A rotary switch cover device and a method of switching a cover thereof

Abstract

The application provides a rotating switch cover device and a switch cover method using the same. The device comprises a rotating cover mechanism for driving the container cover to rotate off or tighten on the container body; a lifting mechanism for driving the rotating cover mechanism to perform lifting movement; a detection mechanism for detecting the presence or absence of the container cover and / or the container body during the lifting of the rotating cover mechanism; and a controller capable of controlling the operation of the rotating cover mechanism and / or the lifting mechanism. Through the cooperation of the detection mechanism and the control of the controller, the monitoring effect of whether the switch cover is successful or reliable can be realized. Further, through not less than twice detection of different objects, the sample container can be more reliably monitored, preventing the sample container from being clamped, switch cover execution error and other conditions that cannot be considered by single detection, thereby causing unreliable system operation and even pollution risk to the experimental personnel.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of biological biochemical experiment medical and health technology, and particularly relates to a rotating cover opening and closing device and a cover opening and closing method thereof. BACKGROUND

[0002] At present, in biological biochemical experiments, medical and health systems and public health safety, sampling tubes are basically used to store sample liquids, such as animal and plant section tissues, animal and human blood, secretions, excretions, animal and human nasal swabs, throat swabs, anal swabs and the like. With the improvement of the quality of life and the improvement of the requirement of human beings for healthy life quality, more and more samples are collected and processed for further experiments. Most of the collected samples need to be transported over a long distance or subjected to other pre-treatment procedures. For example, large-scale in-vitro detection samples related to public health need to be transported to a laboratory for PCR experiments. In some cases, blood collection requires a vacuum tube, and the collected blood needs to be centrifuged. Therefore, the commonly used sample container is a sampling tube with a cover. Therefore, the sample container needs to be opened before further experiments, and the used sample container needs to be closed after use to avoid subsequent contamination. The most common treatment method is manual opening and closing. In the case of a large amount of samples, manual removal of the plug by the staff often causes personal injury, and the opening process may cause the sample to scatter and contaminate other containers due to the difference in the degree of tightening of the cover, the posture of the person opening and closing the cover and the size of the force used.

[0003] In order to avoid the scattering and splashing of the sample, some traditional cap removal improvements have been proposed, for example, a point of leverage such as a twist or an arc is provided for the cap, and then the cap is removed from the container with a lighter force, or the removal speed of the cap is reduced before the cap is removed from the container. Another device has a tray for receiving and collecting droplets from the cap to prevent unintentional sample splashing when the cap is removed. However, these traditional devices cannot prevent the sample from completely scattering or splashing. Chinese invention patent ZL201280037856.5 provides a tool to assist manual opening and closing of the cover. However, this design still has problems such as limited uniformity of force and limited way of closing the cover. When multiple containers are placed in a batch under the cap removal process, the tool cannot completely prevent contamination.

[0004] In vitro diagnostics (IVD) is increasingly integrated into people's daily lives and work. Mature IVD technologies, due to their high specificity, sensitivity, and short detection window, are widely used in various scenarios such as clinical testing, disease control, food safety testing, and import / export quarantine. Before testing samples, the sample container typically needs to be opened and closed. Manually opening and closing the container significantly increases the exposure risk for testing personnel, and prolonged operation greatly increases their workload. Therefore, for short-term, high-volume sample testing applications in such scenarios, the main challenge is how to efficiently and accurately automate the opening and closing of sample containers, and how to miniaturize them for use in IVD instruments. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to address the aforementioned problems by providing a rotary switch cover device and its opening / closing method that can replace manual labor, be applied to the detection of large sample volumes, and enable automatic opening and closing of sample containers.

[0006] The technical solution adopted in this invention includes two aspects: a rotary switch cover device and a method for using the same device to switch the cover of a sample container.

