Patent ID: 8156853

Claim:
An automatic thin-section manufacturing system for producing thin sections of a biological sample embedded in a block, the system comprising: a plurality of cutting blades each having a cutting edge on one end; a holder disposed at a rake angle relative to a surface of a block having a biological sample embedded therein; a transport unit including a vertical axis stage coupled to a moving stage and a cassette supporting the block, wherein the transport unit positions the block within the manufacturing system in spaced relationship to the holder; a mounting plane at the front end of the holder on which the plurality of cutting blades are mounted and aligned with their cutting edges exposed to an outer side of the mounting plane; an adsorptive member positioned on the mounting plane, which maintains the posture of the cutting blades by adsorbing a base end side of the cutting blades; a first pressing member arranged in the holder applying a clamping force to a cutting blade among the plurality of cutting blades, the cutting blade arranged in a predetermined position against the mounting plane, such that the cutting edge is in a first cutting position on the mounting plane; a second pressing member arranged in the holder adjacent to the first pressing member and positioned to receive the cutting blade from the first pressing member, the second pressing member applying a clamping force to the cutting blade on the mounting plane so that the cutting edge is in a second cutting position on the mounting plane; a conveyor unit including structure that slides out the cutting blades, by sequentially conveying the cutting blades to feed the cutting blades one by one on the mounting plane, wherein the transport unit moves the block relative to the first and second cutting positions on the mounting plane, such that the cutting blade cuts out a thin section of the biological sample from the block; and a control unit that exchanges the cutting blade by operating the conveyor unit to slide for respectively mounting a new cutting blade on the first cutting position and a reuse cutting blade on the second cutting position, and a second pressing member wherein the second pressing member is configured to hold the reuse cutting blade on the mounting plane so that the control unit can direct the transport unit to reuse the reuse cutting blade for preliminary cutting, and direct the transport unit to cut the thin section using the new cutting blade held by the first pressing member after preliminarily cutting the block with the reuse cutting blade.