| 主权项 |
1. An apparatus for automatically depositing, storing and recovering specimens of biological material, contained in test tubes, in/from a refrigerated store in which test tubes are stored in containers of a plurality of test tubes,
wherein it comprises two test tube handling devices suitable for handling test tubes, each attached to respective support bracket at the opposite ends or the refrigerated store, and for loading/unloading test tubes from/to carriers of test tubes movable on a conveyor adjacent to the refrigerated store, two revolving plates, in correspondence with each of said two test tube handling devices, each one comprising a depositing location and a working location each able to accommodate a container of a plurality of test tubes, a rotation of 180° transforming the depositing location into a working location and vice-versa, a container handling device configured for horizontally loading the containers from the refrigerated store and supply them to the depositing location of one of said two revolving plates and vice-versa, said container handling device being horizontally movable along a sliding guide mounted on a profile adjacent to the refrigerated store such that said container handling device can reach different positions of said refrigerated store, and a control unit coordinating the activities of said devices for handling the test tubes and containers and of each of said revolving plates during the loading/unloading operations. |
