Patents by Inventor Tatsuya Miyatani

Tatsuya Miyatani has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10488303
    Abstract: A replacement blade supplying mechanism (51) includes a detection portion (75) which detects whether or not there is a cutting blade (21) in a layer below an uppermost cutting blade (21d) through a through hole (21b) of the uppermost cutting blade (21d) when the uppermost cutting blade (21d) is extruded by a lever portion (54), and when the detection portion (75) detects that there is no cutting blade (21) in a layer below the uppermost cutting blade (21d), the detection portion stops the transport of the cutting blade (21) by a cutting blade transport mechanism (26).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: SAKURA FINETEK JAPAN CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 10018535
    Abstract: A thin-slice manufacturing device is a thin-slice manufacturing device for cutting an embedding block in which a biological sample is embedded by paraffin using a cutting blade relatively moved with respect to the embedding block along a virtual plane to cut out thin slices, the thin-slice manufacturing device includes a vertical illumination part configured to radiate light to the embedding block, and an inclination estimation part configured to detect a boundary line between a cutting surface cut along the virtual plane and a non-cutting surface based on reflection of light generated by the light radiated to the embedding block by the vertical illumination part, and estimate inclination information showing information related to inclination of the embedding block based on the detected boundary line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: SAKURA FINETEK JAPAN CO., LTD
    Inventor: Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 9983100
    Abstract: A thin section preparation device includes: a cutting blade (21) which cuts out a thin section (M) from an embedding block (B); a storage tank (7) in which the thin section (M) is floated on a liquid (W) and is spread; a thin-section-conveying-mechanism (8) which conveys the thin section (M) in a direction intersecting in an X axis direction in a state where a first side of the thin section (M) is parallel with the X axis direction; a slide-glass-handling-mechanism (9) which places the thin section (M) floating in the storage tank (7) on a slide glass (G) in a state where a first side of the slide glass (G) is parallel with the X axis direction; and a rotary body (61) which is rotated in a state where the thin section (M) is placed on an outer surface and conveys the thin section (M) toward the slide-glass-handling-mechanism (9).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: SAKURA FINETEK JAPAN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Seigo Murakami
  • Publication number: 20160139006
    Abstract: A thin-slice manufacturing device is a thin-slice manufacturing device for cutting an embedding block in which a biological sample is embedded by paraffin using a cutting blade relatively moved with respect to the embedding block along a virtual plane to cut out thin slices, the thin-slice manufacturing device includes a vertical illumination part configured to radiate light to the embedding block, and an inclination estimation part configured to detect a boundary line between a cutting surface cut along the virtual plane and a non-cutting surface based on reflection of light generated by the light radiated to the embedding block by the vertical illumination part, and estimate inclination information showing information related to inclination of the embedding block based on the detected boundary line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2014
    Publication date: May 19, 2016
    Inventor: Tatsuya MIYATANI
  • Patent number: 9291532
    Abstract: An automatic thin section sample preparation device includes: a reading portion which reads the ID data; a first imaging portion which images a surface image of an embedding block; a sample preparation mechanism which prepares a thin section by thinly cutting the embedding block, fixes the thin section to a substrate, and prepares a thin section sample; a second imaging portion which images a thin section image of the thin section in the thin section sample; a recording portion which records individual data on the substrate in the thin section sample; and a control portion. The control portion includes a determination portion which determines whether or not the thin section is prepared from an original embedding block by collating the surface image and the thin section image, and a storage portion which stores the determination result from the determination portion in association with the ID data, as the individual data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: SAKURA FINETEK JAPAN CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Publication number: 20150300924
