The Technology
	ApoTome hardware enlarge		In hardware terms, ApoTome consists of a slider, which inserts into the fluorescence beam path at the plane of the field diaphragm, and a control box to operate the slider. The slider has two click-stop positions. In position 1, an iris diaphragm is in the beam path, permitting conventional fluorescence imaging with perfect Köhler illumination in the fluorescence beam path. The iris can be opened and closed with the blue handwheel on the slider housing.		ApoTome Principle Technology System Inside4D Gallery System Requirements
	Light path enlarge		In click-stop position 2, two glass plates are in the beam path. One of them bears the vapor-deposited grid pattern. If the excitation light hits this plate, the grid pattern is "imprinted" on the beam and projected onto the focal plane of the objective. The other, plane-parallel, glass plate is linked to a scanner mechanism in the slider housing via a shaft. This mechanism tilts the glass plane, the tilting motion moves the grid image in the specimen plane back and forth.
	ApoTome slider enlarge		To get optical sections of optimum thickness depending on the objective used, the grid can be exchanged. A grid is held in place inside the slider by two little magnetic pins; to exchange a grid, simply lift it off with tweezers.