CN110499232B

CN110499232B - Incubator

Info

Publication number: CN110499232B
Application number: CN201810482965.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘丰瑞; 何艳玲; 孙万东; 田野; 李瑾
Original assignee: Beijing Luqiao Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Luqiao Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2018-05-18
Filing date: 2018-05-18
Publication date: 2023-04-28
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-18
Also published as: CN110499232A

Abstract

The invention provides an incubator, comprising: the box body is divided into a plurality of areas, and all the areas comprise at least one culture area and at least one counting area; the culture medium comprises culture bases used for placing culture dishes, and at least one culture base is arranged in each culture area; the grabbing device can grab the culture dishes on the culture base from the culture area to the counting area for counting; and the counting device can count the colonies on the culture dish in the counting area. The invention solves the problem that the incubator in the prior art cannot meet the use requirement of simultaneously culturing a plurality of microorganisms with different temperature requirements.

Description

Incubator

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of microorganism culture, in particular to an incubator.

Background

In the detection of microorganisms, the microorganisms need to be cultured, and after the microorganisms are cultured for a certain period of time under the proper temperature and humidity conditions, the types and the numbers of the microorganisms can be observed and counted. In the process of culturing microorganisms, a plurality of microorganisms are usually required to be cultured simultaneously, while the incubator in the prior art usually only has one area, and the microorganisms at a single temperature can be cultured in the area, so that the requirement of simultaneously culturing a plurality of microorganisms with different temperature requirements cannot be met. Although a plurality of devices can be adopted to culture a plurality of microorganisms, the method requires a large number of devices, greatly increases the cost and is very inconvenient to use and operate.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly aims to provide an incubator, which solves the problem that the incubator in the prior art cannot meet the use requirement of simultaneously culturing a plurality of microorganisms with different temperature requirements.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an incubator comprising: the box body is divided into a plurality of areas, and all the areas comprise at least one culture area and at least one counting area; the culture medium comprises culture bases used for placing culture dishes, and at least one culture base is arranged in each culture area; the grabbing device can grab the culture dishes on the culture base from the culture area to the counting area for counting; and the counting device can count the colonies on the culture dish in the counting area.

Further, the box body comprises at least two culture areas, and a counting area is arranged between any two culture areas.

Further, the incubator further comprises at least one partition plate, and the adjacent culture areas and the counting areas are separated by the corresponding partition plates.

Further, a first gate is provided on the partition plate, and a part of the gripping device can grip the culture dish through the first gate.

Further, the incubator still includes the bounding wall, and the bounding wall is around the circumference continuous setting of box and be located the box, and the both ends of the relative setting of baffle all are connected with the inner wall of bounding wall and keep apart a plurality of subspaces with the inner space that the bounding wall encloses, and a plurality of subspaces are as cultivateing district and count district, are provided with at least one second gate on the bounding wall, cultivate the subspace that district and/or count district correspond through second gate and outside intercommunication.

Further, the culture base comprises: a rotating drum; at least one culture platform, each culture platform have along vertical direction interval arrangement's a plurality of interlayers in proper order, and the culture dish can be placed in the interlayer, and when culture platform is a plurality of, a plurality of culture platforms set up along the circumference of rotary drum, when culture platform is one, culture platform extends with end to end around the circumference of rotary drum.

Further, the gripping device includes: the first sliding part slides at the bottom of the box body and can slide between the culture area and the counting area; the second sliding part is connected with the first sliding part, and the height of the second sliding part can be adjusted; the clamping part is connected with the second sliding part, and the clamping part can clamp the culture dish to move the culture dish from the culture area to the preset position of the counting area.

Further, the clamping portion comprises at least one pair of arc-shaped clamping arms, one end of each clamping arm is connected with the second sliding portion, and one ends, far away from the second sliding portion, of the pair of clamping arms can be mutually close to or mutually far away from each other so as to clamp or release the culture dish.

Further, the first sliding part is of an inverted T-shaped structure, the bottom of the first sliding part is in sliding connection with the bottom of the box body, the second sliding part is arranged in a sliding mode along the vertical portion of the first sliding part, and the movement directions of the first sliding part and the second sliding part are vertical.

Further, the counting device comprises at least one shooting component, the shooting component is arranged in the counting area, and a lens of the shooting component is opposite to a preset position.

