Method and apparatus for marking a laboratory sample cassette

Abstract

In order to mark a laboratory sample cassette (2), dye marks (40, 41) are printed by an inkjet printer head (7) onto a tape (11). Rollers (17) move the tape (11) from a first location (13) adjacent to the printer head (7) to a cassette receiving location (15). A cassette clamp marker (8) at the cassette receiving location (15) has a shaped member (10) arranged to fold the tape (11) when a laboratory sample cassette (2) is in the cassette receiving location (15) so that part of the tape (11) covers a marking surface (6) of the cassette (2) and another part of the tape (11) covers a side surface (4) of the cassette (2). The shaped member (10) also has heating pads (26, 29) and when an actuator (32) applies the shaped member (10) to the tape (11) in the cassette receiving location (15), the heating pads (26, 29) are heated so that dye of the dye marks (40, 41) on the tape (11) ingresses into the marking surface (6) and the side surface (4) of the cassette (2) to mark these surfaces.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.