    Abstract: A thin section preparation device includes: a cutting blade (21) which cuts out a thin section (M) from an embedding block (B); a storage tank (7) in which the thin section (M) is floated on a liquid (W) and is spread; a thin-section-conveying-mechanism (8) which conveys the thin section (M) in a direction intersecting in an X axis direction in a state where a first side of the thin section (M) is parallel with the X axis direction; a slide-glass-handling-mechanism (9) which places the thin section (M) floating in the storage tank (7) on a slide glass (G) in a state where a first side of the slide glass (G) is parallel with the X axis direction; and a rotary body (61) which is rotated in a state where the thin section (M) is placed on an outer surface and conveys the thin section (M) toward the slide-glass-handling-mechanism (9).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2013
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Inventors: Tatsuya MIYATANI, Seigo MURAKAMI
  • Publication number: 20150268141
    Abstract: An automatic thin section sample preparation device includes: a reading portion which reads the ID data; a first imaging portion which images a surface image of an embedding block; a sample preparation mechanism which prepares a thin section by thinly cutting the embedding block, fixes the thin section to a substrate, and prepares a thin section sample; a second imaging portion which images a thin section image of the thin section in the thin section sample; a recording portion which records individual data on the substrate in the thin section sample; and a control portion. The control portion includes a determination portion which determines whether or not the thin section is prepared from an original embedding block by collating the surface image and the thin section image, and a storage portion which stores the determination result from the determination portion in association with the ID data, as the individual data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2013
    Publication date: September 24, 2015
    Inventor: Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Publication number: 20150268134
    Abstract: A replacement blade supplying mechanism (51) includes a detection portion (75) which detects whether or not there is a cutting blade (21) in a layer below an uppermost cutting blade (21d) through a through hole (21b) of the uppermost cutting blade (21d) when the uppermost cutting blade (21d) is extruded by a lever portion (54), and when the detection portion (75) detects that there is no cutting blade (21) in a layer below the uppermost cutting blade (21d), the detection portion stops the transport of the cutting blade (21) by a cutting blade transport mechanism (26).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2013
    Publication date: September 24, 2015
    Inventor: Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 8245613
    Abstract: To provide a thin-section manufacturing apparatus capable of firmly receiving and transferring a thin-section made by sectioning an embedded block by bringing a transfer belt into a wet state, a thin-section manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a cutter 3 of sectioning an embedded block B, a cutter fixing portion 15 having a fixing base 16 of supporting the cutter 3 and an cutter holder 17 of squeezing the cutter 3 from an upper side, a sample base of fixing the embedded block B, feeding means 4 for moving the sample base 2 relative to the cutter 3 in a predetermined feeding direction X, a liquid bath 6 arranged on a rear side of a cut edge 3a of the cutter 3 for storing a liquid W, and a transfer belt 20 in an endless shape having a first turn back portion 20a provided on an upper side of the cutter 3 and a second turn back portion 20b provided at an inner portion of the liquid bath 6 for transferring a thin-section B1 to the liquid bath 6, an upper face of the cutter holder 17 is formed with a liquid storing
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Sakura Finetek Japan Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Yukimitsu Kijima, Masatoshi Nonoyama
  • Patent number: 8156853
    Abstract: A manufacturing system for producing thin sections of a biological sample embedded in a block. The system includes, a blade holder disposed at a rake angle relative to the block, a mounting plane on which a plurality of cutting blades are mounted, an adsorptive member on the mounting plane that maintains the posture of the cutting blades, a pressing member that presses a selected cutting blade against the mounting plane, a conveyor unit that slides out the cutting blades by sequentially conveying the plurality of cutting blades to feed them one by one on the mounting plane, a transportation unit that moves the block relative to the holder, such that the cutting blade cuts out a thin section from the sample, and a control unit that operates the conveyor unit to exchange the selected cutting blade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments, Inc.