Further, the incubator still includes temperature and humidity adjusting device, and temperature and humidity adjusting device all communicates and can independently adjust the temperature and/or the humidity of every cultivation district with each cultivation district, and temperature and humidity adjusting device includes: the heater can heat the culture area when the temperature of the culture area is lower than a preset temperature; the refrigerator can cool the culture area when the temperature of the culture area is higher than a preset temperature; and when the humidity of the culture area is lower than the preset humidity, the atomizer can introduce steam into the culture area.

Further, the heater comprises a 220V heating element and a 24V heating element; and/or the refrigerator comprises a refrigerator and a peltier element.

By using the technical scheme of the invention, the box body is divided into a plurality of areas, the areas are not interfered with each other, so that the culture bases arranged in the different areas can be provided with different temperatures, the aim of simultaneously culturing a plurality of microorganisms with different temperature requirements in one incubator is fulfilled, the requirement on the quantity of the incubators is reduced, the culture cost is reduced, meanwhile, the grabbing device can grab the culture dishes in the different culture areas to the counting area for automatic colony counting, and the grabbing device can replace the culture dishes to continue culturing after the counting is finished, so that manual interference is not needed in the whole process, the functions of automatic culture and automatic counting of the incubators are realized, and the labor intensity of staff is reduced.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic construction of an incubator of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a top view of the incubator of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows a schematic structure of a culture platform of the incubator of FIG. 1.

Wherein the above figures include the following reference numerals:

10. a case; 11. a culture zone; 12. a counting area; 20. a culture base; 21. a rotating drum; 22. a culture platform; 23. an interlayer; 30. a gripping device; 31. a first slip part; 32. a second slip part; 33. a clamping part; 40. a counting device; 50. a partition plate; 51. a first gate; 60. coaming plate; 61. and a second gate.

Detailed Description

It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the embodiments and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other. The invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings in connection with embodiments.

It is noted that all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs unless otherwise indicated.

In the present invention, unless otherwise indicated, terms of orientation such as "upper, lower, top, bottom" are used generally with respect to the orientation shown in the drawings or with respect to the component itself in the vertical, upright or gravitational direction; also, for ease of understanding and description, "inner and outer" refers to inner and outer relative to the profile of each component itself, but the above-mentioned orientation terms are not intended to limit the present invention.

The invention provides an incubator for solving the problem that the incubator in the prior art cannot meet the use requirement of simultaneous culture of multiple microorganisms with different temperature requirements.

An incubator as shown in fig. 1 and 2, comprising a case 10, a culture base 20 for placing a culture dish, a gripping device 30 and a counting device 40, wherein the case 10 is divided into a plurality of areas, and all the areas comprise at least one culture zone 11 and at least one counting zone 12; at least one culture base 20 is arranged in each culture zone 11; the grabbing device 30 can grab the culture dish on the culture base 20 from the culture area 11 to the counting area 12 for counting; counting device 40 is capable of counting colonies on a culture dish within counting zone 12.

According to the embodiment, the box body 10 is divided into the plurality of areas, the areas are not interfered with each other, the culture bases 20 arranged in the different areas can be provided with different temperatures, the purpose of simultaneously culturing various microorganisms with different temperature requirements in one incubator is achieved, the requirements for the quantity of the incubators are reduced, the culture cost is reduced, meanwhile, the grabbing device 30 can grab the culture dishes in the different culture areas 11 to the counting area 12 for automatic colony counting, the grabbing device 30 replaces the culture dishes to be continuously cultured in situ after counting, manual interference is not needed in the whole process, the automatic culture and automatic counting functions of the incubators are achieved, and the labor intensity of staff is reduced.

Optionally, the case 10 includes at least two culture areas 11, and a counting area 12 is disposed between any two culture areas 11.

In this embodiment, two culture areas 11 are disposed in the case 10, a counting area 12 is disposed between the two culture areas 11, a gripping device 30 is slidably connected to the bottom of the case 10, and the gripping device 30 moves in the counting area 12 to grip the culture dishes in the culture areas 11 from the culture base 20 to the counting area 12 for counting. Of course, three or more culture sections 11 may be provided as needed, and accordingly, the counting section 12 may be appropriately added as needed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the incubator further comprises at least one partition 50, and adjacent incubation areas 11 are separated from counting areas 12 by corresponding partitions 50. The incubator further includes a shroud 60, the shroud 60 is disposed continuously around the circumference of the case 10 and is located in the case 10, and both ends of the opposite arrangement of the partition 50 are connected with the inner wall of the shroud 60 to isolate the inner space enclosed by the shroud 60 into a plurality of subspaces, which serve as the culture zone 11 and the counting zone 12.

