Dear all,
I recently purchased 3 biomak i7 hybrid robots on a auction. Soon I have to transport them back home. The biomaks are in fully functional state, so i have to park/disassamble?/lock the moving parts.
Any advice, how to do that?
Am I wrong if i think that the weight of one instrument is about 400 Kgs (biomak + mobile workstation)?
Any advice is more than welcome!
I’m not sure what you mean by “mobile workstation”? But a Biomek i7 isn’t 400kg by itself. Probably closer to 150kg? If the mobile workstation means the table, that’s probably another 50kg, but depends a lot of options, etc.
The instruments would generally have some with braces and transport locks when they were first installed but they probably aren’t with the instruments anymore. You’ll have to do your best to keep the arms/heads from moving in transport. I’ve always used tape, but that was only for moving within a building, not putting on a truck and moving down the road. I’m not sure what other option you’ll have unless you want to buy some foam that you can cut to fit exactly once you get on site with the instruments…
Are you in Europe? There are companies that can help you with the move and they’ll generally be insured if something happens during transport.
Thank you!
In the service manual states: “Risk of personal injury. The i5 Mobile Workstation weighs over 102 Kg (225 lbs). The i7 Workstation weighs over 136 Kg (300 lbs). Do not attempt to lift the mobile
workstation without mechanical assistance or the help of at least seven other
people.” It is written in the section which deals with the “Manually Removing The Mobile Workstation From The Pallet.”. For what i see it is the table on which the biomek i7 resides.
For the i7 part the site preparation document states that “Weight — i7 Base Unit Hybrid 260 kg (573 lbs”
I am kind of lost with these biomeks. Obviously it is equipped with a lot os ALPs, shaking, cooling, washing devices+ an ABI automatic PCR which will add some weight, but still not enough to add up to 260 kg…..
What am I missing?
Eh, I could see 260kg with everything installed and an enclosure like they say. I haven’t moved anything since a Biomek FX and I doubt the Biomek i7 is lighter than an FX. I’d put the FX around 250lb. We could move those around with just two people but they were all you wanted. The i7 is larger in every dimension as far as I know. I’d for sure want three strong people with an i7, but the real problems is lift points. If possible I’d use a rigging company, which for this will really just be strong people whose job is to move things around.
Are the instruments currently in a warehouse or in a lab? If they are in a lab you may be required to use a packing/rigging company that the auction company sets up. They’re usually pricey, but that can simplify the situation. Were you planning on purchasing crates for the instruments? What’s you plan for getting them in a truck? Hopefully there is a loading dock and you can put the instruments on a pallet/crate and roll them into a box truck using a pallet jack.
great steel with that auction. 1.5 million € equipment for less than 50k - unused. I was thinking about pulling the trigger as well but decided to not go for them (or 1 .. 3 is crazy :D).
I hope you are not moving them outside the EU, are you?
I would love to hear how tricky it is to get them going and how picky Beckman is in squeezing you to make them work. Is the software bound to the instrument or do you plan on using the old PC or will you need to buy the software once again? Buying 3x i7 at once (despite the joke of a price) - I assume you have experience with Biomeks already and are satisfied with them?
N.
I recommend some heavy duty zip ties. They’ll be sturdier than tape, and easier to remove with less chance of damage when you remove it or leaving a sticky residue that could potentially interfere w/ functionality (like on the rails for the pods). Strap down everything that moves and have a Beckman tech come and do the installation for you when you get them on site.
Software is not unique to the machines, so if you are savvy, you can clone the hard drive of that workstation onto other computers if you need more copies Biomek Software.
I agree it was a nice catch, although just I wanted 2 of them… anyway, it is as it is, i am going to use the third one for testing, method developement for now.
Yes they will stay in EU. I have absolutely no experience with biomeks, right now I am using 4 OT2s in my lab, hopefully it wont be more challenging than writing protocols from scratch in python.
Regarding the biomek software, I hope that the original installation media is still around the biomeks (no information about the softwares installed), otherwise i will need to clone one of the hard drives of the biomeks. I managed to download a service manual for i7, so I wont request any assitance as long as i can handle the things by myself.
Thanks for the advice, most probably i will do as you suggested.
Regarding the software, isnt the original installation media shipped with the i7?
Congratulations on the purchase - that is quite the bargain!
As has already been mentioned on this thread, you will struggle to secure the pods without the locking components. You could ask Beckman to secure them for you - I would imagine that securing the three pods would be less than a day’s work.
The software comes preloaded on the PCs, no physical media. However, the installer files should also be on there so if you are missing any PCs you can transfer the software.
With regards the workstations - they are at least on wheels!
I would consider reaching out to your local Beckman Specialist - they will be able to help you work out what you have purchased, what (if anything) you might need and how best to learn the software.
Thank you for the advice.
Regarding asking Beckman for securing the pods it is not so simple since the local Beckman pepole (where the items are located) are not allowed to offer services for a foreign company (our company), and our local Beckman pepople are not allowed to work abroad….
Anyway unmounting the 96 head (which is quite heavy), removing the PCR and removing any loosely attached accessory, then seuring the rest with zip tape will do the job… at least I hope….
If not, I will offer on this forum a lot of spare parts for free…. 
I would definitely remove all accessories from the deck. It should be fairly easy to do that and at the very least make the instruments a bit lighter. 
Depending on how far the instruments have to travel securing the pods with zip ties should be OK. Remember that the actual transport supports are meant to secure the instruments to handle quite a bit of abuse. If you’re going to be transporting the instruments yourself you can be quite a bit more careful than a third party freight company would have been.
