a4S Sealer

The a4S is a roll-fed heat sealer for microplates, PCR plates, assay plates and storage plates. Azenta positions it for medium-to-high-throughput and fully automated use, and it requires no air supply — so it can sit on a standard lab bench as a standalone unit or drop into a robotic cell without plumbing.

At a glance

Cycle time	Less than 15 seconds
Block uniformity	± 1 °C
Plate heights	3 mm to 60 mm, with minimal adjustment
Air supply	Not required
Revolution control	Seal with temperature and duration, pre-heat, drawer in/out

Specifications

Azenta additionally states variable time and temperature control, with rapid heating and fast start-up.

Supported labware

Azenta states compatibility with a wide range of SBS-footprint plates:

• All PCR plate formats from 96-well to 1536-well
• Assay plates
• Deep-well storage plates
• Microplates

The 3–60 mm plate height range is the wide end of this class — it is what lets the same instrument seal a shallow PCR plate and a deep-well storage plate without being reconfigured for each.

Supported methods

Sealing

• Seal — seal the plate at a given temperature and duration
• Seal at current temperature — seal for a given duration, using the temperature the instrument is already at
• Seal with current params — seal using both the temperature and duration already set

Three variants of the same action, and the choice matters for throughput. Passing temperature on every call means waiting for the block to reach it; sealing at the current temperature avoids that wait when a run of plates shares one setting.

Temperature management

• Set seal params (async) — set temperature and duration without blocking
• Set temperature (async) — start heating to a target without blocking
• Wait for set temperature — block until the instrument reaches the temperature already set

The async-then-wait pattern is the one to build a method around: set the temperature early, do the plate preparation, then wait immediately before the first seal.

Plate access

• Move drawer out — present the drawer so a robot can load or unload
• Move drawer in — close the drawer before sealing

A transfer into this instrument is a sequence, not a single move: drawer out, transfer, drawer in, seal. The drawer will not present itself.

Integration

Prerequisites

• The instrument must be reachable from the Revolution host.
• A seal roll suitable for the labware must be loaded.
• Temperature and duration should be established for your plate and seal combination before a method depends on them.
• The drawer’s travel must be clear of the robot’s approach path, and the robot must not attempt a transfer before the drawer has reached its out position.

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.