Patent ID: 8672219

Claim:
A method for handling a sample tube containing a biological sample, a tube label being attached to the sample tube, the tube label carrying tube data, the tube data comprising at least geometric tube data being descriptive of at least one geometric property of the sample tube, the method comprising: reading at least the geometric tube data from the tube label by a reader device; transmitting at least the geometric tube data from the reader device to a processing device; controlling the processing device for handling the sample tube in accordance with the at least one geometric property described by the read geometric data; determining the approximate weight of an empty sample tube by using the read geometric properties or by reading the weight of an empty sample tube from the tube label by the reader device; weighing the sample tube containing the biological sample; determining the weight difference between the empty sample tube and the sample tube containing the biological sample; and determining the filling level of the sample tube using the weight difference and the geometric properties.