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US 7,000,785 B2Granted
Tube rack accommodating a range of tube diameters
AssigneeBio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
InventorsNasser Jafari, Lawrence J. Blecka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tube rack for holding and transporting sample tubes or other liquids in an automated analyzer is built to accommodate tubes of different sizes in a stable aligned configuration, the rack containing a row of parallel open-top tube chambers, each chamber containing two sets of resilient tabs integrally molded with the chamber walls and at different heights in the chamber.
Claims9
A tube rack comprising a row of parallel chambers joined to each other, each chamber open at one end and each chamber comprising:
- lateral walls arranged about an axis, and
- first and second sets of resilient tabs, each tab integrally molded as a continuous structure with one of said walls and each tab extending toward, and at an acute angle to, said axis and away from said open end, each set of tabs comprising at least three of said tabs arranged about said axis in a centering arrangement to receive and hold a cylindrical tube of circular cross section inside said chamber in a stable position coaxial with said chamber, said first set of tabs axially displaced from said second set of tabs,
- said tube rack comprising separate upper, middle, and lower molded sections and means for fitting said sections together, said first set of tabs being molded as part of said upper section, and said second set of tabs being molded as part of said middle section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.