Patent ID: 8266973

Claim:
An automatic sampler comprising: a sampling needle for penetrating a septum of a sample container and entering the sample container to suck a sample contained in the sample container through its tip; a drive unit for driving the sampling needle; and a control unit for controlling the operation of the drive unit, the control unit comprising septum penetration means for carrying out at least one cycle including moving the sampling needle down until the tip of the sampling needle penetrates the septum followed by elevating the sampling needle to a position, at which the tip of the sampling needle is pulled out of the septum, without carrying out the suction of the sample through the sampling needle, sample suction means for moving the sampling needle down to allow the tip of the sampling needle to penetrate the septum until the tip of the sampling needle is inserted into the sample contained in the sample container to suck the sample, the sample suction means controlling the sampling needle such that the sampling needle only sucks the sample when inserted into the sample, and sample injection means for pulling the sampling needle out of the septum and then moving the sampling needle to an injection port of an analyzer to inject the sample into an analysis flow path of the analyzer, and the control unit operating the septum penetration means, the sample suction means and the sample injection means in this order, wherein each of the septum penetration means, the sample suction means, and the sample injection means are computer readable instructions processed by the control unit, and wherein the sampling needle is discharged of air prior to the sucking of the sample.