Two piece holder for PCR sample tubes

A two-piece plastic holder for loosely holding a plurality of microliter sample tubes of a preselected design, each having a cylindrically shaped upper section open at its top end and a closed, tapered lower section extending downwardly therefrom, each tube being of circular cross section and having a circumferential shoulder extending outwardly from said upper section at a position on said upper section spaced from the open end thereof, comprising

• a. a one-piece tray member comprising
• i. a flat, horizontal plate section containing holes in a rectangular array compatible with industry standard microliter plate format, said holes being slightly larger than the outside diameter of the upper sections of said tubes but smaller than the outside diameter of said shoulder,
• ii. a first vertical tray sidewall section completely around said plate extending upwardly to a height greater than the height of a tube resting in one of said holes,
• iii. a second vertical tray sidewall section around said plate extending downwardly approximately to the bottom of the upper section of a tube resting in one of said holes,
• b. a one-piece retainer releasably engageable inside said tray over any sample tubes resting in said tray comprising
• i. a flat, horizontal plate section containing holes in a rectangular array compatible with industry standard microliter plate format, said holes being slightly larger than the outside diameter of the upper sections of said tubes but smaller than the outside diameter of said shoulder,
• ii. a vertical retainer sidewall section around said retainer plate section extending upwardly from said plate,
• wherein when said retainer is engaged inside said tray, the retainer plate section lies slightly above the shoulder of a tube resting in said tray and the first tray sidewall section is about as high as said retainer sidewall section, whereby tubes resting in said tray are retained loosely both vertically and laterally.