Abstract: A blood-collection apparatus has a needle having a sharp front end and a sharp rear end, a mounting collar on the needle between its ends and a holder tube extending along an axis and having front and rear ends. A piston axially slidable in the holder tube is provided with a mount adapted to fit complementarily with the mounting collar with the needle rear end directed axially back in the tube. The piston normally is at the tube front end with its mount projecting axially forward from the tube. A flexible strand has a front end attached to the piston and a rear end projecting from the tube rear end. This mount is fitted into the needle's collar after the blood-collection operation is complete so that a pull on the strand retracts the piston back into the tube carrying the needle fitted to its mount.

Abstract: A filter is pressed down in a collection tube holding separated blood as a lower solids mass and an upper liquid mass defining with the lower mass an interface. The filter has a sleeve fittable in the tube and having a lower end covered by a membrane that fits snugly in the tube. A vertical level of an upper surface of the upper liquid mass in the tube is detected and a pusher is engaged with an upper end of the sleeve to push the filter downward in the tube. Downward pushing of the filter is stopped when the upper end of the sleeve is at a predetermined spacing above the vertical level of the liquid upper surface. A vertical level of the interface is also detected and downward pushing of the filter is also stopped when the membrane is at the vertical level of the interface. Thus two separate events can trigger stopping of the downward pushing: reaching the interface or reaching a certain fill level in the sleeve.

Abstract: A sample vessel (1) for taking very small amounts of blood, consisting of an outer vessel (2) and an inner vessel (3) which can be inserted into it, which is closed at the bottom, and on top, on the side where the sample is deposited, is configured with an open, very thin-walled blood sample ring (7) which can be closed by a stopper (4) and which protrudes in situ from the outer vessel (2). The outer vessel (2) has a collar (5) which supports the inner vessel (3) below the blood sample ring (7), and which is suitable for holding in centrifuges. The sample vessel makes taking blood samples easier, is simpler to produce and offers a greater variety of possibilities for use.

Abstract: A cap for a blood-sampling tube has a collar adapted to fit on the tube and a tubular extension extending from the cap, defining an axis and having an outer end remote from the cap. An annular wall is formed inside the cap spaced from the outer end and an annular lip projects axially backward from the outer end and has an outer surface spaced radially inward of an inner surface of the extension and an axially directed inner end. A pierceable flat membrane in the extension on the annular wall snugly engages the inner surface of the extension and has an outer face spaced axially from the inner end of the lip. The lip has an inner surface defining a cylindrical passage of a predetermined diameter and the wall has an inner edge defining a similarly dimensioned coaxial annular passage.

Abstract: A molding apparatus has a fixed mold part having a pair of flat side faces and formed on each face with a plurality of laterally open half cavities and respective movable mold parts each having a side face juxtaposed with a respective fixed-part side face and displaceable transversely into and out of a molding position with the movable-part side face flatly engaging the respective fixed-part side face of the stationary mold part. Each movable mold part is formed with a plurality of half cavities forming full mold cavities with the half cavities of the respective fixed-part side face in the molding position. Each movable-part half cavity is formed with at least two inwardly open pockets, one of the pockets of each movable-part half cavity being open at the respective movable-part side face and being transversely closed by the respective fixed-part side face.