Automation apparatus of analysis laboratory

An automation apparatus of an analysis laboratory, for handling support devices which support a single container of biological samples, said automation apparatus comprising:

• two main automatic belt conveyors arranged in positions spaced apart from one another on a floor, and having at least one respective main guide lane on which the support devices are configured to run,
• at least two lift devices, each associated with a respective main automatic belt conveyor and each including a bearing structure spaced in a substantially vertical direction, and a movable platform carried by said bearing structure and arranged movable along said bearing structure,
• at least two main loading/unloading stations, each associated with a respective one of the two main automatic belt conveyors and a respective one of the two lift devices thereof, each main station being configured to form and temporarily host batches of said support devices coming from the respective main guide lane, said batches being formed to be transferred to the respective movable platform, or vice versa,
• at least one auxiliary automatic belt conveyor having at least one auxiliary transport lane, on which the support devices are configured to run, said auxiliary automatic conveyor being operatively connected to the main automatic belt conveyors by means of the lift devices, and being spaced at a different height with respect to said main automatic belt conveyors, so that said auxiliary automatic belt conveyor is configured to allow a transport flow of the support devices from one main automatic belt conveyor to the other main automatic belt conveyor and/or vice versa, while space between the spaced apart two automatic belt conveyors is configured to allow passage of human operators between the two main automatic belt conveyors from one longitudinal side of both of the two automatic belt conveyors to the other longitudinal side of both of the two main automatic belt conveyors by underpassing or overpassing the auxiliary automatic belt conveyor, wherein the auxiliary automatic belt conveyor is configured to be positioned in one of i) a first position raised above the two main belt conveyors configured to facilitate the human operator underpassing, and ii) a second position lowered below the two main automatic belt conveyors configured to facilitate the human operator overpassing,
• at least a pair of auxiliary loading/unloading stations located at a same height as the auxiliary automatic belt conveyor, each auxiliary station being associated with a respective lift device and being configured to form and host batches of said support devices coming from the auxiliary transport lane, said batches being formed to be transferred to the respective movable platform, or vice versa,
• each main and auxiliary loading/unloading station including respective handling elements configured to form batches of support devices and to carry out a loading step of said batches on the movable platform and/or an unloading step of said batches from the movable platform,
• said automation apparatus further comprising at least one central electronic control unit configured to control handling operations of the support devices along the main and auxiliary belt conveyors.