Patent ID: 8142719

Claim:
A device for the study of biological or chemical samples by means of a reagent liquid supplied via a pipette or cleaning liquid supplied and removed by means of a pipette, said device comprising: an instrument housing with a base plate, a working plate arranged on the base plate horizontally in a position of use, to receive the samples in a sample holder having several cups or wells, a robot manipulator arranged above the working plate in the position to receive the samples, which carries a support arm extending in a horizontal direction above the working plate and a slide which can move along this support arm by means of a horizontal drive, and a system of hollow needles able to move in the vertical direction (Z) on the slide, which carries the pipettes and which can be brought by a first vertical drive into predetermined vertical positions, so that the tips of the hollow needles can be placed in an upper position above and in a lower position within a cup or well of a sample holder, wherein the needle system carries three hollow needles forming the pipettes and essentially parallel to each other at a slight spacing in a support plate, whose upper ends are connected via a supply line to an assigned reservoir container, one of the hollow needles is arranged so that it can move vertically relative to the other hollow needles in the needle system, and it can be raised and lowered by a given value in the vertical direction by a second vertical drive, and the horizontal spacing of the three hollow needles from each other is chosen so small that all three needles can be positioned with their respective tips inside the same cup or well.