Specifically, two partition plates 50 and a coaming 60 are further arranged in the box 10, the coaming 60 is continuously arranged around the circumference of the box 10 and located in the box 10, the coaming 60 is composed of two straight plate sections and two semicircular plate sections, and one straight plate section, one semicircular plate section, the other straight plate section and the other semicircular plate section are sequentially connected, so that the coaming 60 forms a paperclip shape. The partition plates 50 are arranged in the coaming 60, the two partition plates 50 are semicircular, the partition plates 50 are connected with the inner wall of the semicircular plate section of the coaming 60 to form two cylindrical subspaces serving as a culture area 11, and the subspaces formed by the two partition plates 50 and the straight plate section are serving as a counting area 12. The cylindrical culture area 11 facilitates the arrangement of the culture base 20, and reduces the overall occupation space of the box 10.

Optionally, there is a first opening in both baffles 50, where a first gate 51 is provided, and when the gripping device 30 needs to grip the culture dish, the first gate 51 is opened, and a part of the gripping device 30 extends into the culture area 11 to move the culture dish from the culture area 11 to the counting area 12 for counting. The second openings are formed in the two semicircular plate sections and the straight plate section of the coaming 60, the second gate 61 is arranged at the second opening, the culture area 11 is communicated with the outside through the second gate 61 on the semicircular plate section, when a culture dish needs to be taken out or placed, a worker can take out or place the culture dish on the culture base 20 through the second gate 61 of the semicircular plate section, the second gate 61 on the straight plate section is convenient for the worker to adjust the culture dish or other components in the counting area 12, and the stable and accurate counting of the counting device 40 is ensured.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, since the culture section 11 is provided in a cylindrical shape, the culture base 20 is also rotatably provided in the culture section 11, the culture base 20 includes a drum 21 and a plurality of culture platforms 22 connected to the drum 21, the drum 21 is coaxially provided with the culture section 11 and pivotally connected to the bottom of the case 10, the culture platforms 22 are in a cylindrical shape, each culture platform 22 has a plurality of spacers 23 arranged at intervals in order in the vertical direction, a culture dish can be placed in the spacers 23, and the plurality of culture platforms 22 are provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the drum 21. When the drum 21 rotates, the culture platform 22 rotates along with the drum 21, so that the first opening and the second opening do not need to be too large, and only a worker or the grabbing device 30 needs to be able to take all the culture dishes on one culture platform 22, and the culture dishes on the other culture platforms 22 can be taken by rotating the culture base 20.

Preferably, the first opening and the second opening penetrate the partition 50 and the coaming 60 in the axial direction of the culture section 11, i.e., in the vertical direction, and the width direction, i.e., the horizontal direction, of the first opening and the second opening is slightly larger than the diameter of the culture platform 22. And the first shutter 51 can completely block the first opening, and the second shutter 61 can completely block the second opening.

Of course, the culture platform 22 may be provided as a single body formed by connecting a plurality of cylindrical structures, in which case the culture platform 22 extends around the circumference of the drum 21 so as to be connected end to end. The integral culture platform 22 is conveniently mounted on the rotary drum 21, and the connection is stable and reliable.

In the present embodiment, the gripping device 30 includes a first sliding portion 31, a second sliding portion 32, and a clamping portion 33, the first sliding portion 31 sliding on the bottom of the case 10 and being capable of sliding between the incubation area 11 and the counting area 12; the second sliding part 32 is connected with the first sliding part 31, and the height of the second sliding part 32 can be adjusted; the clamping part 33 is connected with the second sliding part 32, and the clamping part 33 can clamp the culture dish to move the culture dish from the culture area 11 to the preset position of the counting area 12.

Specifically, the first sliding portion 31 includes a cross beam and a longitudinal beam, the measuring and longitudinal beam form an inverted T-shaped structure, the bottom of the structure is a cross beam, the vertical portion is a longitudinal beam, and the cross beam and the bottom of the box 10 are slidably disposed, so that the first sliding portion 31 can horizontally move in the counting area 12, so that the clamping portion 33 moves in the same plane. The second sliding part 32 is a horizontal rod, the horizontal rod is connected to the longitudinal beam and can slide along the longitudinal beam, the height of the clamping part 33 can be adjusted through the second sliding part 32, and the spatial position of the clamping part 33 can be adjusted through the cooperation of the first sliding part 31 and the second sliding part 32.

