Loading and unloading bench for loading and unloading racks of biological material in an automation installation

1. An apparatus for automatically loading and unloading test tubes, comprising:

a bench having a bottom surface and lateral sidewalls extending perpendicular to the bottom surface said bench supporting

a plurality of racks disposed on the bench, each rack containing a plurality of rows of test tubes;

a plurality of pairs of pistons movable from a lower position inside a plane of the bench, to an extending position outside the plane of the bench, each pair of pistons being independently movable from each other, the extending position of each pair of pistons corresponding to a stop position of a rack which is engaged by said pair of pistons;

each pair of pistons being spaced apart by a distance equal to a distance between two adjacent rows of each rack;

a stop device movable from a position at the lateral sidewalls of the bench to a position towards the lateral profile of the rack such that the stop device engages the lateral profile of the rack in order to ensure stability thereof during possible stress in a vertical direction with respect to the bench;

a pair of belts for conveying the rack along the bench from a rack loading position to said stop positions by respective pairs of piston placed outside said pair of belts and frontally engaging the rack in correspondence of a front profile of the rack with respect to the motion of the belts;

an emitter positioned to detect the presence of the test tubes in each row of the rack; and

a handling device disposed above the bench and adapted to move in the up-down direction for moving test tubes between the test tube rack and a transport device configured to accommodate individual test tubes, said transport device being movable on an automatic conveyor, said handling device being positioned to accommodate the longitudinal movement of the rack for the row-by-row loading and unloading operation.

2. A method for automatically loading and unloading test tubes to and from rows of a single rack disposed on a bench using the apparatus of claim 1 , the method comprising the following steps:

a) moving a first pair of pistons into an extending position for providing a first stop position;

b) stopping a rack with the first row of pistons;

c) moving a stop device from a position at the sidewalls of the bench to a position towards the lateral profile of the rack such that the stop device engages the lateral profile of the rack in order to ensure stability thereof during possible stress in a vertical direction with respect to the bench;

d) processing a first row of test tubes on the rack;

e) retracting the first pair of pistons after the first row of test tubes has been processed in the first stop position;

f) retracting the stop device to place the stop device at the sidewall of the bench;

g) moving a second pair of pistons to the extending position for providing a second stop position;

h) moving the rack a distance equal to a distance between the first row of test tubes and a second row of test tubes, wherein the first row and second row of test tubes are adjacent, and the rack contacts the second pair of pistons;

i) moving a stop device from a position at the sidewalls of the bench to a position towards the lateral profile of the rack such that the stop device engages the lateral profile of the rack in order to ensure stability thereof during possible stress in a vertical direction with respect to the bench;

j) processing the second row of test tubes on the rack; and

k) repeat steps a-j for any subsequent rows of test tubes.