Slide rack carousel
AssigneeLeica Biosystems Imaging, Inc.
InventorsNicholas Newberg, Prentash Djelosevic
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A digital slide scanning apparatus slide rack carousel allows continuous loading and unloading of slide racks into the carousel while the digital slide scanning apparatus is simultaneously digitizing glass slides. The slide rack carousel includes a base having an interior portion of its upper surface at an angle. The slide rack carousel also includes plural rack spacers extending upward from the base and adjacent rack spacers define a rack slot. Each rack spacer also includes a rack stopper on each side such that adjacent rack spacers have rack stoppers facing each other. The rack stoppers prevent a slide rack from moving further toward the center of the carousel than desired.
Claims20
A carousel for holding a plurality of glass slide racks in a digital slide scanning apparatus, the carousel comprising:
- a carousel base having a lower surface on a first side of the carousel base, an upper surface on a second side of the carousel base that is opposite the first side, and an exterior edge between the lower surface and the upper surface on a side of the carousel base that intersects the first side and the second side, wherein the exterior edge of the carousel base is generally circular from a top view perspective,
- wherein at least a portion of the upper surface of the carousel base is angled downward towards a center of the carousel base, and wherein the angle is at least 1 degree, wherein the upper surface is configured to receive at least one glass slide rack of the plurality of glass slide racks to bias the at least one slide rack towards the center of the carousel base, and
- wherein the carousel base is configured to rotate 360 degrees in at least one direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.