Remotely operated microtome
AssigneeThe United States of America, as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services
InventorStephen B. Leighton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A miniature microtome assembly with a bellows-operated blade on an arm swingably mounted on a flexible hinge. The specimen is secured in a chuck on a support arm pivoted on a flexible hinge. The specimen is fed toward the cutting path of the blade by a suitably supported feed screw operatively driven by a nut gear actuated by a bellows for coarse advancement steps, and has a fine advance provided by a piezoelectric crystal mounted between the specimen stage and the top end of the feed screw, thereby providing coarse and fine feed of the specimen. The assembly may be contained in a vacuum chamber and the active parts are operated by remote control.
Claims12
A microtome assembly comprising a base, first support arm means, means to hingedly mount said first support arm means on said base, specimen-holding means on said first support arm means, specimen-advancing means mounted on said base and drivingly engaging said specimen-holding means, second support arm means, means to hingedly mount said second support arm means on said base, cutting blade means, means to mount said cutting blade means on said second support arm means adjacent to and movable with respect to said specimen-holding means for cutting a specimen responsive to motion of said second support arm means on its hingedly mounting means, an enclosure, and said microtome being adapted to be housed within and to operate within said enclosure, means to actuate said specimen-advancing means remotely from outside said enclosure, and means to actuate said second support arm means to drive said cutting blade means in a cutting stroke with respect to a specimen mounted in said specimen-holding means remotely from outside said enclosure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.