Capit-All can simultaneously unscrew and recap 96 tubes held in standard 96-way tube racks, saving valuable time with this labour-intensive task
The Automation Partnership (TAP) has premiered Capit-All, its new system for automatically removing and replacing screw-caps from microtubes, at the European Laboratory Robotics Group (Elrig) and Society of Biomolecular Screening (SBS) Meeting in the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, UK.
Each cap is replaced concurrently and individually tightened to an excellent seal, avoiding the risk of putting the wrong lid back on a tube and eliminating a source of cross-contamination.
Capit-All can process common tube types including Nunc's CryoBank and Bank-It cryotubes, Micronic's Tracker and TraXis tubes and Matrix's TrackMate range.
Since the system uses an SBS standard rack format, the rack can be transferred to most commercial liquid handlers, making it easy to add Capit-All into an automation workflow.
With a small footprint, Capit-All can fit on any bench or in laboratory or microbiological safety cabinets and is light enough to be portable, making it ideal for a variety of biostorage situations.
Stephen Guy, technology group manager at TAP, explained: "Screw-cap microtubes are becoming the tube of choice for many research and bioprocessing applications due to the high level of integrity they can provide for valuable samples and their compatibility with large-scale biobank storage.
"However, it becomes difficult and labour intensive to manually handle large numbers of this tube type when they are held in 96-way racks.
"This is why we're delighted to introduce an excellent solution to this problem with our automated Capit-All system, and are looking forward to discussing how Capit-All's time saving features and performance capabilities will benefit scientists facing this daily challenge."
