Patent ID: 8894928

Claim:
A junction for transporting sample racks in an analytical system having one or more work cells for processing samples, the junction comprising: multiple main transport lines that transport first sample racks and second sample racks, wherein the first sample racks have a bigger rack size than the second sample racks with respect to transporting directions of the main transport lines; a turntable comprising at least one rotatable transport line that transports the first sample racks and the second sample racks, wherein the turntable is coupled to the main transport lines and the rotatable transport line alternately connects to one or more of the main transport lines; one or more bypass transport lines, wherein each of the bypass transport lines interconnect two of the main transport lines and bypass the turntable and each of the bypass transport lines is curved such that transport of the second sample racks through each of the bypass transport lines is enabled and transport of the first sample racks through each of the bypass transport lines is disabled, and wherein the bypass transport lines are operably coupled to at least one controllable main/bypass line switch that guides the second sample racks from one of the main transport lines to one of the bypass transport lines or keeps the second sample racks on one of the main transport lines; and a controller that executes machine readable instructions to control transport of the first sample racks and the second sample racks between the two of the main transport lines, wherein the controller is operably coupled to a rack size sensor that detects rack sizes and provides rack size specific sensor signals indicative of the rack sizes, and the controller executes the machine readable instructions to operate the controllable main/bypass line switch based upon the rack size specific sensor signals.