Vibrating microtome with automated measurement of vertical runout

1. A vibrating microtome and a measurement device, comprising:

a knife adapted to vibrate in a direction parallel to a section plane and substantially parallel to a cutting edge of the knife;

a light barrier oriented in a direction parallel to the section plane and the cutting edge partially covering a light beam of the light barrier;

a measured signal (tpm) generated by the light barrier, wherein fluctuation of the measured signal (tpm) indicates the presence of a transverse offset of the cutting edge;

at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) generated by a control application signal generator, the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) describing a time course of the vibration of the knife; and

a microcontroller for receiving the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) and the measured signal (tpm), the microcontroller determining a magnitude of transverse offset based on the measured signal at points in time determined from the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi).

2. The vibrating microtome and measurement device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) defines the points in time of the vibration maxima of the knife, and the microcontroller derives, from the measured signal (tpm), values that correspond to the transverse positions of the cutting edge at times of opposite vibration maxima, and determines the magnitude of transverse offset from a difference between the derived values.

3. The vibrating microtome and measurement device of claim 1 , wherein the vibrating microtome comprises the knife and the microcontroller, and the measurement device comprises the light barrier and the control application signal generator; and

wherein the measurement device is embodied as a unit detachable from the vibrating microtome with which it is used.

4. The vibrating microtome and measurement device of claim 1 , further comprising a display for receiving the magnitude of transverse offset from the microcontroller and for displaying the magnitude of transverse offset.

5. A vibrating microtome system comprising:

(i) a vibrating microtome including:

a vibrating head;

a knife having a cutting edge, the knife being arranged in the vibrating head to vibrate with the vibrating head in a direction parallel to a section plane and substantially parallel to the cutting edge; and

an electronic control system (C- 1 ) comprising:

a vibration signal (tp 2 ) generated by a vibration signal generator for driving vibration of the vibrating head;

at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) generated by an application signal generator, the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) describing a time course of the vibration of the knife from the vibration signal (tp 2 );

(ii) a light barrier comprising a light beam oriented in a direction parallel to the section plane and partially covered by the cutting edge and for generating a measured signal (tpm) representing a fluctuation over time occurring because of a transverse offset of the cutting edge during vibration of the knife as a consequence of a potentially present inclination of the cutting edge with respect to the section plane; and

(iii) an electronic measurement system (C- 3 ) comprising:

a microcontroller for receiving the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) and for determining a magnitude of transverse offset of the cutting edge based on values of the measured signal (tpm) at points in time determined from the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi).

6. The vibrating microtome system according to claim 5 , further comprising a display associated with the electronic control system, wherein the electronic measurement system further generates a signal that describes the magnitude of transverse offset, and the electronic control system accepts the signal that describes the magnitude of the measured transverse offset and displays the signal on the display.

7. The vibrating microtome system according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one control application signal (pklo, pkhi) defines the points in time of the vibration maxima of the knife.

8. The vibrating microtome system according to claim 5 , wherein the light barrier and the electronic measurement system are provided as a unit detachable from the vibrating microtome system.