Patent ID: 7169361

Claim:
A reloading system for transferring one of a plurality of tiers of pipette tip arrays from a vertically stacked orientation to an empty pipette tip holder, said system comprising: a pipette tip holder having a flat support surface provided with an array of tip support openings adapted to receive and hold an array of pipette tips; a plurality of stacked tiers of pipette tip arrays, wherein the pipette tips each have a lower tapered tip end, and an upper mounting sleeve separated from the tip end by a shoulder; a transfer plate in each tier holding a respective array of pipette tips, each transfer plate having a main body portion having an underside and a uniform thickness and an array of apertures arranged to align with the array of tip support openings in the pipette tip holder, each of the apertures having a peripheral edge portion including a plurality of flexible lips extending radially inwardly from the edges of the apertures, said lips adapted to support a pipette tip by its shoulder with the tip end extending downwardly through the aperture in the transfer plate; a support structure formed integrally with and depending downwardly from the underside of each transfer plate and engaged with the transfer plate of the tier immediately below in the stacked orientation to prevent supporting contact between vertically adjacent tips, said support structure operative to support the transfer plate on the flat support surface of the pipette tip holder; and, a push plate adapted to overlie each of the transfer plates individually and directly engage the mounting sleeves of the tips held in the array of apertures of the transfer plate and push the tips through the apertures, past and separated completely from the flexible lips and into the tip support openings on the pipette tip holder.