[0007] In a first aspect, the rotary cover device provided by the present invention acts on a sample container including a container body and a container cover, comprising: a capping mechanism for driving the container cover to be screwed open or tightened from the container body; a lifting mechanism for driving the capping mechanism to perform lifting and lowering movements; a detection mechanism for detecting whether the container cover and / or the container body are present during the lifting process of the capping mechanism; and a controller for controlling the operation of the capping mechanism and / or the lifting mechanism.

[0008] Preferably, the detection mechanism can perform no less than two detections during the lifting process of the capping mechanism.

[0009] Preferably, the capping mechanism and the lifting mechanism are driven by different power drive devices.

[0010] Preferably, the controller drives different power drive devices for at least a portion of the time period, causing at least a portion of the capping mechanism and at least a portion of the lifting mechanism to rotate, thereby opening or tightening the container cap.

[0011] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method for opening and closing a cover using the rotary cover opening and closing device of the first aspect, comprising the following steps:

[0012] S1. The sample container is displaced to its initial position;

[0013] S2. The controller controls the lifting mechanism to lower the cover device to the position corresponding to the target sample container;

[0014] S3, the controller controls the cap-rotating mechanism to rotate anticlockwise or clockwise, driving the container cap to rotate anticlockwise or clockwise, so as to realize the opening or tightening of the container cap;

[0015] S4, the detection mechanism detects the presence or absence of the container cap and / or container body during the lifting of the cap-rotating mechanism.

[0016] Preferably, the step S4 comprises two sub-steps:

[0017] S41, when the cap-rotating mechanism is lifted to a first position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cap-rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected with the container cap;

[0018] S42, when the cap-rotating mechanism is lifted to a second position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cap-rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected with the container body.

[0019] Preferably, the cap-opening method further comprises a pre-warning step S5: the controller determines whether the container cap and the container body are correctly opened or tightened according to the detection results of the two detections by the detection mechanism.

[0020] Preferably, the step S1 further comprises a scanning step: scanning the identification code on the sample container to obtain the corresponding sample information.

[0021] Preferably, in the step S3, at least for part of the time period, the controller also simultaneously drives the lifting mechanism to drive the cap-rotating mechanism to move, so that the container cap approaches or moves away from the container body, realizing the opening or tightening of the container cap.

[0022] Preferably, in the step S3, the cap-rotating mechanism operates at different operating speeds for at least part of the time period in all movement time periods to open or tighten the container cap.

[0023] In summary, due to the adoption of the above technical solutions, the beneficial effects of the present application are:

[0024] 1. The rotating cap-opening device provided by the present application comprises a detection mechanism for detecting the presence or absence of the container cap and / or container body during the lifting of the cap-rotating mechanism. Through no less than two detections, the controller can determine whether the opening or tightening of the sample container is truly successfully executed, preventing the sample container from being clamped, the opening or tightening of the sample container being executed incorrectly, and other conditions that cannot be considered by single detection, thereby causing the system to be unreliable in operation and even posing a pollution risk to the experimental personnel. The system can automatically complete the opening or tightening of the sample container and detection, and the degree of manual participation is minimized.

[0025] 2、The method for opening and closing the cover of the sample container provided by the application also detects the sample container at least twice during the lifting process, and the further warning step can send an alarm message in time when the detection step detects an abnormality, and the system can continue to run under the premise that the controller can give a solution, so that the system cannot run due to the alarm message. The scanning step can identify the sample, which can establish a database on one hand and verify whether the running experiment matches on the other hand.

[0026] 3、During at least part of the time period, the controller also simultaneously drives the lifting mechanism to drive the cover opening and closing mechanism to move, so that the container cover approaches or moves away from the container body, and the container cover is opened or tightened, so that the opening and closing efficiency of the sample container cover can be improved, and the simple opening and closing operation cannot affect the system running efficiency. Further, the container cover is opened or tightened at different running speeds during at least part of the opening and closing process, and the acceleration rotation in the second half of the opening process can ensure that the container cover and the container body are reliably separated, and the risk of combination of the two is minimized. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0027] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the container cover rotating into the container body provided by the eight-channel rotating opening and closing device of the application;

[0028] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the container cover rotating into the container body provided by the eight-channel rotating opening and closing device of the application;

