Value-Added Quality Control - Labcyte Echo 520 User Manual

1.2.8 Value-added quality control

In addition to precise and accurate transfer of fluids, the Echo liquid
handler has an auditing function that can provide quality control of fluid
samples. The Echo liquid handler applies a low-energy sound pulse to the
fluid sample in each well, and the reflected signal is used to calculate the
following:
DMSO-based solutions: fill height and DMSO/water concentration.

 Glycerol-based solutions: percentage of glycerol concentration
(up to 50%).
 Protein crystallography fluids: impedance measurement in
megarayls (unit of acoustic impedance). In approximate values,
solutions at low megarayl values require less energy to transfer.
The data can then be uploaded to a LIMS (Laboratory Information
Management System) for post transfer processing and analysis.
For example, the following figure shows part of the plate survey of samples
in CP buffer. The plate survey was saved to CSV (comma separated values)
file format and opened in Microsoft
Figure 1.6 Example of aqueous fluid thickness data imported into a spreadsheet for analysis.
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Excel .
Introduction 1-11