SPECIMEN TRANSFER APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a specimen transfer apparatus which smoothly and reliably transfers containers housing specimens held in a rack to another rack. SOLUTION: The specimen transfer apparatus is provided with both a gripping mechanism 3 capable of gripping the tubular containers 300 housing the specimens and a gripping force uniform means for maintaining a uniform gripping force to the containers 300 regardless of the outer diameters of the containers 300 held by the gripping mechanism 3. The gripping mechanism 3 comprises: press members 31 for pressing the peripheral surfaces of the containers 300; a flat plate member 32 for sandwiching the containers 300 in-between with the press members 31; a drive means for bringing the press members 31 close to and away from the plate member 32; and coil springs 34 for generating a gripping force. The drive means is controlled in such a way as to halt when the amount of deformation of the coil springs 34 reaches a predetermined amount by a deformation amount detecting means 8. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO