Hello everyone, I have an aliquot automation project. In short, the goal is to aliquot approximately 800 1.1 mL aliquots into Nunc tubes under sterile conditions using an automatic capper/decapper.
My first choice was a small liquid handler (Hamilton ML Prep; Beckman i5, Tecan Veya, etc.) with a capper/decapper. But the price will quickly become very high!
What do you think of the Sarsdedt IVARO FD or the Scinomix VX2?
These aren’t liquid handlers, but they seem to meet the needs of simple aliquoting.
If you have other ideas, I’m interested.
You have to put the same sample into 800 1.1mL aliquots? If I’m understanding that correctly I’d get a Multidrop Combi or something. Although, 800 aliquots isn’t that many, you could have those knocked out in an hour with a hand pipette. Unless this is a regular thing…
Thank you for your reply.
Indeed, it’s a very regular operation.
However, if I’m not mistaken, does a Multidrop Combi only dispense into microplates? In my case, we need to aliquot 800 Nunc tubes with 1.1 ml.
Besides the time it takes to aliquot all the tubes, there’s also the handling of the tubes. That’s why I’m leaning toward a solution with an automatic capper/decapper.
Yeah, I’d just buy a separate automated capper/decapper and throw it in a BSC. A Multidrop can dispense to anything that is an SBS footprint up to a certain height. What exact part number Nunc tubes are you using? I’m not familiar with tubes that can be filled with 1.1mL, but there’s a lot of different tubes out there.
The advantage is that I don’t have to use any specific tubes. So I adapt to whatever is compatible.
I didn’t know a multidrop could dispense into tubes.
Thank you very much for this information, so I’ll look into this possibility.
There aren’t many automation compatible tubes, 96-tube format tubes that will hold 1.1mL working volume. Let me know if you have a part number in mind and I can see if my Multidrop will be able to dispense into something that tall.
The disadvantage of a standard Tecan/Hamilton is that most of them are limited to <1mL dispenses. So if you really need 1.1mL that will be two aspirate/dispense commands to fill your tube which will slow down the process considerably. The Multidrop is definitely going to be one of the fastest ways to accomplish this task, even if it isn’t the most automated.