A new adaptor kit enables the Ziath Mohawk tube selector to quickly and easily pick and reformat tubes from Azenta Life Sciences Acoustix racks used by the latest generation of Labcyte Echo acoustic liquid dispensers.

Acoustix is a small sample tube with a screw cap which has been widely adopted for storage of novel compounds in solution held in compound storage facilities. However, many automated tube selectors struggle to effectively handle Acoustix tubes because of their small size and that they are locked into racks that are suspended upside down in the Labcyte Echo acoustic dispenser.

The Acoustix adaptor for Mohawk reduces the effective height of the Mohawk tube selector lid by introducing a clear acrylic plate at a lower height which easily prevents Acoustix tubes from exiting the inverted rack. This both simplifies and improves the speed of Acoustix tube picking on the Mohawk. In addition, as Acoustix tubes “lock” into their racks, Ziath developed a “release plate” that can quickly and easily unlock all ninety-six tubes in a rack, ready for picking. Using a new Acoustix software plug-in, in combination with the new adapter and release plate, fast and easy single tube cherry-picking and reformatting from Acoustix racks with automatic confirmation of pick list integrity is now possible. 

Designed to enable picking of frozen or thawed sample tubes from 96-position racks, the Mohawk semi-automated has been designed to work out of the box and needs no set up or calibration. Instrument control is through the new user-friendly software which provides an intuitive interface for effortless operation. Tubes can be picked from a single rack, or a picklist can be set up to select tubes across multiple racks. Pick list operations are normally started from reading the 1D code on a rack placed onto the Mohawk, but manual selection is also possible.