ACCESS-CONTROLLED STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20090198347A1
• Filed: 08/06/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Kirzinger, Hannes
• Granted Patent: US 8,068,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/62 in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles

Abstract

The present invention relates to a container for an access-controlled storage system comprising a plurality of compartments, each compartment designed to contain an article, and a control means to control the accessibility of said compartments, wherein said control means is capable of granting access to the article of only one compartment at a time without moving said article, wherein said control means comprises a rotary belt with a cut-out directed by deflection pulleys. Another aspect of the present invention is an access-controlled storage system comprising at least two containers according to the present invention, a housing, and an actuating means capable of actuating the control means of said container, wherein said actuating means grants access only to a defined compartment within said container.

Claims

1. A container for an access-controlled storage system comprising

a plurality of compartments, each compartment having a cross section extent and designed to contain an article, and

a control means to control accessibility to said compartments, wherein said control means is capable of granting access to the article of only one compartment at a time without moving said article and wherein said control means comprises a first rotary belt with a cut-out having a cross section extent and directed by deflection pulleys.

2. The container according to claim 1, wherein said control means is capable of granting access to a compartment containing an article upon request by a user.

3. The container according to claim 1, wherein the cross section extent of said cut-out is aligned with the cross section extent of one of said compartments.

4. The container according to claim 1, wherein the compartments of said container are arranged in a box that is capable of being introduced in said container.

5. The container according to claim 1 further comprising a second rotary belt arranged perpendicular to the first rotary belt.

6. The container according to claim 5 wherein said second rotary belt has a cut-out having a cross section extent, said cut-outs thereby enabling access to said compartments by the cut-outs of both rotary belts with the cross section extent of one of said compartments.

7. The container according to claim 1 wherein said container is a freezer container.

8. An access-controlled storage system comprising

at least two containers according to claim 1,

a housing, and

an actuating means capable of actuating the control means of said containers wherein said actuating means grants access only to a defined compartment within said containers.

9. The access-controlled storage system according to claim 8 wherein said actuating means comprises a freewheel clutch and wherein said freewheel clutch enables the positioning of the control means of said containers in one direction of motion and the release or locking of the containers in the other direction of motion.

10. The access-controlled storage system according to claim 8 wherein said access-controlled storage system is an access-controlled freezer system.

11. A method for controlling access to a storage system comprising

formulating a request for an article within a container comprising an access-controlled storage system according to claim 8,

adjusting the control means accordingly in order to grant the accessibility only to the compartment containing the requested article,

releasing the container,

extracting the requested article, and

locking the container.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said method is a method for controlling the access to a freezer system.