The preset position is a position counted by the counting device 40, and the counting device 40 counts the colonies on the culture dish after the grabbing device 30 needs to grab the culture dish to the position.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the clamping part 33 includes at least one pair of arc-shaped clamping arms, one end of each clamping arm is connected to the second sliding part 32, and one ends of the pair of clamping arms, which are far away from the second sliding part 32, can be close to each other or far away from each other to clamp or release the culture dish.

Specifically, a pair of clamping arms are respectively arranged on the side surface of one end, far away from the longitudinal beam, of the horizontal rod, and the two pairs of clamping arms face the two culture areas 11 respectively, so that the two pairs of clamping arms are used for grabbing the culture dishes in the corresponding culture areas 11 respectively. The clamping arms are arc-shaped, concave parts of the two clamping arms are oppositely arranged to form a clamping space between the two clamping arms, one ends of the clamping arms are connected to the horizontal rod, and one ends of the clamping arms connected to the horizontal rod are controlled to drive a pair of clamping arms to approach each other or separate from each other, so that the grabbing effect of the clamping arms is realized.

Because two pairs of clamping arms are arranged in the embodiment, two preset positions are also arranged, each preset position corresponds to one pair of clamping arms, and each pair of clamping arms grabs the culture dish to the corresponding preset position for counting.

In the present embodiment, the counting device 40 includes two photographing components (only one is shown in the figure), the photographing components are disposed in the counting area 12, and lenses of the two photographing components face a preset position, respectively. When the culture dish is grabbed to a preset position by the clamping arm, the shooting assembly shoots the culture dish, the shot images are transmitted to the computer, and the number of microorganisms in the culture dish is obtained by analyzing the images through the computer.

In this embodiment, the incubator further includes a temperature-humidity adjusting device, which is communicated with each of the culture areas 11 and the counting area 12 and is capable of independently adjusting the temperature and humidity of each of the culture areas 11 and the counting area 12, the temperature-humidity adjusting device including a heater, a refrigerator, and an atomizer, the heater being capable of heating the culture areas 11 when the temperature of the culture areas 11 is lower than a preset temperature; when the temperature of the culture zone 11 is higher than a preset temperature, the refrigerator can cool the culture zone 11; when the humidity of the culture area 11 is lower than the preset humidity, the atomizer can introduce steam into the culture area 11.

It should be noted that, when the colony on the culture dish in one culture area 11 needs to be counted, the temperature and humidity of the counting area 12 is adjusted by the temperature and humidity adjusting device, so that the temperature and humidity of the counting area 12 are the same as the temperature and humidity of the culture area 11 needing to be counted, and then counting is performed, thus, the microorganism culture is not affected in the counting process, the microorganism culture reliability is ensured, and when the other culture area 11 needs to be counted, the process is repeated.

Since the humidity of the incubation area 11 and the counting area 12 is not higher than the preset humidity in normal cases, the humidity reducing device is not provided in the present embodiment, however, in order to avoid the situation that the humidity is too high, the humidity reducing device may be added to the temperature and humidity adjusting device. For example, a condenser is added to the atomizer, and the dry air obtained by condensing the moisture in the humid air introduced into the atomizer is introduced into the incubator.

Optionally, the heater comprises a 220V heater and a 24V heater; the refrigerator includes a refrigerator and a peltier element.

Preferably, the heater has two modes of strong heating and micro-heating, the strong heating is performed by a 220V heating film, the micro-heating is performed by a 24V direct current heating plate, and similarly, the refrigerator has two modes of strong refrigeration and micro-refrigeration, the forced refrigeration is performed by the refrigerator, and the micro-refrigeration is performed by the Peltier element.

From the above description, it can be seen that the above embodiments of the present invention achieve the following technical effects:

1. solves the problem that the incubator in the prior art can not meet the use requirement of simultaneously culturing a plurality of microorganisms with different temperature requirements;

2. the microorganism culture counting device is provided with a plurality of culture areas, can simultaneously perform microorganism culture counting at two culture temperatures, saves equipment and reduces cost;

3. when the culture dish is cultivated for a certain time, the counting device automatically grabs the culture dish to perform automatic colony counting, and the culture dish is placed back to the original position to continue cultivation after the counting is completed, so that manual interference is not needed in the whole process, and manpower and material resources are saved;

4. the temperature and humidity adjusting device enables the temperature and humidity of the culture area to be independently adjusted, and solves the problems that the culture dish is dehydrated due to overlong culture time, the microbial growth is affected, agar of the culture dish is cracked, and the like.

