The present invention provides: a drawer that is supported so as to be horizontally movable in the front-rear direction between an open position and a closed position through a front-face opening; a table that allows an expendable or a processing unit used for analysis to be mounted in the drawer; and a moving-direction transforming means that, while the drawer is moved toward the rear side from the open position to the closed position, moves horizontally until the expendable or the processing unit mounted on the table passes through the front-face opening from the front side to the rear side and moves the table toward the upper side in synchronization with the horizontal movement of the drawer toward the rear side after the expendable or the processing unit mounted on the table passes through the front-face opening. This makes it possible to easily and reliably perform the work of replacing a chip rack.

A luminometer apparatus includes, inside a light-shielded room, a container rack loaded with holding containers, a dispensation mechanism that dispenses a liquid, a rotary plate that turns, while holding a plurality of reaction containers which accommodate a mixture liquid of a sample and a luminescent reagent on a concentric annular plate, and is provided with a gap allowing the container rack to pass therethrough between at least a pair of adjacent ones of the reaction containers, and a photodetection unit that performs luminescence measurements. The light-shielded room has an insertion opening having a width allowing for insertion of the container rack and provided to be openable and closable. The rotary plate is provided with a region in which the container rack can be installed inside a region of passage of the reaction containers, when turning, and is provided to be turnable where the light-shielded room is in a closed state.

The invention concerns a laboratory product transport element for a laboratory transport system with an energy receiver and/or energy accumulator to provide drive power, at least one signal receiver to receive control signals, a control unit to generate drive signals as a function of at least one control signal obtained from the at least one signal receiver, movement devices for independent movement of the laboratory product transport element on a transfer path as a function of the drive signals of the control unit, in which the drive devices are driven by the drive power and at least one holder to hold a laboratory product being transported. The invention also concerns a laboratory transport system with at least one laboratory product transport element according to an embodiment of the invention and a transfer path arrangement. The invention also concerns methods for operation of laboratory transport systems according to an embodiment of the invention.

A laboratory sample distribution system is presented. The system comprises a number of sample container carriers, a transport plane, a number of electro-magnetic actuators, a number of position sensors and a position determination unit. The position sensors and the position determination unit enable improved sample container carrier position detection on the transport plane. A laboratory automation system comprising such a laboratory sample distribution system is also presented.

Described is an interface module for robotic loading and unloading of a liquid chromatography sample manager. The module includes a transfer drawer receiving apparatus having a device track and a drawer drive system configured to transport a transfer drawer along the device track into and out from a sample tray of a sample manager. The transfer drawer receives a sample-vial carrier that holds samples to be analyzed. The module further includes a window apparatus that has a window controllable to be in an open state or a closed state. When in the open state, transport of the transfer drawer through the window into or out from the sample manager permits loading of the sample-vial carrier into the sample tray and unloading of the sample-vial carrier from the sample tray. In the closed state, the window apparatus substantially seals the internal environment of the sample manager from the ambient environment.

An expendable supply device includes a drawer that is supported so as to be horizontally movable in the front-rear direction between an open position and a closed position through a front-face opening; a table that allows an expendable or a processing unit used for analysis to be mounted in the drawer; and a moving-direction transforming device that, while the drawer is moved toward the rear side from the open position to the closed position, moves horizontally until the expendable or the processing unit mounted on the table passes through the front-face opening from the front side to the rear side and moves the table toward the upper side in synchronization with the horizontal movement of the drawer toward the rear side after the expendable or the processing unit mounted on the table passes through the front-face opening.

Incubation system and method for automated cell culture and/or testing. An exemplary incubation system may comprise a housing forming a chamber. A rack may define storage positions to support an array of sample holders inside the chamber. A detection robot may be configured to capture one or more images of cells contained by one or more wells of each sample holder while the sample holder remains at one of the storage positions of the rack. A fluid handling station may be configured to add fluid to, and/or remove fluid from, one or more wells of each of the sample holders inside the housing. At least one plate robot may be configured to move sample holders between the rack and the fluid handling station. A computer may control operation of the detection robot, the fluid handling station, and the at least one plate robot.

The present disclosure provides a consumable box automatic transmission device. The consumable box automatic transmission device includes a consumable box storage mechanism, configured to load and store consumable boxes, and a consumable box lifting mechanism, located above the consumable box storage mechanism; the consumable box lifting mechanism is able to lift the consumable boxes; the consumable box storage mechanism and the consumable box lifting mechanism is able to respectively store and transmit the consumable boxes; the consumable box storage mechanism is able to transmit the consumable boxes to the bottom of the consumable box lifting mechanism; and the consumable box lifting mechanism receives the consumable boxes at a bottom and lifts the consumable boxes to a top layer of the consumable box lifting mechanism. In this way, parallel consumable box transmission can be achieved, and continuous consumable box conveyance is achieved, thereby reducing manual care or frequent manual operation.

A transportation system for paraffin embedded tissues includes a placing assembly, a bearing unit and a storage device. The placing assembly includes a horizontal moving assembly, a vertical moving assembly, a rotation assembly and a placing unit. The horizontal and vertical moving assemblies move the placing unit in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, and the rotation assembly allows the placing unit to rotate around a vertical axis. The bearing unit receives the paraffin embedded tissues. The storage device has a rotation plate including a plurality of receiving slots each for storing the bearing unit. The placing unit is configured to remove the bearing unit from the storage device, move the bearing unit to a processing apparatus located at another side of the placing assembly, remove the bearing unit from the processing apparatus, and transport the bearing unit to the receiving slot of the storage device.

A detector for a laboratory liquid distribution system is presented. A detector system for a laboratory liquid distribution system comprising such a detector, a laboratory liquid distribution system comprising such a detector and/or such a detector system, a laboratory automation system comprising such a laboratory liquid distribution system and a use of such a detector are also presented.