Patent ID: 8349279

Claim:
A samples storage system for pharmaceutical development including tubes in which samples for pharmaceutical development are sealed and a storage rack for vertically accommodating a plurality of said tubes in a grid pattern, characterized in that said tubes are of a rectangular hollow tubular cross-section which has a reduced outer perimeter toward the bottom portion of the tube and four sides with chamfered corner portions on the outer side surfaces, and said storage rack has a hollow frame with inner and outer walls, and engagement partition walls within said inner walls intersecting one another and forming grid pattern sections inside said rack frame, said partition walls having a height smaller than the length of said tubes and-cooperating to form open-ended receptacles for association with said tubes, the outermost engagement partition walls adjacent said frame being spaced from said frame inner walls to provide a partition-wall-receiving space, each said tube having a shoulder on its periphery in said side surfaces at the top of said reduced outer perimeter and a convex portion at the bottom of said reduced perimeter spaced a selected distance below said shoulder, said selected distance being not less than the height of said partition walls, and at least said outermost engagement partition walls being elastically deflectable into said partition-wall-receiving space and deformable to enable said shoulder and said convex portion to engage the top and bottom of said outermost engagement partition wall to effect releasable interlocking engagement of said tube in said open-ended receptacle, said engagement partition walls have tube supporting pins extending vertically from respective intersections of the engagement partition walls, whereby all of said tubes, including the tubes accommodated adjacent said frame are held by said engagement partition walls and said tube supporting pins.