Aurora’s VERSA™ Cap Piercing Workstation is an automated liquid handling workstation designed to perform closed tube sampling and automate sample transfer protocols. Cap piercing (CP), also referred to as closed-tube sampling (CTS), provides numerous user benefits, including improved worker safety, reduced stress, and enhanced test results. The need for automation of sample preparation of biologically hazardous samples poses challenges for many robotic workstations. Aurora’s VERSA™ Cap Piercing system has many benefits, including preserving sample integrity, increasing work-place safety and improving work-flow efficiency, particularly in high-volume labs.
Automating sample preparation on robotic platforms lacking CP abilities requires technicians to manually un-cap and re-cap tubes. This process involves cataloguing caps sequentially and then tracking in reverse to match a cap with a tube after processing. Manually de-capping and re-capping tubes may expose lab technologists to hazardous materials and may compromise test-results due to cross-contamination. By automating sample preparation processes laboratories can minimize human error, increase sample turnaround time and prevent repetitive motion injuries arising from de-capping and re-capping sample containers.
Aurora’s VERSA™ Cap Piercing Workstation provides an automated mechanism for piercing capped source containers (including tubes and vials) and performing sample transfer into a variety of target containers. The underlying versatility of the workstation allows it to perform many generic liquid handling tasks such as serial dilution, plate reformatting and plate replication.