Patent ID: 7264111

Claim:
A magnetic transport system for transporting racks of specimen-containers atop a featureless rack-supporting surface of a non-magnetic support plate, each of said specimen-container racks having a bottom surface configured to be supported by said rack-supporting surface, and having a plurality of magnetically-attractive members that are spacedly arranged in close proximity to said bottom surface, said magnetic transport system comprising: a first bi-directional linear drive mechanism constructed to selectively move a truck in opposite directions along a first linear path closely spaced from a bottom side of said non-magnetic support plate, said truck comprising a movably-mounted plate that supports a plurality of spaced magnetic field-producing devices, each of said devices comprising a U-shaped permanent magnet having opposing poles extending in the same direction and being effective to produce a magnetic field atop said non-magnetic support plate when said truck is moving along said first linear path, said magnetic fleid being sufficiently strong to magnetically engage said magnetically-attractive members of a specimen-container rack positioned on said rack-supporting surface of the non-magnetic support plate and cause such specimen-container rack to move along said rack-supporting surface of the non-magnetic support plate as the truck is moved along said first linear path by said first bi-directional linear drive mechanism, said magnetic field producing devices being arranged on the truck in a pattern consistent with the arrangement of the magnetically attractive members of the specimen-container rack so that each of the respective magnetic fields produced by said magnetic field-producing devices interacts with a magnetically-attractive member of said rack.