Cover film sticking device

A cover film sticking device, comprising:

• a basket having a supporting section, which is formed in an inner bottom face and capable of supporting at least one point of a slide glass the basket being capable of storing a plurality of slide glasses inserted in a direction perpendicular to the inner bottom face;
• a load tank storing a prescribed amount of a volatile protective solution, which is used for protecting specimen samples and in which the basket can be soaked so as to soak the specimen samples stuck on the slide glasses accommodated in the basket;
• a conveyor for taking out the basket from the protective solution stored in the load tank and turning the basket, with keeping the slide glasses horizontal, until reaching a waiting position;
• a transporter for moving one of the slide glasses, which has been pulled out from a prescribed storing position of the basket staying at the waiting position to a horizontal table, to a prescribed position in the horizontal table and reinserting the slide glass into the same storing position of the basket staying at the waiting position;
• a dropping device for dropping a mounting medium onto the specimen sample on the slide glass, which is moved on the horizontal table by the transporter;
• a cover film length securing device for unwinding the long cover film from the film roll and extending the long cover film until reaching a cutting device so as to ensure that the cover film has a length that is able to form a sufficient number of cover film pieces having a specified length which is needed to stick onto the specimen samples on a maximum number of the slide glasses storable in the basket taken out from the load tank,
• a sticking device for respectively pressing each of the cover film pieces onto the specimen, each of which has been previously coated with the mounting medium;
• wherein when the cover film pieces are stuck onto all of the specimen samples on the slide glasses which have been stored in the basket staying at the waiting position, the cover film sticking device being adapted to move the basket from the waiting position to a basket accommodating section by the conveyer;
• the cover film sticking device further comprising
• an end-of-roll detecting sensor and signaling device for detecting a rear end of the long cover film and for emitting a signal to stop a subsequent basket from being taken out of the load tank when the rear end of the long cover film is detected.