A dispenser for taking up and discharging fluid volumes which has an exchangeable piston-cylinder unit. The dispenser has a housing and a device for incremental distance measurement that, when there is relative movement between the piston and the cylinder, the distance traveled by the piston relative to the housing can be determined incrementally. The dispenser has a piston actuation member which can be releasably connected to the piston moving the piston in order to take up and/or discharge fluid volumes. The dispenser has a position determining device which has a first position element and a second position element. The first position element is fixed in or on the housing of the dispenser. The second position element is coupled so as to be able to move with the piston actuation member. The position determining device is for continuously sensing the position of the second position element.

A pipette for actuating a syringe including a strip-shaped housing with first and second receptacles for inserting fastening sections. First and second releasable holding mechanism for holding the fastening sections. First and second displacing mechanisms to displace a receiving body in the housing from the receptacles. A toothed rack and a pawl are connected to an actuation rack. A cover has a coupling element and longitudinal slot and spring.

Described are exemplary embodiments of a syringe identification system for use with a positive displacement pipette, such as a handheld powered positive displacement pipette. An exemplary syringe identification system may include a sensor, such as a color sensor, that is located at or near a distal end of the pipette and arranged such that the sensor is operative to read an identifying marking(s) on a syringe that has been installed to the pipette. The sensor may be a color sensor having an illumination source and configured to read a color code on the syringe. The color code may be usable to identify the syringe to the pipette.

A pipette controller for aspirating and dispensing multiple aliquots of a fluid from a reservoir of fluid. The pipette controller can include a pipette holder adapted to operatively connect a pipette to the pipette holder; a pump having a vacuum port and a pressure port, the pump pneumatically connected to the pipette holder; an aspirate valve that controls airflow between the vacuum port and the pipette holder; a dispense valve that controls airflow between the pressure port and the pipette holder; a piston chamber; an aliquot dispense pump including a piston having a shaft that extends into the piston chamber, the shaft defining a stroke length; and an aliquot check valve that connects the pipette holder and the aliquot dispense pump; wherein the aliquot valve opens to allow airflow into the pipette holder upon engagement of the aliquot dispense valve. The pipette controller can also include a piston pump pneumatically connected to the pipette holder configured to deliver a bolus of air to the pipette holder.

A method for detecting the type of an exchangeable piston-cylinder unit for a dispenser, to a piston-cylinder unit having at least one radially oriented information carrier section, and at least one axially oriented information carrier section, both of which at least partially specifies the type of piston-cylinder unit, and to a dispenser having an acquisition device for automatically identifying the type of piston-cylinder unit arranged on the dispenser. The method has at least the following steps: a) detachably mounting the piston-cylinder unit on the dispenser by at least an axial movement; b) detecting completion of a successful mounting of the piston-cylinder unit on the dispenser with a sensor device; c) detecting an information of the axially oriented information carrier section; d) detecting an information of the radially oriented information carrier section; and e) determining the type of the piston-cylinder unit mounted on the dispenser from the detected information.

A multifunctional pipette includes a pipette module, a heater module and a magnetic module. The pipette module includes one or more pipette heads. The heater module has a first joint part, and the heater module configured to removably connect to the pipette module by coupling the first joint part to at least one of the plurality of pipette heads. The magnetic module has a second joint part, and the magnetic module configured to removably connect to the pipette module by coupling the second joint part to at least one of the plurality of pipette heads. The multifunctional pipette can be further applied in an automatic detection machine.

Described are exemplary embodiments of a syringe identification system for use with a positive displacement pipette, such as a handheld powered positive displacement pipette. An exemplary syringe identification system may include a sensor, such as a color sensor, that is located at or near a distal end of the pipette and arranged such that the sensor is operative to read an identifying marking(s) on a syringe that has been installed to the pipette. The sensor may be a color sensor having an illumination source and configured to read a color code on the syringe. The color code may be usable to identify the syringe to the pipette.

A pipettor includes a wash chamber between an upper plate, a lower plate, an upper seal, and a lower seal. The upper and lower seal retain each other and are located between the upper and lower plates. The pipettor includes a gasket located below the lower plate, a pipette tip retained by the gasket, and a piston with a tapered tip that passes through the plates, seals, and gasket into the pipette tip. The upper and lower seal isolate the piston from the wash chamber. The pipettor includes a channel defined by the piston, extending into the pipette tip, and an actuator that advances and retracts the piston. When the actuator retracts the piston such that the piston loses sealing contact with the lower seal and the wash chamber is supplied with wash fluid and pressurized, wash fluid passes through the groove in the upper seal and into the channel.

A liquid contact step including injection of liquid into a flow path using a pipette chip and suction of liquid from the flow channel is performed multiple times, and a predetermined reaction is thereby performed inside the flow channel. In at least one liquid contact step, a first suction is performed in which liquid is suctioned in a state in which the pipette chip and the bottom of a liquid injection section are in contact or in close to each other. Meanwhile, in at least one liquid contact step, a second suction is performed in which the liquid is suctioned in a state in which the pipette chip and the bottom of the liquid injection section are more separated than in the first suction.

A pipetting system includes: a pipetting device; a pipetting container including a plurality of pipetting positions into each of which the pipetting device pipettes liquid; and a positional relation detector configured to detect a positional relation between a front-end position of a tip and each of the pipetting positions. The pipetting device includes circuitry configured to, when a pipetting switch that orders pipetting is turned on, on condition that the front-end position of the tip detected by the positional relation detector is located at one of pipetting positions that is indicated by a pipetting pattern set up in advance, allow pipetting corresponding to the pipetting pattern, and on condition that the front-end position of the tip detected by the positional relation detector does not correspond to a corresponding one of pipetting positions that is indicated by the pipetting pattern set up in advance, disallow the pipetting.