HOLDER FOR CARRYING AND FACILITATING AUTO-LOADING OF MICROSCOPE SPECIMEN SLIDES

• Main Authors: DEBLASIS CHRISTOPHER A, MONTALTO MICHAEL C, ZELINSKI MATTHEW S, MASINO, III JOSEPH
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.03.2012
• Subjects: CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL LABORATORY APPARATUS FOR GENERAL USE; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; PHYSICS; TESTING; TRANSPORTING

Pathology specimen slides are positively located on trays, and picked and placed by an auto-loader. The trays are received in a rack in tiers accessed by an auto-loader that moves the slides between the trays and a digital imaging microscope. The trays can have rows of receptacles for slides with standoff structures spacing the slides above a tray bottom. Lateral and endwise partitions defining the receptacles are inclined oppositely inwardly for guiding a slide into the predetermined position on the tray. The autoloader has a manipulator that grasps the ends of slides presented in a front row, and can reach over the front row to grasp slides in one or more rows beyond the front. The manipulator lifts the slide between the inclined surfaces of the partitions, loads and later retrieves the slide from the microscope and replaces the slide in the holder.