Patent ID: 6598507
Filing Date: 2003-07-29
Classification: B26D,G01N,Y10T

Abstract:
A microtome for producing thin sections from an object, comprising: a housing; a cutting blade mounted in association with the housing; an object holder movably mounted with respect to the housing to hold the object to be sectioned; and a drive system contained within the housing for producing relative cutting movement between the cutting blade and the object holder, the drive system including an automatic drive system having a drive motor and a control circuit for controlling operation of the drive motor and a manual drive system for manually initiating relative cutting movement between the cutting blade and the object holder, the manual drive system including a handwheel and an encoder, wherein the handwheel is connected to the encoder and the encoder is connected to the control circuit for delivering corresponding signals to the control circuit upon rotation of the handwheel, and the control circuit is configured to activate the drive motor in accordance with the signals from the encoder and to control at least one electromechanical device to prevent relative cutting movement between the cutting blade and the object holder in a standby mode defined by an absence of signals from the encoder.