Comfortable operation – ultra low stage and ergonomic control

The BX46 design is a complete departure from the standard upright microscope, offering a stage positioned only 128 mm above the desk surface – lower than any other microscope in this class. This has two very positive effects for the user: the stage is always at the same height and requires very little elevation of the hand and forearm from the desk to place and remove samples from the stage surface. In addition to its low, fixed height, the BX46 offers two further ergonomic features a low torque mechanism and ergo-grips on the X,Y controls, both reducing the force required to navigate around the sample.

Individual ergonomics - three dimensional tube adjustment

Creating the perfect, upright and comfortable posture during microscope operation is not only essential, but entirely dependent on the user. With the ergonomically perfected telescopic, tilting, lifting observation tube, the inclination angle (-3 to 27°), tube extension (55 mm) and tube height (45 mm) can be adjusted, allowing a fully flexible set-up in three dimensions. As a result the microscope can be adjusted to precisely match the user, rather than the other way round.

Wide range magnification condenser

The BX46 condenser covers a total magnification range from 1.25x to 100x. Continuous observation using objective magnifications from 4x to 100x is possible without the need to swing the condenser’s front lens out of the light path. Since switching between these low magnification objectives is common for clinical screening, removing the swing-in/swing-out step makes screening far more efficient and therefore the user can save lots of time. Importantly for the clinical field, where brightfield observation of stained specimens (such as HE stained tissue sections) is core, Olympus has developed condensers with white tops, which enable users to position slides very easily by eye.

Trust your eyes - true colour LED Illumination

Olympus is taking brightfield to the next level with the most advanced mixed-matrix brightfield LED technology currently available. This new true-colour LED has been designed to provide a colour rendering index very similar to that of halogen bulbs with daylight filters. This means that stain colours appear exactly the same under the true-colour LED as they do under daylight filtered halogen, and also that similar (but not the same) colours can be clearly differentiated. Such clarity cannot be provided by standard LEDs as they cannot provide the same colour rendering capabilities and thus diagnostic imaging becomes difficult. This advanced colour rendering technology therefore provides a wavelength range ideal for the most commonly used stain colours - purple, blue and red (e.g. haematoxylin and eosin – HE or Papanicolaou stain - Pap).

Increased efficiency - Light intensity management (LIM)

Due to their nature, LEDs are ideal for transmitted bright field illumination as they offer easy intensity control, with a constant colour temperature profile over the entire intensity range. Olympus has maximised this distinct benefit with the built-in Light Intensity Manager (LIM), which provides an easy to use interface for setting and automating brightness levels associated with each different objective, reducing the fine adjustments usually completed by the user with each objective. The Olympus LIM works in collaboration with the unique Olympus true-colour LED transmitted light source and coded
nosepiece, to automatically adjust the illumination intensity to the user’s pre-defined levels with each objective change.

Future Lab Ready – System solutions

An increasing number of application areas require clinicians to capture, store and annotate the images they produce. As a result, even if these requirements are not currently needed the microscope you buy today should be ready for the digital future. With the Olympus BX3 microscopes, related accessories and digital camera range, as well as the dedicated labSens software, clinicians have the scope to match their current requirements; safe in the knowledge they are ready for the future, whichever direction it takes their imaging needs.

labSens – Modern digital documentation solution

The labSens software programme is the ideal digital imaging and documentation solution for the modern clinical laboratory. As well as providing all of the essential image acquisition, processing and discussion needs, labSens fits in with the BX3’s central themes of ergonomics and efficiency. The easy-to-use graphical user interface enables the definition of the most important functions, such that users can choose which tools they would like to have available on the screen, enabling them to streamline the interface. This results in an instinctive and fast interactive environment for acquiring, displaying, commenting, measuring and handling of images.