Abstract: An apparatus for shaking individual sample containers including an upper end with an opening and a lower closed end, the apparatus including a holder with which the sample container can, with its lower end, be brought into engagement such that, when the holder moves, the lower end of the sample container is also moved; a drive connected to the holder and moving the holder for shaking the sample container in a, particularly, horizontal plane; a sensor which, once a sample container is arranged at a defined position in the holder, generates a start signal and, once the sample container is removed from the defined position in the holder, generates a stop signal for the drive, wherein the drive is designed such that it continues to move the holder for a defined coast-down time after a stop signal has been generated by the sensor.

Abstract: The present invention relates to means for covering one or more sample(s) that are suitable to avoid or minimize evaporation and/or condensation of any vaporizable substance that may be present in the sample(s) or reaction mixture(s), in particular evaporation of substance at the fringes of a vessel or an array of vessels or condensation of said substance on the lid of a reaction vessel or a plate/block containing the sample(s) and/or the means for covering. This is achieved by providing a device comprising, among others, a force distribution unit that comprises at least one medium or material that is unable to withstand a static shear stress and deforms continuously under the action of a shear force. In a preferred embodiment, this medium or material is a gas, a shear force.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device and a method for controlling the temperature of at least one sample. The device comprises at least the following means: (a) means for accommodating at least one sample; (b) means for heating and/or cooling at least one sample; (c) means for covering at least one sample. These means for covering at least one sample comprise at least one movable contact area and first and second means for fixating said at least one movable contact area in at least one defined direction relative to the sample. Therein said first means for fixating matingly engages with a corresponding second means for fixating.

Abstract: According to the invention, an apparatus for mixing laboratory vessel contents, in particular, said apparatus having an accommodating adapter having a holder for accommodating vessels, in particular laboratory vessels, in particular in exchangeable thermoblocks, and a drive which can be used to put the accommodating adapter into a mixing movement which essentially oscillates in a circular and translatory manner in a horizontal plane, in particular, is distinguished by the fact that the accommodating adapter has a structure (vortex adapter) which is accessible from the outside and has a shoulder structure on a circumference, said shoulder structure having at least one shoulder which points toward the center of the circumference and is intended to drive a vessel, in particular a test tube, which is held and placed from the outside, into the mixing movement in a form-fitting manner.

Abstract: According to the invention, an apparatus for mixing laboratory vessel contents, in particular, said apparatus having an accommodating adapter having a holder for accommodating vessels, in particular laboratory vessels, in particular in exchangeable thermoblocks, and a drive which can be used to put the accommodating adapter into a mixing movement which essentially oscillates in a circular and translatory manner in a horizontal plane, is distinguished by a sensor which measures a vectorial variable which is dependent on the mass of a load of the accommodating adapter.

Abstract: An apparatus for shaking individual sample containers including an upper end with an opening and a lower closed end, the apparatus including a holder with which the sample container can, with its lower end, be brought into engagement such that, when the holder moves, the lower end of the sample container is also moved; a drive connected to the holder and moving the holder for shaking the sample container in a, particularly, horizontal plane; a sensor which, once a sample container is arranged at a defined position in the holder, generates a start signal and, once the sample container is removed from the defined position in the holder, generates a stop signal for the drive, wherein the drive is designed such that it continues to move the holder for a defined coast-down time after a stop signal has been generated by the sensor.

Abstract: Multi-channel metering device with displacement devices for displacing a plurality of air columns, a plurality of holders which comprise a shank for releasable connection to a pipette tip, a connector and a connecting channel extending from the free end of the shank to the connector, flexible pipes which connect the displacement devices to the connectors, a guide on which the holders may be displaced with shanks aligned parallel to one another and perpendicular to the guide, abutment surfaces on the faces of the holders facing one another, pins projecting from the holders, oriented perpendicular to the guide and the shanks, round chain links arranged on the pins of adjacent holders, a free space existing between the pins and the rounded portions of the round chain links when the abutment surfaces of the adjacent holders bear against one another, and a drive device which engages at least one of the two outer holders and by means of which the holders may be pushed apart and pushed together along the guide.

Abstract: A magazine for pipette tip-shaped articles including a plurality of plates for holding the pipette tip-shaped articles and each having a plurality of bores for receiving the pipette tip-shaped articles in their entirety, a plurality of racks stacked over one another and adapted to each receive at least one holding plate, and complementary locking elements provided on the adjacent racks, respectively, and engageable with each other to form the at least one of a form-locking connection and a force-locking connection upon insertion of a holding plate in one of the adjacent racks and disengageable from each other upon removal of the holding plate.