, which has a first station (221), a second station (222) and a reagent station (223), wherein the second station (222) is located within the movement range of the first gripper, beyond the movement range of the second gripper and above the uniform mixing station, the carrying mechanism conveys the reaction vessel, which is input from the first station (221), to the reagent station (223), so as to load a reagent, and conveys the reaction vessel from the reagent station (223) to the second station (222), so as to output the reaction vessel to the carrying member (310), and the reaction vessel on the incubation mechanism is input at the second station (222) to the carrying mechanism.
  11. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 10, wherein the reaction vessel on the uniform mixing mechanism (300) is input at the second station (222) to the carrying mechanism.
  12. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 10, wherein the carrying mechanism comprises a driving wheel, a driven wheel and a conveyor belt, the conveyor belt is sleeved on the driving wheel and the driven wheel, the conveyor belt comprises a linear first edge and a linear second edge, the first edge is further away from the carrying member (310) relative to the second edge, the reaction vessel is input from the first station (221) to the first edge, and the second edge drives the reaction vessel to move between the second station (222) and the reagent station (223).
  13. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a conveying mechanism, which has an in-out station and a sample station, wherein the conveying mechanism conveys the reaction vessel, which is input from the in-out station, to the sample station, so as to load a sample, and returns the reaction vessel from the sample station to the in-out station, so as to output the reaction vessel to the carrying mechanism.
  14. The sample analyzer as claimed in claim 5, wherein the uniform mixing mechanism (300) and the incubation mechanism (400) are located on one side of the carrying mechanism, and the conveying mechanism is located on the other side of the carrying mechanism.

Description

Cross-Reference to Related Application The disclosure claims the priority to Chinese Patent Application No. CN2022102430070, filed to the Chinese Patent Office on March 11, 2022 and entitled "Sample Analyzer". Technical Field The present invention relates to a technical field of medical instruments, and in particular, to a sample analyzer. Background A sample analyzer may test substances, such as antibodies and antigens, contained in samples such as blood. In general, an empty reaction vessel is put into the sample analyzer, then a sample and a target reagent are added into the reaction vessel, steps such as uniform mixing, incubation, and cleaning and separation are performed, and finally, a signal reagent is added into the reaction vessel to measure an optical signal or an electric signal, so as to realize the measurement and analysis of an antibody and an antigen in the sample. A test flux is an important parameter for measuring the working efficiency of the sample analyzer, the test flux may be defined to be the number of reaction vessels, which are tested by the sample analyzer within a unit time, and the test flux is proportional to the number of the tested reaction vessels. For a traditional sample analyzer, in order to ensure a relatively large flux, it usually has the defect of a relatively large volume. Examples of a sample analyzer according to the prior art are known from CN 113466477 A, CN 109061210 A, WO 2021147187 A1 and EP 0745855 A2. Summary One technical problem to be solved by the present invention is how to reduce the volume and to improve the test flux of a sample analyzer. The invention is as defined in claim 1. Advantageous further developments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims. One technical effect of one embodiment of the present invention is that: the incubation mechanism and the uniform mixing mechanism are independent of each other, so as to eliminate a direct physical connection relationship therebetween. In this way, on one hand, when the two grippers input or output reaction vessels on the carrying member, interference can be eliminated, thereby avoiding that the two grippers can only take the form of sequential movement due to the interference, thus eliminating a "queue waiting" time, ensuring that the two grippers can move at the same time, and improving the working efficiency of the grippers, such that the number of reaction vessels, which are input to and output from the carrying member within the unit time, is increased, and finally the test flux is improved. Moreover, the volumes of the independently arranged incubation mechanism and the uniform mixing mechanism are relatively reduced, thereby reducing the volume of the entire sample analyzer. By means of providing the transport station and the uniform mixing station, the input and uniform mixing procedures of different reaction vessels on the carrying member can be carried out independently at the same time, and the output and uniform mixing procedures of different reaction vessels on the carrying member can also be carried out independently at the same time, such that the "queue waiting" time between two adjacent reaction vessels can be shortened, and an interval time of the two adjacent reaction vessels for arriving at the uniform mixing station is compressed, thereby shortening the time for inputting or outputting the two adjacent reaction vessels to and from the carrying member, and finally, the test flux of the sample analyzer is improved. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a schematic structural top view of a sample analyzer according to an embodiment; andFig. 2 is a partial schematic structural diagram of the sample analyzer shown in Fig. 1. Detailed Description of the Embodiments In order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are given in the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention may be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to make the understanding of the invention of the present invention more thorough and comprehensive. It should be noted that, when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" another element, it may be directly on the other element or there may also be an intervening element. When an element is considered to be "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected to the other element or there may also be an intervening element at the same time. The terms "inner", "outer", "left", "right" and the like used herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to indicate unique embodiments. Referring to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, a sample analyzer 10 provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes a storage mechanism 110, a conveying mecha