The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 03, 2001
Filed:
May. 12, 2000
Nobuyoshi Yamakawa, Kobe, JP;
Hidenari Takaoka, Kobe, JP;
Masanori Nakaya, Kobe, JP;
Toshio Watanabe, Kobe, JP;
Sysmex Corporation, Kobe, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus wherein assayed specimens can be transferred in any order to a specimen-container housing rack automatically and very efficiently, without any restrictions whatsoever on the order in which the specimen containers are placed in the specimen-container racks and assayed, even if different types of specimen vessel are present. This is accomplished in a specimen-container transfer apparatus having: a conveyor unit for transporting specimen-container racks; a specimen-container ID reader for reading the specimen-container identification numbers of the specimen-container racks transported by the conveyor unit; a specimen-container housing-rack table for setting up specimen-container housing racks for housing specimen containers; a specimen-container transfer mechanism for taking specimen containers out of a specimen-container rack and putting them in a specimen-container housing rack; and a control unit for controlling the order in which the specimen containers are put into the specimen-container housing rack.