Liquid Handling
Why use liquid handling?
You might assume that speed is the biggest advantage when working with a liquid handling system. But in reality, in turns out that a liquid handling system is mostly not faster compared to a technician. So why would you use a liquid handler? The answer depends on the applications you would like to automate with your liquid handler. In many cases accuracy and reproducibility increases when using a liquid handler. Not only will it reduce errors, it also decreases the hands-on time needed to get to the results. While the liquid handler does the liquid handling, the technicians can perform more valuable tasks like data interpretation.
Accessories and Modularity of liquid handling
A liquid handler is customized to your specific needs. These needs are depending on the application and the workflow in the laboratory. The user requirement specifications determine the layout of the liquid handler, and the necessary accessories needed on the deck or the modules to combine with the liquid handler. Accessories can be shakers, heaters, coolers and tube-racks. Modules can be centrifuges, PCR-machines, tip-washers or nano-dispensers. Each and every liquid handler is a unique setup of base platform, accessories and possible modules.
Considerations of liquid handling
Needs and goals
Your needs today may not reflect the goals of the future. Especially when there is no prior liquid handling experience. Upgrading the base platform is hard and expensive. We therefor encourage to look into the future and make an estimation on other applications. While not automating them directly, it may avoid a future investment already.
Preparations
Automating your applications with a liquid handling system, will often have an impact on your entire workflow. It is crucial to look at every detail of your process. To help us understand your workflow, goals and criteria, an applications specialist will support you in every step of the way. This will also help you understand what we can do for you.
Feasibility
The devil is in the details. These details are the result of years of perfecting the manual application. A slight swirl of a tube, a little angle while pipetting that buffer. These manual actions cannot easily be translated to an automated process. Our advice is to invest a bit more time in the design of the automation by performing a feasibility experiment. We can help you design the experiment and discover the bottlenecks in your automation prior to making an investment in liquid handling.
Acceptance criteria
Thinking about what makes the project a success in an early stage will help in reaching that end goal. To discuss the criteria that determine success also helps us to design the liquid handling system. To make sure we deliver what you need, we summarize these criteria and design experiments that will give you those results needed to show the success of the project.
Service and Support
An investment as large as needed for the purchase of a liquid handling system needs to be maintained properly. After all, when buying a car, maintenance is a big part of the prolonged operation of the vehicle. To make sure your system lasts as long as possible, we can offer the proper service level. This is depending on the daily use and the complexity of the application. The preventive maintenance is performed by a certified engineer. As the liquid handling system is customized, so can the maintenance subscription be customized.
