Leica Biosystems TP1020 - Manual (Page 15)

15 Leica TP1020
3.2 Description of the instrument
The Leica TP1020 is an automatic tissue processor designed for laboratory
applications. It is used for the fixation, dehydration and infiltration of his-
tological tissue samples with fixatives, alcohol, solvents and paraffin wax.
The reagent stations numbered 1 - 10 are used to contain reagents. Station
10 may be replaced with an optional third wax bath. Stations 11, 12, and if
used 10, are heated, temperature controlled wax baths that can be filled
with either wax pellets or molten paraffin wax.
Embedding cassettes used to hold the tissue samples, are placed into the
tissue basket. The basic instrument is designed for a single tissue basket.
An optional second basket can be added. The basket, or baskets, are moved
clockwise from station to station.
To ensure thorough infiltration the basket containing the tissue samples
is agitated, by moving up and down, at each station. This function can be
switched off at any time.
During processing as the tissue basket moves from station to station there
is a delay period of sixty (60) seconds during which time the basket is sus-
pended above the station. Excess liquid can drip down during this process.
This ensures that there is minimal reagent carryover from station to station.
All instrument functions are activated through the control panel. Real time
is displayed via LCD. The instrument can be operated in manual and auto-
matic processing mode. Automatic processing is controlled via 9 different
programs which can be individually set up, altered and edited.
If a power failure occurs, the specimens are protected from drying out
- even when overnight processing has been selected, since in case of a
power failure the tissue basket will always be immersed into a station. Once
the power is restored, processing will be resumed where it had been inter-
rupted. After a long-term power failure, critical excess immersion time in a
station will be visually displayed.
3. Instrument Components and Specifications