ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,345,726, issued on July 1, was assigned to SHIMADZU Corp. (Kyoto, Japan).
"Plate changer" was invented by Takaaki Fujita (Kyoto, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plate changer that supplies a plate storing a sample to an autosampler included in an analyzer includes a storage that stores the plate, and a plate transporter that transports the plate by holding the plate, the plate transporter receiving the plate from a first plate changer provided at one side of the plate changer and also transferring the plate received from the first plate changer to a second plate changer or the autosampler provided at another side of the plate chang...