[0029] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the container cover rotating into the container body provided by the eight-channel rotating opening and closing device of the application;

[0030] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the container cover rotating into the container body provided by the eight-channel rotating opening and closing device of the application;

[0031] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the container cover rotating into the container body provided by the eight-channel rotating opening and closing device of the application;

[0032] Marked in the figure: sample container rack 1, sample container 2, container cover 20, container body 21, cover opening and closing mechanism 3, rotating motor 30, connecting head 31, lifting mechanism 4, detection mechanism 5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] In order to make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. The components of the embodiments of the present application described and shown in the drawings can be arranged and designed in various different configurations.

[0034] Therefore, the detailed description of the embodiments of the present application provided below in the drawings is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed present application, but only represents selected embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments in the present application without making creative efforts fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0035] It should be noted that similar reference numerals and letters represent similar items in the following drawings, and therefore, once an item is defined in one drawing, it does not need to be further defined and explained in subsequent drawings.

[0036] Figure 1 The switch cover device used in the present application is schematically shown in the figure, which is a scheme for simultaneous operation of eight sample containers 2. In actual use, the parallel structure design for simultaneous switching of the covers of eight sample containers 2 is not necessarily used, and in actual use, more or less than eight sample containers 2 can be designed according to the requirements of the instrument, which is not limited here. From the overall structure, the switch cover device includes a cover rotating mechanism 3, a lifting mechanism 4 and a detection mechanism 5. The sample containers 2 can be placed on the sample container rack 1, and the number of corresponding sample containers 2 here is eight. The sample container rack 1 includes eight corresponding sample container 2 receiving holes, and further includes a photoelectric detection unit in the receiving hole of the sample container rack 1. When the sample container 2 is placed into the corresponding receiving hole, the photoelectric detection unit is triggered to output a sample container 2 placement correct signal. Further, the detection unit further includes a connected photoelectric unit. When the sample container 2 is correctly placed, the light emitted by the connected photoelectric unit enters and illuminates the sample liquid in the sample container 2, which can achieve the effect of reminding the operator. Figure 1(a) shows a case where a receiving hole of a sample container rack 1 receives eight corresponding sample containers 2, wherein the sample containers 2 can be blood collection tubes, secretion collection tubes, excrement collection tubes, animal and plant tissue preservation tubes, nasal swabs, throat swabs, anal swabs, etc. Here, nasal swabs, throat swabs, anal swabs, etc. used for in vitro detection are taken as examples, which can be single-sample collection tubes with single swabs, 5:1 type mixed collection tubes, 10:1 type mixed collection tubes, and 20:1 type mixed collection tubes, which are not limited here. The sample container 2 includes a container cover 20 and a container body 21 screw-connected thereto. The container body 21 is provided with a base (not shown in the figure). In order to prevent the phenomenon of failed opening and closing of the cover caused by sliding of the sample container 2 during screwing or unscrewing of the container cover 20, a clamping structure matched with the container body 21 is arranged in the receiving hole of the sample rack 1. An operator inserts the sample container 2 into the loading hole of the sample rack 1 before starting the experiment. The cover screwing mechanism 3 is connected to the lifting mechanism 4. The cover screwing mechanism 3 includes a connecting head 31 screw-connected to the container cover 20. The connecting head 31 is driven by a rotating motor 30, which is a power driving device of the cover screwing mechanism 3. An inner thread matched with the container cover 20 is formed on the connecting head 31, which can be screwed into the container cover 20 by driving of the rotating motor 30, so that the connecting head 31 is screw-connected to the container cover 20. In one embodiment, a gear is selected to be connected between the rotating motor 30 and the connecting head 31 for transmission. In other embodiments, other transmission modes such as synchronous belts can also be selected. In addition, in one embodiment, a lead screw motor is selected as a power driving device of the lifting mechanism 4 for driving and transmission. In order to increase the sample detection throughput and improve the detection efficiency, two rotating motors 30 are selected to simultaneously drive eight connecting heads 31 to rotate, and the gears are meshed with each other for transmission, so that the opening and closing operations of the eight sample containers 2 can be simultaneously performed.

