I am looking for a liquid handler and is considering a Tecan Fluent. One of my protocols involve hit-picking/normalization over 4 different MTP´s. I would like to load a work-list (CSV-file) and the instrument goes to the wells and aspirates the individual volumes eg Channel 1 aspirates 12ul, Channel 2 aspirates 24ul, Channel 3 aspirates 8ul and so on. For throughput reasons I would like all of the channels to do this simultaneously (send all channels down and start aspirating the samples). Is this possible or will there be a delay between the individual channels?
Yes, they have two kinds of normalization smart commands and there are 3 ways to implement it.
Or you can custom build it from scratch if you love making simple algorithms for work lists.
If your CSV is sequential and the labware is standard, all 8 channels will pipette at the same time.
It’s convenient.
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There’s also the Transfer Individual Volumes command which reads volume information from a .CSV file.
Yeah, The In-Situ Normalization & Normalization Calculation generate the CSV and requires TIV to do the actual pipetting.
Hi and thanks for the replies guys. I understand that the actual programming is easy and straight forward but are the channels actually going down at the same time with no delay between the aspirations?
Best regards
T
Yes on the Tecan all the channels will go down at the same time.
For the delay between aspirations, this is hard to know, each arm operates as it’s own. Technically they should all aspirate at the same time, and finish at the same time but there’s always going to be a small margin of error. The CV’s on a Tecan are pretty low depending on the volume you are aspirating.
Out of curiosity why are you concerned about the delay in aspirations?
Hi and thanks for the great feedback 
. The reason why is the process time. If it is a delay the process takes a lot longer (depending on the number of samples). Another thing related to hit picking - Can the channels spread unevenly and what would the maximum distance between the channels be? This could also increase the process time (if there are limitations).
//T
Ah, I totally missed that.
I haven’t actually used In-Situ Normalization. We have system where the LIMS does the calculations and spits out volumes file. That file is what is used in the TIV command.
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Yes the channels on a tecan can spread along the y axis, so if you had a carrier with 3 plates then the channels can spread. It can still aspirate from different source plates across the x axis but it will be one channel at a time.
Adding my experience here. I have a protocol I ran earlier this week that aspirated 1.2uL from 120 wells across 2 - 384well plates (situated front-to-back along the Y-axis). These 120 samples were pooled equally, 20 samples each, into 5 glass tubes already containing 1mL of Human Serum Albumin. Not only is 1.2uL aspirated, but using 50uL tips I then add 1.2uL to the HSA and mix 40uL 5 times before dropping the tips and grabbing more samples. Total picking time was less then 10 minutes. All depends on where your samples fall along the plates and if the TECAN FCA channels can simultaneously grab samples from the 8-channels. Just trying to give you an idea on how long something with individual picking could take.
Thanks a million times. Sounds great. The only drawback is if the distance between two wells is above 38mm - I guess the channels cannot spread wider? This should not cause too much trouble I guess…
Best regards
TL
Oh, the channels can spread anywhere from a minimum of 9mm (standard 96-well pitch) to 38mm+. I don’t know the farthest distance, but easily double that.