Microlab
®
STAR User Manual
610766/02 Page 33 of 225
The Automated Vacuum Box System consists of a vacuum box, a vacuum controller and the
controlling software. The Vacuum Box is fitted to the deck of the Microlab STAR and is
controlled by the workstation‘s computer. For this integration, a special deck has to be
mounted on the Microlab STAR. The vacuum box accommodates a wide variety of 96-well
filter and collection plates and is automated, so that the filter plate can be transported from a
waste/conditioning chamber to an elution chamber. The vacuum box is compact and a
maximum of two can be used in parallel on the Microlab STAR deck with the same controller.
Filter plates can be placed onto or removed from the system by hand or with the help of a
robotic arm (see the section on iSWAP below).
The vacuum controller allows for user-defined vacuum settings. The software integrates
seamlessly with MICROLAB
Vector. Loading is handled with a step in the method.
We now turn to a description of the components of the automated vacuum box system.
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The picture on the left provides a bird’s-eye view of the vacuum box, showing the
conditioning chamber on the right and the elution chamber on the left, which is covered in
this picture by the carriage. A lid gasket in the carriage provides the sealing surface for the
filter plate and a chamber gasket provides the sealing surface for the carriage. In the picture
on the right, the carriage is on the way to the elution chamber.
The picture above shows the ports on the vacuum box. There are three ports into which is
fed the tubing that goes to the vacuum box controller. There is also a push-button switch that
allows the user to manually operate the carriage. An electronic control port is used for power
and communication.
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