    Inventors: Hirohito Fujiwara, Tetsumasa Ito, Koji Fujimoto, Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 8087334
    Abstract: A sectioning instrument fabricates a section having an accurate and uniform thickness to be carried to a next step automatically without deforming a surface of an embedded block and while observing the surface of the embedded block. The sectioning instrument includes a sample base for fixing an embedded block, a cutter for fabricating a section by sectioning the embedded block, a carrier for carrying the section, and a feed mechanism for moving the sample base in a predetermined feed direction. The carrier includes a belt, a direction switching portion provided on an upper side of the cutter, and a rear roller. The belt is inserted to between the cutter and the direction switching portion from a rear side of the cutter, folded back to an upper side by the direction switching portion and is reeled back to the rear side of the cutter by the rear roller substantially in parallel with the feed direction of the feed mechanism in a plane view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Tetsumasa Ito, Hirohito Fujiwara, Koji Fujimoto
  • Patent number: 8074547
    Abstract: An automatic slicing apparatus reduces the likelihood of failure to make a sliced piece specimen even if continuously operated. The apparatus, on the basis of an exchange command signal, detaches a sample block attached to a cutting base and attaches a new sample block to the cutting base. The apparatus cuts a sliced piece of a predetermined thickness by moving a knife with respect to the sample block having been attached to the cutting base. The apparatus also observes the sliced piece having been cut and judges the sliced piece by comparing an observation data obtained by the observation means and a sample block cut face data. When the apparatus judges that the sliced piece is good, the apparatus transmits an exchange command signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani, Koji Fujimoto
  • Patent number: 7966091
    Abstract: Thin-section slide samples are manufactured from respective embedding blocks containing a biological sample and held in an embedding cassette having imprinted thereon individual data. The embedding cassette is transported to a cutting position where an embedding block is cut into sheet-like thin sections, and the individual data is read out. Each of thin sections is flattened and transferred onto a substrate to form a thin-section slide sample. A memory part stores the individual data read out and a condition table into which is input manufacturing conditions for manufacturing the thin sections. Thereafter, it is evaluated whether or not each of the thin sections is prepared in accordance with the manufacturing conditions input into the condition table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Koji Fujimoto, Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 7866464
    Abstract: A thin-section conveyor apparatus for transporting thin sections that have been prepared by thinly cutting an embedded block, which transports the thin sections to a liquid bath by mounting them on the upper plane of a conveyor belt having a longitudinal linear body extended along the direction of transportation and a transverse linear body disposed perpendicular to the longitudinal linear body, provided that the density of the transverse linear body for the part on which the thin sections are to be mounted is lower than that of the transverse linear body of the other places. It provides thin sections almost free of entraining bubbles. A thin-section scooping tool and a method for transporting thin sections are also proposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Koji Fujimoto, Tetsumasa Ito
  • Publication number: 20100279342
    Abstract: A thin-section slide-sample manufacturing apparatus and a method for manufacturing a thin-section slide sample by cutting out a thin section from an embedded block, transporting the thin section on a conveyor unit, transferring and mounting the thin section on a substrate, the thin-section slide-sample manufacturing apparatus including: a relay having a fixing plane onto which the thin section is fixed detachable; a rotating transportation unit which moves the relay between the conveyor unit and the substrate; and a control unit which moves the relay to the conveyor unit by using the rotating transportation unit, which moves the relay to the substrate where the thin section is detached and transferred to the substrate; wherein, the control unit rotates the relay according to the preliminarily set fixing plane and the relative position of the thin section around a rotation axis provided orthogonal to the fixing plane by using the rotating transportation unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Publication date: November 4, 2010
    Inventors: Yukimitsu KIJIMA, Tetsumasa ITO, Masatoshi NONOYAMA, Tatsuya MIYATANI, Akira AOYAMA
  • Patent number: 7802507
    Abstract: To fabricate automatically a high quality sliced piece by preventing a temperature change of a surface of an enveloped block, there is provided an automatic sliced piece fabricating apparatus including a fixed base for mounting to fix an enveloped block, cutting means including a cut blade arranged on the fixed base for cutting out a sliced piece from the enveloped block by moving the cut blade and the fixed base relative to each other, a cabinet for containing the fixed base and the cutting means at inside thereof, sliced piece carrying means for carrying the cut-out sliced piece to outside of the cabinet, and temperature adjusting means for adjusting at least a surrounding temperature of the enveloped block to a predetermined temperature by supplying cold wind a temperature of which is controlled from outside at inside of the cabinet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments Inc.
