Housing, construction; M_II

For technicians!

 

This chapter handles components of the housing and mechanical construction of the scanner Pannoramic MIDI_II  (M_II).

 

 

 

 

 

               Housing

 

Open shells

Remove the rear cover

 

The housing of the MIDI is realized with a rear cover and two shells, the left and the right cover shell. Each shell contains two, an upper and a lower housing rod; these housing rods are leaded in the housing tubes. The lower housing tubes are mounted in the front of the base plate; the upper tubes are mounted onto the upper part of the rear cover. Both shells are connected together (if the housing is closed) by the use of a snap-lock mechanism. With this solution, the MIDI can be opened or dismantled very quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Rear wall

 

The rear wall covers the MIDI_II from the rear and holds the housing tubes for the upper mounting rods of the shells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Slide holder tray

 

The slide holder tray contains 12 slide bays and is designed to hold 12 slides of single width and allows so an autonomic slide insert and remove procedure.

 

      Tray and slide loading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction of the slide holder tray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allowed slide dimensions are

Length:          75.00 to 76.00 mm

Width:            25.00 to 26.00 mm

Thickness:    00.95 to 01.05 mm

 

 

 

 

Since January 2015 a slide dimension’s check tool is delivered with the scanner.

 

  • If the first character of the serial number is an S the tool is used to check the slide dimensions of the scanners “SCAN, “MIDI” and “DESK” with a thickness of 1.05mm.

 

  • If the first character of the serial number is a P the tool is used to check the slide dimensions with a thickness of 1.20mm.

 

 

·      Please check the slide dimensions before filling the tray with slides!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Open or remove shells

1.       Press a 1.5 mm hex key wrench or an equivalent tool into the lock opening (1) until the lock releases the shells.

2.       The left shell and the right shell respectively can be moved sideward by about 20cm to open the housing, as shown (2,3).

3.       If the shell is fully pulled sideward, the shell will be removed; there is no further security.

 

 

 

               Mount the shells

 

If the shells are inserted into the upper and lower housing tubes from the left side and from the right side respectively, press the shells to each other until the lock snap-in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shells can be opened to reach internal units for services or maintenance.

 

  • The width of the reachable working space is about 40 ~ 50cm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right shell

 

The right shell contains the lock with operating rod, while the left shell holds the lock guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lock construction

 

Manufacturer:   Southco

Type:                   E2 Push-to-close-latch (stored)

Part Number:     E2-50-101-20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   Remove the rear cover

 

1.        Remove the cover shells as described above

2.       Remove all the cables from the USB controller

3.       Remove the mounting bolt of the USB controller

4.       Loosen (or remove) the 4 mounting bolts of the rear cover to the base plate (only two are shown, the other two bolts are fixing the rear cover from the left side and the right side respectively).

5.       The rear cover can be now removed upward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By opening the shells, internal units can be reached.

 

By removing of one or both shells, the scanner is dismantled.

 

 

  • Easily pull the shells fully sideward, there is no further security.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                              

 

 

 

               Construction

 

In this chapter only main differences are described, in relation to the SCAN_II. For not shown components and parts, please refer to the appropriate description of the SCAN_II.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Truss construction

 

Principally, the MIDI consists of a Scanner unit, a Reflector turret unit and an automatic slide loader unit.

 

Onto the scanner unit front side the tray loader unit is mounted (not shown here).

 

 

Watch video:                        Truss construction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Truss and base plate

·    In the MIDI scanner, truss and base plate are not separated.

·    In opposite to the SCAN, the image path is arranged in vertical direction, so the arrangement of the components is modified.

 

The truss and base plate contains the mountings for:

·       USB controler

·       DC controler

·       Scanner unit

·       Turret unit

·       Housing tubes

·       Rubber feet (mounted from beneath)

·       Base plate cover:    To check the correct cabling of the RGB BF-illumination unit, the base plate cover can be removed.

 

 

·       For more information please refer to the description of the SCAN, “Truss” and “Scanner plate”.

 

Watch video:                        Truss

 

 

    Remove the turret unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Truss and control

 

 

The control electronics of the scanner is placed as shown.