[0037] In order to detect the execution of the opening and closing operations, a detection mechanism 5 is further arranged on the lifting mechanism 4. Whether the opening and closing operations are successfully performed is judged by detecting whether the connecting head 31 is screw-connected with the container cover 20 or whether the container cover 20 is screw-connected with the container body 21 during the lifting of the cover screwing mechanism 3. In one embodiment, a photoelectric sensor is selected as the detection mechanism 5, which detects the presence or absence of the container cover 20 or the container body 21 by shielding or reflecting of a light beam by the detected object. In actual application, each mechanism included in the device can be realized by a controller in the cover screwing device. In addition, the device provided in the embodiment of the present application can be used as an automatic execution device matched with a molecular detection instrument, and applied to a sample processing unit in an automatic processing system.

[0038] The sample container 2 is displaced to the initial position, which can be the position where the connecting head 31 of the cap screwing mechanism 3 is aligned or substantially aligned with the container cap 20. At this time, the driving motor of the lifting mechanism 4 drives the cap screwing mechanism 3 to descend. When it descends to a predetermined position, for example, the position where the distance between the connecting head 31 and the container cap 20 is 0-10 mm, the controller controls the rotation motor 30 to drive the connecting head 31 to rotate simultaneously, which ensures the efficiency of the opening and closing connection. During the connection process, the connecting head 31 can adopt uniform or variable speed rotation. At the same time, the screw motor of the lifting mechanism 4 can also adopt uniform or variable speed rotation. Of course, the descending speed of the lifting mechanism 4 at this time is preferably less than the speed when only the connecting head 31 is driven to descend. Figure 1 (b) shows the schematic diagram of the complete connection of the container cap 20 on the connecting head 31 controlled by the screw motor. Of course, the two can not stop at the same time. For example, the rotation motor 30 driving the connecting head 31 can be stopped after a certain interval after the screw motor is stopped, which can ensure that the container cap 20 is more reliably connected to the connecting head 31.

[0039] As shown in Figure 2 When the connecting head 31 is correctly connected with the container cap 20, the connecting head 31 is controlled by the controller to rotate in the opposite direction to the connection process, thereby driving the container cap 20 to unscrew from the container body 21. During the initial unscrewing time, the lifting mechanism 4 can not work to ensure that the connecting head 31 can exert the maximum torque on the container cap 20, so that the container cap 20 can be more reliably opened. On the other hand, it also avoids the direct operation of the lifting mechanism 4 at the initial stage, which will exert greater axial pressure on the threads of the connecting head 31 and the container cap 20, so that the frictional resistance in the threaded connection will be greatly increased, which may cause the phenomenon that the container cap 20 cannot be opened. In order to ensure the reliable operation of the cap opening process, the lifting mechanism 4 can be controlled to start working after a certain interval after the rotation motor 30 is stopped. Figure 2The connecting head 31 comprises a plurality of protrusion formed engagement tooth portions which can ensure that the container lid 20 can be reliably connected without relative sliding during screwing or unscrewing. When the connecting head 31 unscrews the container lid 20, a time control or a rotation number control can be set here, and after the condition is met, the lifting mechanism 4 moves together with the connecting head 31, realizing the improvement of the efficiency of opening the container lid 20. When the container lid 20 is unscrewed to a certain extent, for example, half or slightly less than half of the thread, the rotation speed of the connecting head 31 is increased, so that the container lid 20 and the container body 21 can be more easily separated during the unscrewing of the container lid 20, thereby utilizing the throwing force introduced by the increased speed to realize the effect of more reliable separation of the two.