It will be apparent that the embodiments described above are merely some, but not all, embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

It is noted that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments in accordance with the present application. As used herein, the singular is also intended to include the plural unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, and furthermore, it is to be understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" when used in this specification are taken to specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, devices, components, and/or combinations thereof.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and the above figures are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate such that embodiments of the present application described herein may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein.

The above description is only of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, but various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An incubator, comprising: a box (10), wherein the box (10) is divided into a plurality of areas, and all the areas comprise at least one culture area (11) and at least one counting area (12); a culture base (20) for placing culture dishes, wherein at least one culture base (20) is arranged in each culture area (11); a gripping device (30), wherein the gripping device (30) can grip the culture dish on the culture base (20) from the culture area (11) to the counting area (12) for counting; counting assembly (40), counting assembly (40) can be right bacterial colony on the culture dish in count district (12), box (10) are including two at least cultivate district (11), and all be provided with one between cultivate district (11) count district (12), the incubator still includes at least one baffle (50), and adjacent cultivate district (11) with separate through baffle (50) that correspond between count district (12), be provided with first gate (51) on baffle (50), a portion of grabbing device (30) can be through first gate (51) are in order to snatch the culture dish, the incubator still includes temperature and humidity adjusting device, temperature and humidity adjusting device with each cultivate district (11) all communicate and can independently adjust the temperature and/or the humidity of every cultivate district (11), temperature and humidity adjusting device includes: a heater capable of heating the culture zone (11) when the temperature of the culture zone (11) is lower than a preset temperature; a refrigerator capable of cooling the incubation area (11) when the temperature of the incubation area (11) is higher than the preset temperature; the atomizer, when the humidity of cultivateing district (11) is less than predetermineeing humidity, the atomizer can be to the steam is introduced in cultivateing district (11), incubator still includes bounding wall (60), bounding wall (60) are around the circumference of box (10) is continuous to be set up and be located in box (10), the both ends of the relative setting of baffle (50) all with the inner wall connection of bounding wall (60) is in order to with a plurality of subspaces of inner space isolation that bounding wall (60) become, a plurality of subspaces are as cultivateing district (11) with count district (12), be provided with at least one second gate (61) on bounding wall (60), cultivate district (11) and/or count district (12) are corresponding subspace passes through second gate (61) and outside intercommunication.

2. Incubator according to claim 1, characterized in that the culture base (20) comprises: a drum (21); at least one culture platform (22), each culture platform (22) has a plurality of interlayer (23) of following vertical direction interval arrangement in proper order, the culture dish can be placed in interlayer (23), when culture platform (22) are a plurality of, a plurality of culture platform (22) are followed rotary drum (21) circumference sets up, when culture platform (22) are one, culture platform (22) are around rotary drum (21) circumference extends with end to end.

3. Incubator according to claim 1, characterized in that the gripping means (30) comprise: a first sliding part (31), wherein the first sliding part (31) slides at the bottom of the box body (10) and can slide between the culture area (11) and the counting area (12); a second sliding part (32), wherein the second sliding part (32) is connected with the first sliding part (31), and the height of the second sliding part (32) can be adjusted; the clamping part (33), the clamping part (33) with second slip portion (32) is connected, clamping part (33) can centre gripping the culture dish with the culture dish is by cultivate district (11) remove to the preset position of count district (12).

4. An incubator according to claim 3, wherein the gripping portion (33) comprises at least one pair of arcuate gripping arms, one end of each gripping arm being connected to the second slider portion (32), and one end of a pair of gripping arms remote from the second slider portion (32) being capable of being brought closer to or further from each other to grip or release the culture dish.

5. A incubator according to claim 3, wherein the first sliding part (31) has an inverted T-shaped structure, the bottom of the first sliding part (31) is slidably connected with the bottom of the incubator body (10), the second sliding part (32) is slidably disposed along the standing part of the first sliding part (31), and the movement directions of the first sliding part (31) and the second sliding part (32) are perpendicular.

6. An incubator according to claim 3, characterized in that the counting device (40) comprises at least one shooting assembly, which is arranged in the counting zone (12) with its lens facing the preset position.

7. The incubator of claim 1, wherein the heater comprises 220V and 24V heating elements; and/or the refrigerator comprises a refrigerator and a peltier element.