Revised 5/19/2010 1.3
Input Door and Loading Area (Figure 1-D)
Figure 1-D: Input Door
The input door is accessed by opening the main door (see
Figures 1-A and 1-C). The input door is interlocked
enabling the operator to insert and remove magazines
only when the robotic system is not interacting with the
door. An insulated housing enclosure ensures efficient
magazine heating. Precise positioning of each cassette
ensures accurate placement in the base mold.
The input door includes four individually-controlled heater
assemblies (see Figure 1-D, location ) that:
Accommodate one magazine each
Heat magazines in 15 minutes to prepare cassettes
for embedding
Present Paraform Cassettes consecutively to the
gripper
NOTE: The input door cannot be opened during
operation unless an on-screen prompt indicates otherwise.
Access to the robotic system is through the two rear doors
(see Figure 1-B, location ).
NOTE: Before opening the rear doors or the front door,
the “Instrument Access” button on
the monitor screen must be pressed
first. Wait for the AutoTEC to stop
the current embedding cycle and to
display an acknowledgement prompt on the LCD screen,
before opening the doors. Opening the door without
waiting for the prompt, can cause robotic system stalls
and will delay the normal embedding cycles.
Robotic System (Figure 1-E through 1-H))
Figure 1-E: Interior View of Robotic System
As shown in Figure 1-E, the robotic system comprises two
main modules, a gripper , and a stager , each with
three axes of motion. These two modules handle the
Paraform Cassettes from the magazine area to the base
mold module , and finally to the output door area .
The gripper retrieves Paraform Cassettes from the
magazines and moves them through the system. Figure 1-F
shows the cassette sensor wide beam sensor and,
beneath it, the Paraform recovery chute with chute
sensor . The sensors detect an open lid, presence and
type of cassette; they also allow the system to determine if
the frame is correctly held by the gripper. If a tissue
cassette is not present, improperly assembled, or if the
frame is incorrectly held, the gripper drops the item into
the Paraform recovery chute. If the chute sensor detects
an item is dropped into the chute, the system indicates
that a cassette was dropped in the chute and the
‘CASSETTES SENT TO CHUTE’ count will be
incremented on display.
The gripper is programmed to attempt to pick a framed
cassette from a magazine in three attempts.
After the third attempt to pick up a cassette, if the gripper
still does not grab a frame from the magazine, the
instrument will retry for 3 more times, after cycling the ID
motor up and down to sort out the stacks of frames inside
the magazines. If after all retries, the gripper still cannot
grab a frame from the magazine, the system will alert the
operator and wait for the operator to resolve the cassette
problem. If the operator does not respond in 30 seconds,
the AutoTEC will skip the trouble magazine and start to
process the next available magazine.
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