CN112924703A - Pipetting system and pipetting operation method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a liquid transfer system, which comprises a turntable, a liquid transfer device and a slide rail. The liquid transfer device is used for loading a first pipette and a second pipette, wherein the first pipette has a first transfer capacity, the second pipette has a second transfer capacity, and the first transfer capacity is different from the second transfer capacity. The slide rail is connected with the liquid transfer device, and the liquid transfer device is used for driving the first pipette and the second pipette to move along the slide rail so as to cooperate with the rotation of the turntable to carry out liquid transfer operation. The invention can realize the operation requirement of micro-pipetting of the pipetting device and overcome the problem that the precision requirement of the pipetting device is influenced by the transfer capacity of the pipette in the prior art.

Description

Pipetting system and pipetting operation method thereof

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of pipetting devices, and more particularly, to a pipetting system and a method for operating the same.

Background

The extraction and injection of liquids is a procedure that is often required in industrial applications. In the automatic process, the liquid can be extracted and injected by using the liquid-transferring device, and the operation requirement of micro liquid transfer is met by the pipette and the rotating disc of the liquid-transferring device.

In practical application, different liquids and different operation scenes need to move the pipette to the test tube at a specified position. In the moving process of the pipette, the single pipette with the transfer volume is mostly adopted for liquid treatment, and the moving distance, the moving height, the angle of the rotary disc, the moving speed of the rotary disc, the volume of liquid required to be sucked by the pipette each time and the like of the pipette all need to be accurately controlled, so that the offset generated by the tip position of the pipette can be avoided. Such an offset adversely affects micropipetting operations, and the transfer capacity and accuracy requirements of the pipette are different from each other, and if liquid processing is performed with only a pipette having a single transfer volume, the accuracy cannot be controlled within an ideal range.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, the present disclosure discloses a liquid transfer system and a liquid transfer method thereof, which can meet the operation requirement of micro liquid transfer of a liquid transfer device and overcome the problem that the transfer capacity of a pipette influences the precision requirement in the prior art.

In one aspect of the present invention, a liquid transferring system is provided, which includes a turntable, a liquid transferring device and a slide rail. The rotary disc is provided with a pipette replacing area and a pipette area. The liquid transfer device is used for loading a first pipette and a second pipette, wherein the first pipette has a first transfer capacity, the second pipette has a second transfer capacity, and the first transfer capacity is different from the second transfer capacity. The slide rail is connected with the liquid transfer device, and the liquid transfer device is used for driving the first pipette and the second pipette to move along the slide rail so as to cooperate with the rotation of the turntable to carry out liquid transfer operation.

In another aspect of the present invention, a method of pipetting is provided, comprising the following steps. Determining a target reagent to be aspirated according to the detection process. The pipettes with different transfer capacities are moved to the upper part of the target reagent along the slide rail. And judging the required absorbed dose. If the required absorbed dose is smaller, the first pipette with smaller transfer capacity can take liquid along the vertical slide rail. If the required absorbed dosage is larger, the second pipette with larger transferring capacity is allowed to perform a liquid taking action along the vertical slide rail.

In order to better understand the above and other aspects of the present invention, the following detailed description of the embodiments is made with reference to the accompanying drawings:

drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a pipetting system according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a pipetting device in a pipetting system.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view 1 of a pipetting operation using the pipetting device of fig. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view 2 of a pipetting operation using the pipetting device of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the judgment step of the pipetting method.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar structures, and thus their repetitive description will be omitted.

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of apipetting system 100 according to an embodiment of the invention, and fig. 2 is a schematic view of apipetting device 120 in thepipetting system 100. Referring to fig. 1 and 2, thepipetting system 100 includes aturntable 110, apipetting device 120, and aslide rail 130. Thecarousel 110 is provided with apipette replacement zone 112, apipetting zone 114, and areagent placement zone 116. Thepipetting device 120 is capable of performing a pipetting operation in cooperation with the rotation of theturntable 110.

Referring to fig. 2, thepipetting device 120 is used to load afirst pipette 122 and asecond pipette 124, wherein thefirst pipette 122 has a first transfer capacity and thesecond pipette 124 has a second transfer capacity, and the first transfer capacity is different from the second transfer capacity.

Referring to fig. 2, theslide rail 130 is connected to thepipetting device 120, and thepipetting device 120 is used to drive thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 to move along theslide rail 130 to a designated position in cooperation with theturntable 110, for example, thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 can move back and forth between thepipette replacement area 112, thepipetting area 114 and thereagent placement area 116 to perform a pipetting operation. Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality oftest tubes 142, 144 are disposed in thepipetting zone 114 for receiving a blood sample for testing.

