Automatic staining apparatus for slide specimens
AssigneeAustralian Biomedical Corporation Limited
InventorRaymond A. Keefe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved, automatic slide specimen staining apparatus. The apparatus includes a covered housing containing a plurality of baths, input and withdrawal drawers and a three direction slide racks transport mechanism. The transport mechanism is controlled in its movement of slide racks, from bath to bath between an initial position to a final position; the transport mechanism is under the control of a microprocessor control system programmed with a series of staining schedules that are operator selective for a given slide rack input from the initial position, the microprocessor control system interactively determining individual slide rack movement timing through selected baths.
Claims15
Automatic tissue staining apparatus for staining tissue slide specimens, said apparatus comprising a housing including a closeable cover assembly, a plurality of slide racks each containing a plurality of individual slides containing specimens, a plurality of baths each containing chemicals for treating said specimens, means for moving a said slide rack from one of said plurality of baths to another of said plurality of baths, and a control system including a programmable microprocessor, said control system including means for inputting a schedule of said baths, thereby defining a programmed staining schedule and for selecting a programmed staining schedule for a slide rack inserted into said apparatus, said control system providing selectable control over said moving means to control slide rack movement through a programmed sequence through said plurality of baths, defined by said staining schedule, said microprocessor being programmable to iteratively determine movement timing of each slide rack within said plurality of slide racks whereby multiple schedules of movement of various ones of said plurality of slide racks can operate simultaneously, means for inputting additional slide racks and means for withdrawing processed slide racks, said control system further including means for indicating the insertion of additional slide racks into said apparatus and the withdrawal of slide racks from said apparatus, said control system including means for establishing a staining schedule for each slide rack and for reestablishing the staining schedule when a slide rack is inserted into or removed from said apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.