Patent ID: 7529598

Claim:
A plate for use in positioning functional elements in a laboratory system for handling samples containing liquids, the laboratory system having a high-precision carrier for standard microplates and comprising a substantially horizontal work field having a lengthwise dimension in an X direction and a transverse dimension in a Y direction extending substantially perpendicularly to the length-wise dimension, and at least one robot arm having at least one functional element aligned substantially perpendicularly to the work field in a Z direction, the robot arm being able to move the functional element in at least a partial region of the work field in at least one of the X or Y or Z directions, the X, Y and Z directions defining a right-angle coordinate system for moving the robot arm or the functional element, respectively, the plate being positionable within the partial regions of the work field and comprising: two light barriers having two respective detection beams which intersect inside the partial region of the work field; each light barrier having a transmitter and a receiver; the plate having external dimensions of a standard microplate and being fixable in a precise position on the high-precision carrier for the standard microplates positioned within the work field; the light barriers being so arranged on the plate that the directions of emission of the two detection beams extend in a direction deviating from parallels to outer edges of the plate.