One embodiment of pipetting is outlined below. First, thepipetting device 120 moves to thereagent placement area 116 to aspirate a first dose of reagent and add the first dose of reagent to thefirst test tube 142 in thepipetting area 114, and then thepipetting device 120 moves to thepipette replacement area 112 to replace a different pipette and moves to thereagent placement area 116 to aspirate a second dose of reagent and add the second dose of reagent to thefirst test tube 142 in thepipetting area 114. Thepipetting device 120 then moves to thereagent placement area 116 to aspirate a third dose of reagent and add the third dose of reagent to thefirst tube 142 in thepipetting area 114. Subsequently, thepipetting device 120 aspirates the mixed liquid containing the first dose of reagent, the second dose of reagent, and the third dose of reagent, filters the mixed liquid through the filtration system, and adds the filtered mixed liquid to thesecond test tube 144 in thepipetting zone 114. Finally, thepipetting device 120 aspirates a fourth dose of reagent and adds the fourth dose of reagent to thefirst tube 142, and aspirates the mixed fluid containing the fourth dose of reagent through the filtration system and into thesecond tube 144.

In order to precisely control the dosage of the respective reagents, a first dosage of reagent is aspirated, for example, with afirst pipette 122, and a second dosage of reagent is aspirated, for example, with a furtherfirst pipette 122, the first dosage and the second dosage being identical or different. Furthermore, a third dose of reagent is aspirated, for example, with asecond pipette 124, and a fourth dose of reagent is aspirated, for example, with anothersecond pipette 124, the third dose and the fourth dose may be the same or different.

Thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 have different transfer capacities, and the transfer capacity of thefirst pipette 122 is, for example, 1 milliliter (ml) or less, and the transfer capacity of thesecond pipette 124 is, for example, more than 1 milliliter (ml) but 5 milliliters (ml) or less. Thefirst pipette 122 is used to aspirate a smaller amount of reagent, and thesecond pipette 124 is used to aspirate a larger amount of reagent, and thepipetting device 120 can use either thefirst pipette 122 or thesecond pipette 124 according to the amount of the required volume to be aspirated. 1 milliliter (ml) may be converted to 1000 microliters (μ l).

Thepipetting device 120 is not limited to having only onefirst pipette 122 and onesecond pipette 124, and may have two or three pipettes with transfer capacities, for example, when the amount of pipettes is greater than 5 milliliters (ml), a pipette with a larger transfer capacity may be loaded on thepipetting device 120.

In one embodiment, thefirst pipette 122 with a smaller transfer capacity can suck a first dose of reagent of 0.02 milliliters (ml) and a second dose of reagent of 0.04 milliliters (ml), so that the error of the transfer capacity can be controlled to be about 2.5%, and the accuracy requirement of less than 10% is met. If thesecond pipette 124 with a larger transfer capacity is used to suck the first dose of 0.02 milliliters (ml) of reagent and the second dose of 0.04 milliliters (ml) of reagent, the error of the transfer capacity is about 26% and 15%, and the accuracy requirement of less than 10% cannot be met.

The following table shows an example of the transfer amount error of a 20 microliter (μ l) dose drawn by thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124, and it is obvious that the transfer amount error of thefirst pipette 122 can be controlled to about 2.5%, and the transfer amount error of thesecond pipette 124 is about 26% when thesecond pipette 124 with a large transfer capacity is used to take a liquid.

Further, by sucking the reagent of the third dose of 2 milliliters (ml) and the reagent of the fourth dose of 5 milliliters (ml) with thesecond pipette 124 having a large transfer capacity, the error of the transfer amount can be controlled to about 2.5%, and the accuracy requirement of less than 10% can be met. If thefirst pipette 122 with a smaller transfer capacity is used to aspirate the third dose of 2 milliliters (ml) of reagent and the fourth dose of 5 milliliters (ml) of reagent, the transfer capacity is limited to 1 ml, which cannot be taken out at one time, and the reagent must be pipetted several times, thereby wasting time and affecting the reaction effect of the reagent.

As can be seen, the conventional pipette operation using a pipette with a single transfer volume is affected by the limited transfer volume or insufficient accuracy requirement of the pipette, and if a pipette with a small extraction amount is used, high accuracy can be maintained, and if a pipette with a large extraction amount is used, accuracy is degraded, and if the accuracy is degraded or the extraction amount is insufficient, a subsequent operation error or erroneous judgment of an analysis result is caused. In addition, in the case of an instrument requiring high precision, if only a pipette with a small amount of extraction is used to perform an experiment, the waste of repeated extraction time and the influence on the reaction of reagents are caused.

Compared to the conventional pipetting operation with a single transfer volume pipette, thepipetting system 100 of the present embodiment uses afirst pipette 122 and asecond pipette 124 with different transfer volumes. Since the amount of reagent added is different during pipetting, thefirst pipette 122 is used to aspirate a small amount of reagent and thesecond pipette 124 is used to aspirate a large amount of reagent, thereby solving the problems of reduced accuracy and insufficient pipetting amount.

