1. Deerac Fluidics has developed the proprietary spot-onTM technology for the non-contact dispensation of nano and microlitre volumes of a wide range of fluids. At the core of the spot-on™ technology is a pipetting tip which acts as a fast-actuating valve which is connected to a pressure or vacuum source. There is no system liquid within the pipettor – only air, and the sample liquid which is aspirated and dispensed through the tip. The tip consists of a PEEK body in which there is a magnet coated with a chemically inert material. The magnet when resting against the capillary creates a seal and can be used as a valve. This valve is opened by raising the magnet, which creates an opening to the capillary for the flow of the fluid. The magnet is raised by the passage of a current through an electronic coil which surrounds the lower section of the tip body.  The opening time for each aspirate and dispense is determined by the spot-on™ electronic controller from the supplied liquid properties, the required volume and other system parameters. 

 

 

2. The dispense range of a Deerac system is from 0.05µl to 50µl

 

 

 

 

3.  

Dispense Volume	Dispense Accuracy	Dispense Precision
Above 1µl	± 2%	< 3% CV
At 0.5µl	± 2%	< 5% CV
At 0.05µl	± 2%	< 7% CV

 

 

 

 

4. Dead volume, usually refers to a volume of reagent or fluid which, when used in a liquid handling process, is not “recoverable” and thus lost in the process.

Volume Type	Minimum Amount	Description
Source Volume	Dependent on reservoir type	The volume remaining in a reagent reservoir Fully recoverable
Excess Aspirate Volume	None	Air displacement system has no dilution
Working Volume	3 mL (minimum)	The amount required to wet the valve

 

 

Volume Type	Minimum Amount	Description
Source Volume	2 mL*	The volume remaining in the reagent bottle Fully recoverable
System Volumes
·   Reagent Tubing	1.3 mL	Recoverable by draining tubing back into reagent bottle
·   Dispense Head and Tips	2.8 mL	Recoverable by dispensing reagent into priming trough
Prime Volume	~0.8 mL	Single reagent line reduces prime volume Recoverable

*The source volume can be reduced to ~100 mL by inserting a 15ml Falcon into the bottle.

$ Volumes are lower for the 2 and 4 reagent Latitudes

 

 

 

 

5. Dispense Rate

Well Plate	Equator Series Dispense Rate1	Latitude Dispense Rate1
384-well plate	< 8 sec	< 12 sec
1536-well plate	< 15 sec	< 20 sec

¹Time to fill plate with 0.5 mL of reagent.

 

6. The working volume of the Equator Series is 3ï?­L per channel. The working volume of the Latitude is ~ 4mL for the 1 reagent Latitude. Some additional volume may be required for viscous solutions.

 

 

7. The Latitude can be used as either a stand-alone workstation or integrated with automated systems to increase throughput. It has an active plate positioner which enables a robotic arm or plate stacker to deliver plates to the deck. Once delivered, the dispensing operation can begin. Remote control of the dispensing operation is accomplished using the Automation Control Package to remotely launch the on-board methods or using an external PC with user-programmed serial commands. http://www.deerac.com/_fileupload/downloads/19.7.05/P-155IntegrationOptionsForTheLatitude.pdf

 

 

8. Integration of the Equator Series into automated systems is accomplished by either using the spot station software and associated methods with the Automation Control Package, which provides an easy to use interface to control the Equator and a stacker together or by directly controlling the unit with user-programmed serial commands. In addition several other instruments such as 3rd party liquid handlers, barcode readers and plate readers may also be controlled by the software at the same time to create an integrated workstation.
http://www.deerac.com/_fileupload/downloads/19.7.05/P-156IntegrationOptionsForTheEquator.pdf
 

 

9. Both the Latitude and Equator have been designed to be chemically resistant to a range of commonly used solvents including Ethanol, Isopropanol, DMSO, Acetonitrile and Sodium Hypochlorite.

 

 

10. The Spot-On technology can be used to dispense a wide range of reagents with viscosities from 0.5 to 6 centipoise. As an indication, this includes alcohols and reagents with viscosities up an equivalent of 40% glycerol.

 

 

  

11. The Latitude is a high speed, low-volume reagent dispenser used for high throughput screening applications. It is designed to dispense in the volume range of 50nL to 50µL in a non contact mode, without system liquids and air gaps. The system is useful for high speed, low-volume assays, such as those used in HTS that require multiple reagents. The Latitude is available in versions for 1, 2, or 4 reagent dispensing.

 

12. The Equator GX Series systems are high precision eight and one channel pipetting instruments for genomics applications. They are designed to dispense expensive reagents used in wide range of genomic applications. The Equator GX8 is useful for medium to high throughput applications. The Equator GX1 is a single-channel dispenser and is more suited to medium or low throughput applications.

 

 

13. The Equator HTS is designed for low volume, high-throughput screening applications. The unique liquid handling technology can aspirate a large volume of reagent from a reservoir and then dispenses to a series of plates, minimizing losses due to dead volume and dilution. Reagent can be sourced from a wide variety of reservoirs, including stirred reservoirs designed for cells or beads.

 

 

 

14. The recirculating system from Deerac Fluidics has been designed to continuously refill reservoirs with reagents at all stages of operation of the Equator GX and HTS instruments to allow full walk-away automation. Liquid which has not aspirated from the reservoir is pumped back to the source location, ensuring that the reservoir is filled to the same level at all times. This removes the need for the reservoir to be refilled manually when a large number of plates is being processed or when the Equator is integrated into a HTS environment.   

 

 

 

 

15. To measure precision, we dispense fluorescent dyes and calculate the %CV from data measured in a plate reader. To establish accuracy, we use gravimetric measurements