Fully Automate Your Colony Counting with IUL's PLATE HANDLER

IUL´s PLATE HANDLER, is designed to automate colony counting by being used in conjunction with the FLASH & GROW automatic colony counter. As a state of the art, plate handling device that allows automatic colony counting of 240 plates per hour, the PLATE HANDLER offers a hands-free solution for large capacity labs.

Laboratories that use this fully automated device benefit from a true one push button operating device that frees technicians from constant monitoring providing a fast R.O.I. Furthermore, the PLATE HANDLER has a small footprint that occupies a reduced amount of space, fitting even in a regular workbench.

The unit allows flexible loading of various plate types with diverse culture media, colony colors, and opacities. Petri plates are stacked in a carousel that contains up to 80 plates (four columns of 20 dishes). The Petri dishes have a bar code label that is scanned, allowing them to be identified. Barcodes can also be used to give orders to the FLASH & GROW counter regarding what settings to use when counting colonies. If bar codes are not used, the position of the plate in the column and the column itself are used for identification and process selection. This allows for different types of samples to be loaded and processed successfully.

The device's workflow optimizes plate counting time. First, the carrousel's Petri dish columns are fed to the FLASH & GROW automatic colony counter.  In order to avoid condensed water accumulated in the Petri dish to interfere with the readings, the PLATE HANDLER removes plate lids before placing the plates inside the colony counter. Once the picture is taken and the colony counting is performed, the plate's lid is placed again and the plate is returned to its spot. The next plate is then loaded into the colony counter as the Petri plate column elevator rises the plates. All the collected data is recorded in xml or csv files that can be directly fed to a LIM system.

Once an 80 plate carousel has been incubated with its Petri dishes, it can be comfortably loaded into the plate handler where it will be processed in a 20 minute period. The carrousel itself can become an important logistic asset for a microbiology lab. Whenever a particular plate must be found, carrousels allow for rapid location of a Petri dish within the incubating oven.