[0040] Figure 3The schematic shows the situation after the container cover 20 is separated from the container body 21, when the two are separated, the controller controls the driving motor 30 of the connecting head 31 to stop running, at this time only the lead screw motor of the lifting mechanism 4 drives the cap rotating mechanism 3, in the process of lifting the cap rotating mechanism 3 driven by the lead screw motor, when the cap rotating mechanism 3 reaches the first position, a plurality of detection mechanisms 5 corresponding to the number of sample containers 2 can be detected, the detection mechanism 5 here can be a plurality of photoelectric switches or other types of photoelectric sensors, distance sensors, etc., in the cap opening step, since the connecting head 31 is connected with the container cover 20, when the detection mechanism 5 identifies an obstruction that blocks the detection light, it can be determined that the connecting head 31 has been connected with the container cover 20 at this time, and when some connecting head 31 does not detect the connected container cover 20, there are different situations as follows: 1. It may be due to the unsaturated operation when adding the sample container 2, the hole position is in the initial state without placing the sample container 2, at this time it is a normal situation, the device can continue to operate normally; 2. The sample container 2 is saturated and placed, and there is a problem in opening the cap, the controller can control the cap rotating mechanism 3 to reattempt to open the sample container 2 and generate an error alarm, when the controller attempts once or multiple times and still appears an error, the controller can generate alarm information to notify the operator to handle specifically, when the attempt is successful and all the connecting heads 31 are connected with the container cover 20, the lifting mechanism 4 further drives the cap rotating mechanism 3 to move upward, when it rises to the second position, the detection mechanism 5 further detects, at this time it can be detected whether the container body 21 is directly or indirectly connected to the connecting head 31, when it is detected that at least part of the container body 21 is connected, the controller can generate a warning and reattempt to open the cap, when the controller attempts once or multiple times and still appears an error, the controller can generate alarm information to notify the operator to handle specifically, and when the detection results of the two detections in the process of the cap rotating mechanism 3 rising are that the container cover 20 exists and the container body 21 does not exist, the controller can give the final sample container correct opening operation, and the device can carry out subsequent sample liquid transfer operation, when all corresponding operations are completed, the controller controls the sample container 2 to close and tighten the cap, the whole process is similar to the cap opening and will not be described here, and there is a slight difference in judging whether the container cover 20 is correctly closed and tightened, after closing the cap, the cap rotating mechanism 3 rises to the same or similar first position as the cap opening to detect, at this time the connecting head 31 should not be connected with the container cover 20, here only one judgment is needed to realize the judgment of whether the tightening process is correctly executed, and there is no need to detect whether the container body 21 exists, of course, in order to ensure the reliability of the judgment, the second detection judgment can also be carried out at the second position or a position close to the second position in the cap opening process, which is not limited here.

[0041] Figure 4 A switch cover method using the switch cover device is provided, comprising the following steps:

[0042] S1: The sample container is displaced to the initial position; at this time, it can be driven by the motor under the control of the controller to automatically run to the initial position, or it can be manually pushed to the initial position. Before this, the scanning device can be configured to identify the identification code on the sample container, such as at least one of a bar code, an FRID, a two-dimensional code, etc. After the identification information is processed, the corresponding database information is established, and experimental information can also be generated to guide the preparation of subsequent experimental reagents, etc.

[0043] S2: The controller controls the lifting mechanism to operate to lower the switch cover device to a position corresponding to the target sample container. Similar to Figure 1 the corresponding description, the cap rotating mechanism is lowered to a specific position to start the switch cover operation;

[0044] S3: The controller controls the cap rotating mechanism to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, driving the container cap to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, thereby realizing the opening or tightening of the container cap. The entire process is similar to the corresponding operation steps and cap opening method of Figure 3 , which will not be described again here;

[0045] S4: During the lifting of the cap rotating mechanism, the detection mechanism detects the presence or absence of the container cap and / or the container body. That is, a corresponding detection position is set to ensure that the detection mechanism does not move and the cap rotating mechanism moves upward, which ensures the reliability of the entire detection. The detection method is similar to the previous description and will not be described again here. Further, the step of detecting the presence or absence of the container cap and / or the container body during the lifting of the cap rotating mechanism includes two sub-steps:

[0046] S41: When the cap rotating mechanism rises to the first position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cap rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected to the container cap;

[0047] S42: When the cap rotating mechanism rises to the second position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cap rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected to the container body. The method of using two detections to make a decision has been described before and will not be repeated here. The warning mode of the controller includes warning and alarm, etc. In the warning case, the controller can be coordinated to perform self-repair and resume operation, and only abnormal information can be stored in the operation log. The alarm information generally needs to be manually repaired by the operator before continuing to run. The differentiated operating speed of the connecting head of the cap rotating mechanism can realize more reliable and efficient operation. For specific details, please refer to the previous description.

