Disposable pipette tip management

A device to capture one or more pipette tips that are released from an automated pipettor at a tip release location, the device comprising:

• a tip holder conveyor comprising or supporting a plurality of tip holders, each tip holder being configured to receive and releasably hold a single pipette tip, wherein pipette tips released from the automated pipettor will drop into a removable waste container positioned to receive the released pipette tips when there is no tip holder located at the tip release location;
• a drive mechanism configured to index the tip holder conveyor to sequentially place each of one or more of the plurality of tip holders at the tip release location to receive a pipette tip released by the automated pipettor into each tip holder placed at the tip release location;
• a tip ejector positioned to engage a pipette tip held in each of one or more of the plurality of tip holders when the tip holder conveyor is moved by the drive mechanism with respect to the tip ejector, the tip ejector being configured to remove each pipette tip that it engages from an associated tip holder;
• and
• a waste container sensor configured to detect if the waste container is positioned to receive the released pipette tips, whereby detection by the waste container sensor that the waste container is not positioned to receive the released pipette tips causes the drive mechanism to index the tip holder conveyor to sequentially position each of the one or more tip holders at the tip release location to capture each pipette tip released while the waste container is not positioned to receive the released pipette tips, and detection by the waste container sensor that the waste container is positioned to receive the released pipette tips causes the drive mechanism to move the tip holder conveyor to sequentially move each of the one or more tip holders with respect to the tip ejector to remove the pipette tips from the associated tip holders at a tip removal location.