Small biobanks and biorepositories need to select tubes from cold racks straight from the freezer but cannot afford the huge investment in robotics to fully automatically pick and place tubes from racks. The Mohawk, being small and compact, can simplify picking tubes, up to sixteen in one go, from a 96-position tube rack. By elevating sample tubes in racks using solenoids, the Mohawk enables biobank operators to retrieve the correct tubes and put them in the destination racks quickly and simply. Additionally, because the Mohawk can seamlessly connect with Ziath rack scanners, biobank users can read in a picking list, select the tubes, and verify that the correct tubes are picked. This makes the complete process of finding and selecting the right tubes in your biobank quicker and easier without complexity and cost of full automation.
The Mohawk is a widely proven system for frozen or thawed sample tube picking from 96-position racks. Designed to work out of the box, the Mohawk needs no set up or calibration. Instrument control is through powerful software which provides an intuitive interface for even occasional users. 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.
Other key features of the Mohawk semi-automated tube picker include the ability to generate picklists externally in other software applications or create a template using the Mohawk’s own software. For extra sample tracking and security, the Mohawk can be connected directly to a 2D-barcode scanner for tube confirmation. In this mode it can also generate picklists directly from the tube barcodes. For further traceability, a 1D-scanner for reading the rack barcode is included as standard.
The compact size, intuitive software, and ability to integrate make the Mohawk a valuable asset for smaller biobanks and biorepositories to reliably and quickly pick and handle thawed or frozen tubes in SLAS standard format racks.
For watch a short video of the Mohawk in operation, please visit http://ziath.com/index.php/products/tube-devices/mohawk, For further information contact Ziath on +1- 858-880-6920 / +44-1223-855021 / info@ziath.com.
About the Author
Ziath Ltd specialises in instrumentation control and information management in both the academic and the pharmaceutical/biotech industry sectors with a specialisation in the application of laboratory automation. We focus on managing large sample libraries in biobanking, biotech, public health and compound management using 2D data matrix bar-coded tubes. Ziath produce both rack readers and tube pickers for 2D tubes in racks.
We are world leader in 2D-barcoded tube and rack scanners, with a large range of CMOS-camera based scanners than any other manufacturer. We design, build and maintain all our own scanners and picking devices in our Cambridge UK facility. We support our customers with free applications advice, after-sales support and upgrades to their scanners as well as a comprehensive five-year parts and three-year labour warranty.
