US-12620916-B2 - Transport device

US12620916B2US 12620916 B2US12620916 B2US 12620916B2US-12620916-B2

Abstract

To prevent liquid sloshing caused by switching a coil to be energized in a transport device. A transport device that transports an object to be transported provided with a magnetic body, the transport device includes: a plurality of coils configured to generate a thrust for transporting the object to be transported; a coil drive unit configured to apply a pulsed voltage to each of the plurality of coils; and a calculation unit. When switching a coil to be energized, the calculation unit determines a width of the pulsed voltage such that a speed or an acceleration of the object to be transported is stabilized based on a position of the object to be transported and a time at which the object to be transported passes through the position or a current flowing through an energized coil in a predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, and outputs the determined width to the coil drive unit.

Inventors

Takahiro Suzuki
Satoru Kaneko
Shinji Azuma
Takeshi TAMAKOSHI

Assignees

HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20220810
Priority Date: 20211013

Claims (4)

1 . A transport device that transports an object to be transported provided with a magnetic body, the transport device comprising: a plurality of coils configured to generate a thrust for transporting the object to be transported; and a processor configured to: apply a pulsed voltage to each of the plurality of coils, and when switching a coil to be energized, determine a width of the pulsed voltage such that a speed or an acceleration of the object to be transported is stabilized based on a position of the object to be transported and a time at which the object to be transported passes through the position or a current flowing through an energized coil in a predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, and outputs the determined width.
2 . A transport device that transports an object to be transported provided with a magnetic body, the transport device comprising: a plurality of coils configured to generate a thrust for transporting the object to be transported; and a processor configured to: apply a pulsed voltage to each of the plurality of coils, and when switching a coil to be energized, determine a width of the pulsed voltage such that a speed or an acceleration of the object to be transported is stabilized based on a position of the object to be transported and a time at which the object to be transported passes through the position or a current flowing through an energized coil in a predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, and outputs the determined width, wherein the width of the pulsed voltage is determined based on the speed or the acceleration of the object to be transported, the current flowing through the coil, or a time for the object to be transported to pass between two predetermined positions during the predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized.
3 . A transport device that transports an object to be transported provided with a magnetic body, the transport device comprising: a plurality of coils configured to generate a thrust for transporting the object to be transported; a transport surface; and a processor configured to: apply a pulsed voltage to each of the plurality of coils, when switching a coil to be energized, determine a width of the pulsed voltage such that a speed or an acceleration of the object to be transported is stabilized based on a position of the object to be transported and a time at which the object to be transported passes through the position or a current flowing through an energized coil in a predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, and outputs the determined width, and store data of a time change rate of the current or inductance of the coil on the transport surface, the data being determined based on a positional relationship between the magnetic body and the coil, and estimates the position of the object to be transported using a measured value of the current flowing through the coil.
4 . The transport device of claim 2 , wherein the speed or the acceleration of the object to be transported or the current flowing through the coil during the predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, which is used for determining the width of the pulsed voltage, is any one of a maximum value, a minimum value, an average value, and an effective value.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a transport device. BACKGROUND ART With the advancement of medical care and aging of society, the importance of specimen processing in a clinical test is increasing. A specimen processing device used in a clinical test tests a predetermined analysis item on a biological sample (a specimen) of a body fluid or the like such as blood, plasma, serum, and urine. The Specimen processing device can connect devices having a plurality of functions and automatically process each step. In other words, in order to rationalize work in a test room, analysis units in a plurality of analysis fields such as biochemistry and immunity are connected by a transport line and are operated as one device. A transport line in the related art is mainly of a belt drive type. Therefore, when transport is stopped due to an abnormality occurring in the middle of the transport, a specimen cannot be supplied to a downstream device. In order to improve a processing capacity of a specimen processing device, it is desired to transport specimens at high speed, transport a large number of specimens at the same time, and transport specimens in a plurality of directions. PTL 1 discloses an electromagnetic actuator that is a container carrier including a magnetic active device such as a permanent magnet, that is arranged to be stationary below a transport plane adapted to carry a container adapted to carry a sample container, and that is adapted to move the container carrier on the transport plane by applying a magnetic force to the container carrier. Further, PTL 1 discloses that a speed of the container carrier that is moved on the transport plane is set by setting a time between contiguous activation of adjacent electromagnetic actuators. PTL 2 discloses a transport device including a transport plane on which a transport container provided with a magnetic body is transported, a position detection unit that detects a position of the transport container on the transport plane, a magnetic pole that is disposed below the transport plane and includes a core and a coil, a drive unit that applies a voltage to the magnetic pole, and a calculation unit that controls the drive unit, in which the drive unit detects a current flowing through the magnetic pole, and the calculation unit detects a position of the transport container on the transport plane based on the detected current, calculates a transport speed of the transport container based on the position of the transport container on the transport plane and a time at which the transport container passes through the position, and detects a surface condition of the transport plane based on the calculated transport speed of the transport container. PTL 2 discloses that a current effective value, a current instantaneous value, a duty of the voltage pulse, and the like may be used when a permanent magnet is moved by a voltage pulse, and discloses a magnitude and a pulse width of the voltage pulse as a voltage waveform applied to a coil for detecting a position of the transport container. CITATION LIST Patent Literature PTL 1: JP2017-77971APTL 2: JP2021-10254A SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem In the electromagnetic actuator disclosed in PTL 1, the speed of the container carrier is adjusted according to the time during contiguous activation of the electromagnetic actuator. The transport device disclosed in PTL 2 may use the duty of the voltage pulse or the like when the permanent magnet is moved. In general, since coils are discretely arranged in a transport device, when a coil to be energized is switched, thrust pulsation occurs, and accordingly, liquid sloshing occurs. This phenomenon is structurally difficult to avoid. PTL 1 and PTL 2 do not disclose a measure for preventing liquid sloshing, and it is considered that there is room for improvement. An object of the present disclosure is to prevent liquid sloshing caused by switching a coil to be energized in a transport device. Solution to Problem A transport device according to the present disclosure transports an object to be transported provided with a magnetic body. The transport device includes: a plurality of coils configured to generate a thrust for transporting the object to be transported; a coil drive unit configured to apply a pulsed voltage to each of the plurality of coils; and a calculation unit. When switching a coil to be energized, the calculation unit determines a width of the pulsed voltage such that a speed or an acceleration of the object to be transported is stabilized based on a position of the object to be transported and a time at which the object to be transported passes through the position or a current flowing through an energized coil in a predetermined period before switching the coil to be energized, and outputs the determined width to the coil drive unit. Advantageous Effects of Invention According to the present disclosure, it is possible to prevent liquid sloshing cau