    Inventors: Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani, Koji Fujimoto
  • Publication number: 20100229702
    Abstract: To enable to alleviate a burden on an operator and fabricate automatically an optimum and high quality prepared slide in accordance with a kind of an embedding block, there is provided an automatic prepared slide fabricating apparatus including first carrying means capable of carrying an embedding cassette to a cut position, cutting means for cutting out a section in a sheet-like shape by cutting an embedding block by a predetermined thickness after having been carried to the cut position, elongating means for elongating the section, second carrying means for carrying the cut section to the elongating means, transcribing means for transcribing the elongated section onto a board to fabricate a prepared slide, and controlling means for respectively controlling the respective means and having a condition table previously inputted with a fabricating condition in fabricating the prepared slide, in which the controlling means controls the respective means such that the embedding cassette carried by the first carryi
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2007
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Inventors: Koji Fujimoto, Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Publication number: 20100050839
    Abstract: To provide a thin-section manufacturing apparatus capable of firmly receiving and transferring a thin-section made by sectioning an embedded block by bringing a transfer belt into a wet state, a thin-section manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a cutter 3 of sectioning an embedded block B, a cutter fixing portion 15 having a fixing base 16 of supporting the cutter 3 and an cutter holder 17 of squeezing the cutter 3 from an upper side, a sample base of fixing the embedded block B, feeding means 4 for moving the sample base 2 relative to the cutter 3 in a predetermined feeding direction X, a liquid bath 6 arranged on a rear side of a cut edge 3a of the cutter 3 for storing a liquid W, and a transfer belt 20 in an endless shape having a first turn back portion 20a provided on an upper side of the cutter 3 and a second turn back portion 20b provided at an inner portion of the liquid bath 6 for transferring a thin-section B1 to the liquid bath 6, an upper face of the cutter holder 17 is formed with a liquid storing
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2009
    Publication date: March 4, 2010
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Yukimitsu Kijima, Masatoshi Nonoyama
  • Publication number: 20100030364
    Abstract: An automatic thin-section slides manufacturing system which reduces the burden of operators and automatically manufactures required number of thin section slide samples from plural embedded blocks while completely relating the manufactured thin section slide samples to the original embedded blocks to enable quality control at high precision, which comprises: a first transportation unit which is capable of transporting an arbitrarily selected embedded cassette from the plural embedded cassettes to the cutting position; a cutting unit which, after the embedded cassette is transported to the cutting position, cuts the embedded block to provide sheet-like thin sections at a predetermined thickness; a readout unit which reads out the individual data when the embedded cassette is transported to the cutting position; a flattening unit for flattening the thin section, which comprises a storage tank containing a liquid stored therein; a second transportation unit which transports the thin sections cut out by the cutti
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2007
    Publication date: February 4, 2010
    Inventors: Koji Fujimoto, Tetsumasa Ito, Tatsuya Miyatani
  • Patent number: 7616302
    Abstract: The container comprises a cylindrical member 20 which constitutes the side wall member, a bottom member 30 which is in contact with the bottom plane of the cylindrical member 20 and which constitutes the bottom part, and an engaged fixing part 35 for engaging the cylindrical member 20 with the bottom member 30; the cylindrical member 20 and the bottom member 30 sandwiches the carrier tape T from one side T1 of the carrier tape T and from the other side T2 of the carrier tape T, respectively, such that one of the plural thing section samples P1 may be disposed inside the cylindrical member 20. Accordingly, without cutting a sequence of tapes carrying thereon the thin section samples of biomedical tissues, each of the thin section samples of the biomedical tissues can be individually processed with different chemicals depending on the required observation for various types of biomedical tissues.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Instruments, Inc.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Miyatani, Tetsumasa Ito