[0048] Figure 5 A more intuitive rotating switch cover control method is provided, which is applied to a rotating switch cover device, and the method comprises the following steps:

[0049] Step 1: Scanning the barcode on the sample container to obtain sample information;

[0050] In an embodiment, the operator can hold the sample container to align the barcode with the built-in code scanning port or the external code scanning gun of the instrument, scan the code to identify the sample information required for the experiment, and record and manage the relevant sample information in the laboratory information system (LIS) through the controller.

[0051] The sample information described herein includes sample position, sample number, sample type, experimental project and other related information, which can be transmitted to other units for processing through LIS, realizing LIS information access and transmission to extract information in subsequent processes.

[0052] Step 2: Control the sample container to displace to the initial position corresponding to the switch cover device;

[0053] Before running, the operator fixes the sample container to the sample holder and starts the experiment.

[0054] Here, the controller can determine the initial position of the rotating switch cover device and the position of the sample container according to the pre-constructed spatial coordinate system, and the displacement driving mechanism controls the sample container to displace to the initial position of the rotating switch cover device according to the control instruction of the controller.

[0055] In an embodiment, the displacement driving mechanism includes a horizontal movement unit, which drives the sample container to move in the horizontal direction, so that the projection direction of the sample container and the rotating switch cover device on the horizontal plane is aligned.

[0056] Step 3: Control the switch cover device to descend to the position corresponding to the target sample container;

[0057] Here, the controller can determine the position of the target sample container according to the pre-constructed spatial coordinate system, and the lifting mechanism controls the rotating cover mechanism to descend along the first axis to contact the container cover according to the control instruction of the controller. The first axis is the height direction of the target sample container.

[0058] To ensure the displacement in the first axial direction meets the accuracy requirement, in one embodiment, the number of steps of the motor driving the rotating cap mechanism to displace in the first axial direction is set to exceed a set range, and an alarm signal is output to remind the operator to perform initialization correction. In actual application, the set range can be reasonably set based on the accuracy requirement of the rotating switch cover device cooperating with the sample container in the vertical direction to determine the length error value of the rotating switch cover device contacting the container cap in the vertical direction.

[0059] Step four: control the switch cover device to descend and rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, driving the container cap to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, thereby realizing the unscrewing or screwing of the container cap;

[0060] Here, the controller issues an instruction, and the lifting mechanism controls the rotating cap mechanism to continue to descend in the first axial direction; at the same time, the rotating cap mechanism controls the connector to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise in the first rotation direction by a set threshold value, and the first rotation direction is the screwing direction of the container cap.

[0061] In one embodiment, the container cap is threadedly connected to the connector and the threaded connection part of the container body, respectively, with equal thread pitches and opposite thread directions. During the uncapping process, when the connector screws the container cap, it continues to rotate counterclockwise until the container cap is separated from the container body; during the capping process, when the connector unscrews the container cap, it continues to rotate clockwise until the container cap is closed on the container body.

[0062] Step five: control the switch cover device to ascend to a first set position and detect whether the container cap is screwed on the switch cover device;

[0063] Here, the controller can determine the initial position and the first set position of the rotating switch cover device according to the pre-constructed spatial coordinate system, and the lifting mechanism controls the rotating cap mechanism to ascend to the first set position in the first axial direction by a set threshold value according to the control instruction of the controller. The detection mechanism detects whether there is light reflected by the container cap and feeds back to the controller to identify the execution of the switch cover operation.