 

Watch video:            Truss and control

 

 

      USB and DC-control

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Supporter tubes

 

Because the scanner and turret plate is placed horizontally, a supporter tube with bolt increases the mechanical stability and guarantees the parallelism of both units to each other and to the base plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Optical path

 

The optical path defines mainly the mechanical components and their arrangement.

 

The use of an RGB BF-illumination unit allows the use of monochrome cameras for brightfield scan and fluorescent scan procedures as well.

 

Exchange of the objective magnification between two scan sessions via software commands.

 

Slide thickness defined between 0.95 ~ 1.20mm.

 

Fluorescent scan session or brightfield scan session selectable consecutive,  between 2 slide scan sessions.

 

 

 

      Optics and illumination

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Scanner plate

 

The brightfield illumination is mounted directly onto the scanner plate from beneath. An illumination mirror reflects the light from the illumination tube directly to the condenser of the focus unit.

 

The mounted main units of the scanner plate are:

·       Focus unit

·       X-Y-stage unit

·       Preview and barcode unit (the horseshoe)

·       RGB BF-Illumination

·       Tray and slide loader unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Preview unit

To find the position of the entire tissue to be scanned or parts of it, a preview of the slide is made. The tissue is defined as a darker part of the slide in relation to its surrounding.

 

      Preview unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Focus unit

The focus unit allows focusing of slides with a thickness of 1.20mm maximal.

Onto the focus unit the objective changer is mountet.

 

       Focus unit with objective changer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               X-Y-stage

 

The X-Y-stage unit is used to position the slide at loading or unloading action. It also moves the slide in X- and Y-direction during the scan process.

Allowed slide dimensions for the specimen holder can be found here.

The movements are realized by stepper motors. The principle of the slide insertion and specimen holding is nearly the same in the scanners, so only small deviations are found in the construction of the specimen holders and these will be discussed separately.

The X-Y-stage unit mounting is modified, so a remove and remount of the unit may require excessive adjustments.

 

 

 

 

 

      X-Y-Stage unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               RGB BF-illumination

The construction of the BF optical path uses only a monochrome camera, so only monochrome images can be produced.

  • Monochrome cameras have an important advantage in relation to color cameras, today, the pixel size is the possible smallest.

 

To create color information of the tissue with a monochrome camera, we illuminate the tissue with monochrome light.

 

If the tissue is illuminated by blue light, and we are making an image of the Field of view, the gray scaled camera image contains the intensity of the blue parts in the tissue.

 

Because the pixel resolution of the camera is very high and the resolution of the image's gray scale is 10bit per pixel or higher (depending on the used camera), very detailed information of the blue part in the FOV, related to the appropriate pixel can be reached.

 

If we repeating the procedure with the colors Green and Red, 3 images of the same FOV are produced (a Red, Green and Blue image) and so, the software knows detailed color information about each pixel of the Field Of View.

 

By using the software coloring method the true color information of each pixel is found.

 

By using cameras with a large image sensor low shutter time and high pixel resolution (small pixel size), the scan time of the tissue can be held in acceptable boundaries and the result is an image with high resolution and high color fidelity.

 

      RGB BF-Illumination unit

                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Tray and slide loader unit

The unit allows an autonomic slide load and removal operation by the help of a slide tray.

 

Detailed information about the unit

 

      the chapter Tray and slide loading.

 

 

Watch video:            Tray and slide loader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Turret plate

 

With the locating surface, the correct distance between turret plate and scanner plate is defined; the turret plate is mounted by the use of clamps and contains the mountings and fixings for the following main units:

 

·    Camera tube mounting

·    EPI-fluorescent illumination unit

·    Filter wheel

·    Turret motor

·    Supporter

 

 

The unit is identical in the SCAN_II and the MIDI_II but the mounting position is rotated by 90° clockwise.

 

       FL reflector turret unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               FL light emission unit

The light emission unit is used to excite the fluorescent tissue during FL scan sessions.

 

  • To find the right position of the light exciting path the height of the unit can be adjusted by the foot.

 

 

 

 

        Lumencor SPECTRA .