Patent ID: 8256332

Claim:
A method for the automatic and contact-free relative approach between a specimen ( 6 ) and a knife ( 7 ) of a microtome ( 1 ), wherein the knife ( 7 ) has a knife blade and is fixed in a knife holder ( 3 ), and the specimen ( 6 ) is fixed in a specimen holder ( 5 ) which is mounted on a drive unit ( 4 ) for generating a relative motion between the knife ( 7 ) and the specimen ( 6 ), wherein between the knife ( 7 ) and the specimen ( 6 ) a light barrier with transmitter and receiver is arranged and a light beam coming from the transmitter runs parallel to the knife blade, characterized in that a) the drive unit ( 4 ) drives the specimen holder ( 5 ) relative to the knife holder ( 3 ) for performing a coarse and section thickness feed movement in a first spatial direction (X) and for performing a cutting movement in a second spatial direction (Y) perpendicular to the first spatial direction (X), b) the light barrier is formed as a light band ( 8 ) comprising a plurality of individually detectable light beam bundles ( 9 ) which are arranged parallel to one another in one plane, wherein a first light beam bundle ( 9 ′) forms a detector-side zero point and a last light beam bundle ( 9 ″) forms a detector-side end point of the light band ( 8 ), c) the light band ( 8 ) is arranged stationarily perpendicular to the second spatial direction (Y) and in the direction thereof spaced from the knife blade, wherein the zero point (X 0 ) is assigned to a reference position of the knife blade (X Blade ), and d) the specimen ( 6 ) is guided through the light band ( 8 ) in the second spatial direction and, from the number of the shaded light beam bundles ( 9 ) of the light band ( 8 ), the position of the highest point of the specimen (X Specimen ) in the first spatial direction (X) is determined.