A conveyor assembly for transporting a carrier coupled to a receptacle to a processing station located within a housing of an instrument. The conveyor assembly includes a spur conveyor subassembly and a buffer conveyor subassembly for transporting the carrier from a host conveyor assembly to the spur conveyor subassembly. The spur conveyor subassembly includes (i) a rotatable diverter having at least one recess for receiving and moving the carrier between the buffer conveyor subassembly and the spur conveyor subassembly and (ii) a gripper configured to grasp the carrier and move it from the diverter to the processing position located within the housing of the instrument.

According to one embodiment, a liquid discharging device includes a storage unit storing a use history indicating whether the liquid discharging device has been previously used, and a discharging device mounted on a liquid dispensing apparatus and configured to discharge a liquid when supplied a discharge voltage in response to a discharge signal received from the liquid dispensing apparatus.

A method for optically reading information encoded in a microfluidic device, the microfluidic device including an input microchannel, microfluidic modules, and sets of nodes. Nodes of a first set connect the input microchannel to one of the microfluidic modules, and nodes of a second set connect the one of the microfluidic modules to another to form an ordered pair of the microfluidic modules, where the nodes of the first and second sets have different liquid pinning strengths. A liquid loaded into the input microchannel causes an ordered passage of the liquid through each of the microfluidic modules in an order determined by the liquid pinning strengths of the nodes. The passage of the liquid produces an optically readable dynamic pattern which evolves in accordance with the ordered passage of the liquid through the device.

A sample-containing device configured to be placed into a sample processing instrument for performing a process on a sample contained in the device includes redundant identification features, such as machine-readable tags. A first machine-readable information tag is read before the device is placed in the instrument, and a second machine-readable information tag is read after the device is in the instrument. Information read from the two tags is compared to determine if there is proper correspondence between the information read from the tags to ensure that the correct sample processing device was placed in the instrument.

The present invention provides improved methods, facilities and systems for parallel processing of biological cellular samples in an efficient and scalable manner. The invention enables parallel processing of biological cellular samples, such as patient samples, in a space and time efficient fashion. The methods, facilities and systems of the invention find particular utility in processing patient samples for use in cell therapy.

The invention relates to a fluid sampling assembly comprising a sampling device (1) for analysis of one or more substances in a fluid flow passing through the sampling device (1), a first device (3) comprising a flow meter for measuring the fluid flow, and a control unit (12) with communication means, wherein the control unit (12) is adapted to record information concerning the sampling, and to communicate the information to a memory (4, 7, 13). The invention further relates to a method for assuring quality of measurements using a sampling assembly.

The present invention relates to devices and methods for measuring the quantity of multiple analytes in a sample. The device is designed such that each of the analyte sensing elements is configured to measure the quantity of a predetermined analyte and where the machine executable instructions are configured to select the proper analyte sensing element corresponding to the analyte to be measured.

An accuracy management method for executing accuracy management by using an accuracy management substance in a measurement device that measures a biological specimen includes: reading management information regarding the accuracy management substance from an information recording medium; selecting a treatment adapted to the read management information; executing the selected treatment; and updating the management information in the information recording medium according to the executed treatment.

In some embodiments, a system tracks multiple uses of a physical object having a physical tracking tag with a physical identifier. The system reads the physical tracking tag to determine the physical identifier and assigns different, unique virtual identifiers for different uses of the object. The system may store each virtual identifier with information describing the corresponding use of the object. The system may generate a running cycle count for the object, where the system may use the cycle count to determine when to stop re-using the object. The object may be a refurbishable labware consumable, such as a physically barcoded microplate, where the system assigns virtual identifiers and cycle count to the consumable and cleans the consumable to enable multiple re-uses of the consumable with (i) each use being assigned a unique virtual identifier and (ii) the consumable having the same physical barcode.

The present invention provides an RFID tag to be applied to a container for holding liquid. To achieve a good communication distance regardless of the presence or absence of liquid, the RFID is applied to a container for holding liquid, and includes an IC chip on which identification information is recorded, and an antenna made of a loop-shaped conductor connected to the IC chip, and the antenna has a T-shaped opening in which the conductor is not formed.