Synbiosis Launch a New Automated aCOLade Manual Colony Counter

Synbiosis, manufacturer of automated micro-biological systems, today introduced aCOLade, a manual colony counter with automatic result recording, for use in microbiology laboratories. The new aCOLade colony counter consists of a compact white light box with a pressure controlled back plate and a pen attached to an integrated digital counter enabling simple operation.

The simple and fast operation is due to an automatic counting mechanism. As microbiologists touch the Petri dish’s lid with the pen to count a colony, a bleeping sound occurs and the count is automatically added and displayed on the digital counter. To record results, aCOLade can be connected to any computer and comes with software which allows scientists to automatically transfer their counts to a spread-sheet. Since the data is instantly recorded, this saves users time and also improves result accuracy by reducing the risk of keying errors occurring.

This flexible system has a well-designed adjustable plate ring that is used to hold plates as small as 50mm diameter and can be easily altered to accommodate 90mm and 120mm diameter plates, making it suitable for a range of counting applications.

To help improve precision, there is a magnifying lens over the light box and the back plate is also gridded. These features enable microbiologists to see small colonies and distinguish between colonies and debris or a bubble in the media, as well as easily keep track of which plate area they have counted.

Martin Smith of Synbiosis commented: “Many microbiologists want an inexpensive manual colony counter that is simple to use, flexible enough to read large and small plates and allows their results to be easily saved. We are delighted at Synbiosis to have responded to these needs with our new aCOLade. Since scientists have the option to integrate their own computer with aCOLade, we’re convinced that it will prove to be an excellent system for cost-conscious microbiologists wanting a straightforward method of counting and recording their colony counts.”