US-12625155-B2 - Automatic analyzer

US12625155B2US 12625155 B2US12625155 B2US 12625155B2US-12625155-B2

Abstract

Provided is an automatic analyzer capable of reliably closing an openable lid provided in an opening for accessing a region covered by a cover. An automatic analyzer includes an incubator cover disposed to cover a preprocessing region provided on an operation surface on a housing, an openable lid disposed to openably cover an opening portion provided in the incubator cover in order to access the inside from the outside of the preprocessing region, and a safety cover disposed to cover upper portions of the operation surface and the preprocessing region, and the openable lid is moved to a closed position in association with movement of the safety cover from an opened position to the closed position in a case where the openable lid is at the opened position and the safety cover is at the opened position.

Inventors

Tsukasa SUENARI
Takenori Okusa
Taichiro Yamashita

Assignees

HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20210205
Priority Date: 20200709

Claims (5)

1 . An automatic analyzer comprising: an operation surface including an incubator configured for receiving a container for a specimen to be analyzed; an incubator cover which is disposed to cover a first region of the operation surface, the first region including at least a portion of the incubator and requiring at least one of temperature control or light shielding; an openable lid which is disposed to openably cover an opening portion provided in the incubator cover, the opening portion providing access to the first region inside the incubator cover from an outside of the incubator cover, the openable lid configured to be rotatable between a first fully opened position and a first fully closed position with respect to the opening portion of the incubator cover, the openable lid configured to be movable to the first fully opened position in which a first end of the openable lid on a side distant from a center of rotation of the openable lid is positioned higher than a reference height of less than 90 degrees with respect to the first fully closed position; a safety cover which is configured to cover the operation surface including the incubator cover and the first region, wherein the safety cover is configured to be rotatable between a second fully opened position and a second fully closed position with respect to an end of the operation surface, wherein, in the second fully closed position, the safety cover is configured to cover the openable lid, wherein, when the openable lid is at the first fully opened position and the safety cover is at the second fully opened position, the openable lid is configured to be moved to the first fully closed position due at least to contact with the safety cover during movement of the safety cover from the second fully opened position to the second fully closed position; and an airtight member which is disposed at a boundary between the openable lid and the incubator cover at the first fully closed position, and which suppresses flow-in and flow-out of air between the first region inside the incubator cover and the outside of the incubator cover, and which also suppresses infiltration of light into the first region.
2 . The automatic analyzer according to claim 1 , wherein the openable lid is configured to be movable to the first fully closed position at least in part by its own weight when the first end of the openable lid is moved down below the reference height due at least to the contact with the safety cover during the movement of the safety cover from the second fully opened position to the second fully closed position.
3 . The automatic analyzer according to claim 1 , wherein at the first fully opened position, the first end of the openable lid in a vertical direction is configured to be higher in the vertical direction than an inner surface of the safety cover at the second fully closed position.
4 . The automatic analyzer according to claim 1 , wherein at the first fully opened position, the first end of the openable lid in a vertical direction is configured to be higher in the vertical direction than an inner surface of the safety cover at the second fully closed position, the openable lid is configured to be movable to the first fully closed position at least in part by its own weight when the first end of the openable lid is moved down below the reference height due at least to the contact with the safety cover during the movement of the safety cover from the second fully opened position to the second fully closed position, and the inner surface of the safety cover is configured to move the openable lid down below the reference height while abutting on the first end of the openable lid, and the openable lid is configured to thereby be moved to the first fully closed position due to the movement of the safety cover from the second fully opened position to the second fully closed position.
5 . The automatic analyzer according to claim 1 , wherein a downward rib along an outer side of the airtight member is provided on an outer circumference of the openable lid.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an automatic analyzer. BACKGROUND ART An automatic analyzer is a device that performs a qualitative analysis or a quantitative analysis on a certain component included in a biological sample, such as blood, urine, and spinal fluid, and is an essential device in facilities that need to process many patient specimens in a short time, such as a hospital and a medical testing facility. In such an automatic analyzer, in order to reduce an effect of an external environment on an analysis result, preprocessing, such as dispensing and stirring of a reaction liquid and a reagent, is performed in a preprocessing region that is environmentally controlled, such as light shielded and temperature adjusted. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an automatic analyzer. The automatic analyzer includes a sample disk, a reagent disk, a reaction disk, and a plurality of dispensing mechanisms, that are disposed on a top face of a main-body casing, a scattered light measurement unit disposed inside the main-body casing, and a protective cover. The sample disk holds a plurality of samples, the reagent disk holds a plurality of types of reagent, the reaction disk holds a plurality of reaction cells, and the plurality of dispensing mechanisms each include an arm that rotates and a nozzle fixed to the arm and dispensing the samples and/or the reagents to the reaction cells held at the reaction disk. The scattered light measurement unit includes a light source that irradiates light to the reaction cells and a photoreceptor that receives scattered light generated from a reaction liquid in the reaction cells irradiated with the light. The protective cover is disposed to cover the top face of the main-body casing, and includes a light-shielding part to block external light and a see-through part enabling see therethrough of inside. The light-shielding part covers at least an area of the reaction disk corresponding to an area above the scattered light measurement unit. CITATION LIST Patent Literature Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-72799 SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem In order to maintain the measurement results at high accuracy in the automatic analyzer, maintenance work, such as cleaning and parts replacement inside the preprocessing region covered by the cover and environmentally controlled, is required to be performed periodically or according to usage conditions. An openable lid disposed at an opening portion on an upper portion or a front surface of the cover covering the preprocessing region is opened and maintenance personnel access the inside of the preprocessing region from a clearance between the openable lid and the cover via the opening portion, and thus, the maintenance work is performed. After the maintenance work is completed and the openable lid is closed, the cover and the openable lid keep the inside of the preprocessing region in a light-shielded and temperature-adjusted state. For example, when the openable lid of the preprocessing region is of a removable type, however, the openable lid removed for opening the opening portion when the maintenance work is started may be left unattached after the maintenance work is terminated. In case the preprocessing is performed with the opening portion of the preprocessing region left unclosed, the preprocessing is performed with insufficient light shielding and temperature adjustment in the preprocessing region, which possibly deteriorates the accuracy of the analysis results. The present invention is made in consideration of the above, and one of its objectives is to provide an automatic analyzer capable of reliably closing an openable lid provided in an opening for accessing a region covered by a cover. Solution to Problem The present application includes a plurality of means to solve the above-described problems, and one of such examples includes an automatic analyzer including: a housing that accommodates at least a portion of an analyzer analyzing a specimen to be analyzed; a first region cover disposed to cover a first region provided on an operation surface on the housing so as to include a portion of the analyzer; an openable lid that is disposed to openably cover an opening portion provided in the first region cover in order to access an inside from an outside of the first region, and is provided to be rotatable between a first fully opened position and a first fully closed position with respect to the first region cover at an end of the opening portion, the openable lid having an open holding function for holding the openable lid at the first fully opened position in a case where one end of the openable lid on a side distant from a center of rotation of the openable lid is positioned higher than a reference height determined in advance; and a second region cover that is disposed to cover upper portions of the operation surface and the first region cover and pro