[0064] Specifically, during the uncapping process, if the detection mechanism detects light reflected by the container cap, the experiment continues; if not, the uncapping fails and an alarm signal is output; during the capping process, if the detection mechanism does not detect light reflected by the container cap, the experiment continues; if it does, the capping fails and an alarm signal is output.

[0065] Step six: control the switch cover device to ascend to a second set position and detect whether the container cap is screwed on the container body;

[0066] Here, the controller can determine the initial position and the second set position of the rotating cover opening device according to a pre-constructed spatial coordinate system, and the lifting mechanism controls the cover opening mechanism to rise to the second set position along the first axial direction according to the control instruction of the controller, and the detection mechanism detects whether the light reflected by the container body exists and feeds back to the controller to identify the execution of the cover opening operation.

[0067] Specifically, during the cover opening process, if the detection mechanism does not detect the light reflected by the container body, the experiment continues; if the detection mechanism detects the light reflected by the container body, the cover opening fails and an alarm signal is output.

[0068] The second set position is higher than the first set position in the first axial direction.

[0069] The principles and implementation manners of the present application are described by using specific embodiments in the present application, and the above embodiment descriptions are only used to help understand the method and its core idea. It should be noted that, for those skilled in the art, without departing from the principles of the present application, the present application can be improved and modified in several ways, and these improvements and modifications also fall within the protection scope of the claims of the present application.

[0070] It should be noted that the terms "comprising", "including", or any other variant thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or apparatus including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or other elements inherent to such a process, method, article or apparatus. Without more limitations, the element defined by the statement "comprising a" does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article or apparatus including the element.

[0071] In the description of the present application, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, the terms "arrangement", "installation", "connection", "connection" should be understood broadly, for example, it can be fixedly connected, or it can be detachably connected, or integrally connected; it can be mechanically connected, or it can be electrically connected; it can be directly connected, or it can be indirectly connected through an intermediate medium; it can be the communication between two elements. For those skilled in the art, the specific meaning of the above terms in the present application can be understood according to the specific circumstances.

Claims

1. A method of opening a lid, characterized by, The application discloses a rotating switch cover device for a sample container, wherein the sample container comprises a container body and a container cover, and the rotating switch cover device comprises a cover rotating mechanism, a lifting mechanism, a detection mechanism and a controller. The method comprises the following steps: S1, the sample container is displaced to an initial position; the initial position is a position where the sample container is aligned or substantially aligned with a connecting head of the cover rotating mechanism; S2, the controller controls the lifting mechanism to operate so as to lower the switch cover device to a position corresponding to a target sample container; S3, the controller controls the cover rotating mechanism to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, and drives the container cover to rotate counterclockwise or clockwise, so as to realize the opening or tightening of the container cover; S4, the detection mechanism detects the presence or absence of the container cover and / or the container body during the lifting of the cover rotating mechanism; The step S4 comprises two sub-steps: S41, when the cover rotating mechanism is lifted to a first position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cover rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected with the container cover; S42, when the cover rotating mechanism is lifted to a second position, the detection mechanism detects whether the cover rotating mechanism is directly or indirectly connected with the container body; The second position is higher than the first position in the first axial direction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The method further comprises a pre-warning step S5: the controller determines whether the container cover and the container body are correctly opened or tightened according to the detection results of the two detections of the detection mechanism.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, The method further comprises a scanning step before the step S1: scanning an identification code on the sample container to obtain corresponding sample information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, In the step S3, the controller simultaneously drives the lifting mechanism to move the cover rotating mechanism so that the container cover approaches or moves away from the container body, thereby realizing the opening or tightening of the container cover.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, In the step S3, the cover rotating mechanism operates at different operating speeds in at least part of the time periods to open or tighten the container cover.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, The cover rotating mechanism and the lifting mechanism are driven by different power driving devices.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, The controller drives the different power driving devices in at least part of the time periods so that the power driving device of the cover rotating mechanism and the power driving device of the lifting mechanism both perform rotating movements, thereby realizing the opening or tightening of the container cover.

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