Patent ID: 8221300

Claim:
A centrifuge system for positioning a plurality of individual, separate and distinct test tubes in desired, predetermined arrangements, said system comprising in combination: a) a centrifuge mechanism having a rotor provided with at least a pair of arcuate slots, each of which has a predetermined arcuate length and a predetermined width, and an external angular shoulder surrounding the slots, b) test tube holder means for mounting one or more test tubes in side-by-side relation, said holder means having a mounting flange characterized by a predetermined length and width, and being constituted of resilient material capable of flexure between a substantially flat condition and a substantially curved condition, said mounting flange length being significantly longer than its width, and c) a plurality of substantially cylindrical tubes each one having one end mounted to said flange at one side thereof by means of a living hinge, and said tubes being open at each of their opposite ends, said tubes further having their other ends substantially free and unattached and being normally disposed to be coextensive with and spaced from each other and coextensive with but spaced substantially from said flange by a uniform distance, said cylindrical tubes each having a diameter at least as large as the diameter of said test tubes, d) said flange length being less than the respective slot length of the mechanism rotor slots, and said flange thickness being less than the thickness of the respective slot thickness of the mechanism rotor slots, e) the resilience of the mounting flange enabling it to flex and assume the curvature of its respective slot, and the living hinges at the ends of the respective tubes permitting the tubes to flex to a position in the mechanism rotor, spaced from the flange, disposed at an angle with respect thereto, and to remain held captive thereby, such that the tubes flare outwardly radially with respect to the mechanism rotor and lie against the external angular shoulder thereof when the centrifuge is operated.