Please refer to fig. 3 and fig. 4, which are schematic diagrams of a pipetting operation performed by thepipetting device 120 in fig. 2. Thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 are both mounted on theslide rail 130 and can move synchronously along theslide rail 130. In addition, thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 are respectively mounted on two independentvertical slide rails 132, 134 and can respectively move along thevertical slide rails 132, 134 in the vertical direction. Therefore, thepipetting device 120 can move thefirst pipette 122 or thesecond pipette 124 to the right above the test tube according to the required amount of the pipetted dose.

In addition, thefirst pipette 122 and thesecond pipette 124 with different transfer volumes can be moved vertically at the same time to aspirate different doses of the first reagent and the second reagent, so as to increase the speed of liquid taking.

Please refer to fig. 1 to fig. 5, wherein fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the determining steps of the pipetting method, which is outlined below. First, in step S110, a target reagent to be aspirated is determined according to a detection flow, and in step S120, thepipette device 120 moves the pipette along theslide rail 130 to above the target test tube/reagent in cooperation with theturntable 110. In step S130, the required amount of liquid to be sucked is determined, and if the required amount of liquid to be sucked is less than or equal to 1 milliliter (ml), steps S132 and S134 are performed, the height of liquid to be taken for movement is calculated, thefirst pipette 122 with smaller transfer capacity performs a liquid taking action along thevertical slide rail 132, and the original position is returned after the liquid taking is completed; if the required suction dosage is larger than 1 milliliter (ml), steps S136 and S138 are performed to calculate the liquid-taking height required to move, so that thesecond pipette 124 with larger transfer capacity performs the liquid-taking action along thevertical slide rail 134, and returns to the original position after the liquid-taking action is completed. Next, in step S140, thepipetting device 120 moves to above the test tube in thepipetting zone 114 in cooperation with theturntable 110 to perform injection, so as to complete one pipetting operation. In step S142, it is determined whether or not the liquid transfer operation is to be continued, and if the next liquid transfer operation is required, the process returns to step S110 until all the liquid transfer operations are completed.

In summary, although the present invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited thereto. Those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the contents defined in the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. A pipetting system, comprising:

a turntable;

a pipetting device for loading a first pipette having a first transfer capacity and a second pipette having a second transfer capacity, said first transfer capacity being different from said second transfer capacity; and

the sliding rail is connected with the liquid transferring device, and the liquid transferring device is used for driving the first pipette and the second pipette to move along the sliding rail so as to be matched with the rotation of the rotary disc to perform liquid transferring operation.

2. The pipetting system of claim 1, wherein the carousel is provided with a pipette replacement zone, a pipetting zone, and a reagent placement zone, and the pipetting device cooperates with the carousel and the slide to move back and forth between the pipette replacement zone, the pipetting zone, and the reagent placement zone.

3. The pipetting system of claim 1, wherein the first pipette is configured to aspirate a first dose of reagent and the second pipette is configured to aspirate a second dose of reagent, wherein the first dose is different than the second dose.

4. The pipetting system of claim 1, wherein the first transfer capacity is less than or equal to 1 ml and the second transfer capacity is greater than 1 ml.

5. Pipetting system according to claim 4, characterized in that the pipetting means decide to use the first pipette or the second pipette depending on how many doses are to be pipetted.

6. Pipetting system according to claim 5, characterized in that the pipetting device performs the pipetting operation with the first pipette when the required aspirated dose is less than or equal to 1 ml and with the second pipette when the required aspirated dose is greater than 1 ml.

7. Pipetting system according to claim 1, characterized in that the first pipette and the second pipette are moved synchronously along the slide.

8. Pipetting system according to claim 1, characterized in that the first pipette and the second pipette are mounted on two separate vertical slide rails.

9. Pipetting system according to claim 1, characterized in that the pipetting device calculates a pipetting height to be moved for the first pipette or the second pipette to perform a pipetting action in the vertical direction.

10. A pipetting method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

determining a target reagent to be absorbed according to the detection process;

moving a first pipette and a second pipette with different transfer capacities to the position above the target reagent along the slide rail;

judging the required suction dosage, wherein when the required suction dosage is less than or equal to the first pipette or the second pipette with smaller transfer capacity in the first pipette and the second pipette, the first pipette or the second pipette with smaller transfer capacity performs a liquid taking action along the vertical slide rail; and

when the required suction dosage is larger than the first pipette or the second pipette with smaller transfer capacity in the first pipette and the second pipette, the first pipette or the second pipette with larger transfer capacity is allowed to perform a liquid taking action along the vertical slide rail.

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