Method For Automatically Feeding A Specimen To Be Thinly Cut To The Knife Of A Microtome

Abstract

A method for the automatic and contact-free relative approach between a specimen (6) and a knife (7) of a microtome (1), wherein the knife (7) has a knife blade and is fixed in a knife holder (3), and the specimen (6) is fixed in a specimen holder (5) which is mounted on a drive unit (4) for generating a relative motion between the knife (7) and the specimen (6), wherein between the knife (7) and the specimen (6) a light barrier with transmitter and receiver is arranged, and a light beam coming from the transmitter runs parallel to the knife blade, characterized by a drive unit (4) which drives the specimen holder (5) relative to the knife holder (3) or the knife holder (3) relative to the specimen holder (5) for performing a coarse and section thickness feed movement in a first spatial direction (X) and for performing a cutting movement in a second spatial direction (Y) perpendicular to the first spatial direction (X), wherein the light barrier is formed as a light band (8) comprising a plurality of individually detectable light beam bundles (9) which are arranged parallel to one another in one plane, and a first light beam bundle (9′) forms a detector-side zero point and a last light beam bundle (9″) forms a detector-side end point of the light band (8), wherein the light band (8) is arranged stationarily perpendicular to the second spatial direction (Y) and in the direction thereof spaced from the knife blade, wherein the zero point (X0) is assigned to a reference position of the knife blade (XBlade), and the specimen (6) is guided through the light band (8) by way of a cutting movement and, from the number of shaded light beam bundles (9) of the light band (8), the position of the highest point of the specimen (XSpecimen) in the first spatial direction (X) is determined.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.