My team is currently using a Biomek FXp from quite a few years ago that is reliable and easily serviced by our in house service team. We were recenty green lit to look into newer options for lab automation and the first machine on our list is our FXp, it’s definitely our oldest machine. Does anyone know how the FXp stacks up against the more modern i5/i7 units from a reliability and serviceability standpoint? On paper the i5/i7 look great but I’m hesitant to purchase without getting a few anecdotes from users/engineers/techs that use them. Thanks in advance!
My Beckman service engineer told me that there’s much less service needed for the i7 compared to our FXP. Since a lot of the motors are linear motors in the new model, they have close to 0 maintenance. In my opinion, the only downside in the i5/i7 is, that Beckman did not replace the syringes with an updated version. The tubing and the liquid in the system have always been causing me issues.
best
Dominik
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We have several i7s and I’ve used the i5 in the past, they are extremely similar machines just that the i5 is slightly smaller and doesn’t have another POD, while the i7 can have 2. This is excluding any customisations you may make to either as well.
That being said, my experience with the i5/i7s has been very good. I have never used the FXP, however.
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I can confirm the low maintenance - PM from an engineer took all of 2 hours but I’m not sure I’d count that as a plus.
My instrument is a workhorse and does exactly what I need it to, but I have some pet peeves about tip pickup pressure and 8-span mandrel alignment becoming “sawtooth” pattern. I’m not sure if the service involves an extensive random move test or tip alignment, but these two things are features I’m looking to add to my instrument independently to ensure functionality. 96ch pod is a beast and I’ve had no issues.
Tubing is “Low Volume” which I personally don’t like when in use with 1mL syringes but I haven’t seen any issues yet. If you have any specific concerns I’d be happy to provide my $0.02 if it helps.
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We have both FXPs and i7s in our machine park. Both have been working reliably for the most part. Big advantage of the i-Series is the additional gripper, such that tips can stay on the MCA while plates are being transported. However, we have some trouble to transfer processes where tips are unloaded/reloaded several hundred times from our FXPs to the i-Series. The tip pickup/drop mechanism on the i-Series is less reliable than on the FXPs… so if you also have processes that require repeated loading/unloading of tips on the MCA I would be cautious…
Best Greg
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