Pipetting device with a stator magnet assembly, which can be used on both sides, as part of a linear-motor drive of a pipetting unit

A pipetting apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of pipetting units each comprising a pipetting conduit;
• a guidance arrangement having at least four guidance rails on which the plurality of pipetting units is guided to move along a motion axis;
• a linear drive arrangement with which the plurality of pipetting units is drivable to move along the motion axis, the linear drive apparatus comprising a stator that is stationary relative to the guidance arrangement, and each pipetting unit of the plurality of pipetting units constituting a rotor, which is movable relative to the stator along the motion axis, of the linear drive arrangement;
• wherein the stator comprises a single stator magnet arrangement connected fixedly to the guidance arrangement;
• wherein the stator magnet arrangement encompasses a plurality of magnets that are arranged to follow one another with alternating magnetic-pole orientations along the motion axis;
• wherein each rotor comprises at least one energizable electromagnetic rotor magnet arrangement that is located oppositely from the stator magnet arrangement along a gap axis orthogonal to the motion axis;
• wherein at least two energizable electromagnetic rotor magnet arrangements interact in drive-force-generating fashion with the stator magnet arrangement as a common stator arrangement, wherein the at least two one energizable electromagnetic rotor magnet arrangements are arranged with a spacing from one another along a spacing axis orthogonal to the motion axis, wherein the common stator magnet arrangement is located between the at least two rotor magnet arrangements,
• wherein the pipetting conduits of the plurality of pipetting units lie in one common pipetting-conduit plane that proceeds parallel to the motion axis;
• and
• wherein the at least four guidance rails are arranged to form to form the edges of an enveloping surface of an imaginary prism, wherein each pipetting unit of the plurality of pipetting units is guided to move on two guidance rails between which, in each of two opposite circumferential directions of the enveloping surface, at least one further edge defined by the guidance rail that is not guiding the respective pipetting unit is located.