Ultrasonically Assisted Cutting of Histological Sections for Reducing the Environmental and Financial Impact of Microtomy

作     者：Dong Wang Daniel De Becker Anish Roy Dong Wang;Daniel De Becker;Anish Roy

作者机构：Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing EngineeringLoughborough UniversityLoughborough LE113TUUK Department of EngineeringCollege of EngineeringMathematics and Physical SciencesUniversity of ExeterExeter EX44QFUK 

出 版 物：《Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering》 (中国机械工程学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2022年第35卷第3期

页      面：200-206页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 08[工学] 0802[工学-机械工程] 080201[工学-机械制造及其自动化] 0702[理学-物理学] 

主　　题：Microtome Ultrasonically assisted cutting Blade wear 

摘      要：Modern-day microtomy requires high precision equipment to thinly section biological tissues.The sectioned tissue must be of good quality not showing cutting tracks or so-called artefacts.The quality of these sections is dependent on the blade wear,which is related to the hardness of the tissue sample,cutting angle and cutting speed.A test rig has been designed and manufactured to allow these parameters to be controlled.This has allowed for the blade wear to be analysed and quantified,and this has been completed for both ultrasonically assisted and conventional cutting.The obtained results showed a 25.2%decrease in average blade roughness after 38 cuts when using the ultrasonically assisted cutting regime.The data also showed no adverse effect on the quality of the slides produced when using this cutting methodology.Finally,the cutting force measured for both cutting regimes showed that ultrasonically assisted cutting required less force compared to conventional cutting.With the reduction of surface roughness and force,it is possible to state that ultrasonically assisted cutting reduces the wear of the blade,thereby increasing the life of the blades.An increase of just 10%in blade life would yield a cost saving of approximately 25%thereby reducing the environmental and financial impact of microtomy.