BD PrepMate Automated Accessory - BD Prepmate Operating Instructions

BD PrepMate™ Instrument User’s Manual
18
9 Clean the specimen rack after each use to prevent cross-contamination. See System
Maintenance for the specimen rack cleaning procedure.
CAUTION
After the specimen sample has been layered onto the density
rea
gent in the tube, samples should be centrifuged within
30 minutes to obtain optimum process results.
CAUTION
To maintain chain of custody, take care to properly orient the
labe
led, centrifuge tubes and specimen vials when loading the BD
PrepMate™ specimen rack and when transferring the centrifuge
tubes to centrifuge racks.
5.2 BD PrepMate™ operating instructions
1 Make sure the instrument is connected to an AC power source and the side panel power switch
is in the
On position. When the power is first turned on, the touchscreen panel displays the
message
INITIALIZING . After approximately 15 seconds, the message READY TO HOME vX.X
PRESS HOME
is displayed. 
Press the HOME key to complete the initialization process and move all the motors to their start
positions.
NOTE
This operation is only performed during initial power up of the
in
strument and is not repeated if the power remains on during
regular operation.
After the initialization sequence is complete, the instrument displays the message PREPMATE
READY, (v X.X) LOAD SPECIMEN RACK
( X.X indicates the current software version).
2 Make sure the vial hold-down door is in the vertical, latched position.
3 Place a prepared specimen rack into the instrument’s tray. See Loading/Unloading the
specimen rack
for instructions on loading the specimen rack. Slide the specimen rack in from
the front until the tray latch at the front left corner of the tray engages (See
Figure 1 ).
4 If processing fewer than three rows, press DEC to decrease the number of specimen rows to the
correct setting before pressing
START . The number of rows to be processed appears in
parentheses as part of the
PRESS START message. When DEC or INC is pressed, the display
is updated accordingly. If any problems occur, follow the instructions that appear on the display.