PlateLoc

The Agilent PlateLoc is a roll-fed thermal microplate sealer. Revolution sets the seal time and temperature on each call, so a schedule can seal different labware with different settings without reconfiguring the instrument between plates.

At a glance

Sealing temperature	30 – 200 °C
Cycle time	Approximately 8 seconds per plate
Sealing technology	Thermal, roll fed
Microplate height	Up to 51 mm (2″)
Weight	20 kg
Revolution control	Seal with time and temperature, pre-heat, set seal count, clear error

Specifications

Agilent publishes the following, beyond what’s already in “At a glance” above.

Warm-up time	5 min
Cool-down time	90 min
Dimensions (W × D × H)	21.6 × 39.9 × 58.4 cm
Heat seals	Clear and aluminium seal rolls; pierceable and peelable options
Certification	CE (EU), cCSAus (Canada/USA NRTL), RCM (Australia)

Supported labware

• ANSI/SBS 1-2004 through ANSI/SBS 4-2004 standard microplates
• Thermal-sealing compatible plates with raised sample well rims
• Skirtless and half-skirt PCR plates require the PCR Plate Support

Agilent notes the instrument automatically adjusts for a wide range of microplates and ships with four types of plate stage insert. It also holds up to 10 programmable presets, and has a sleep mode that shuts off the screen and hotplate after a period of inactivity.

The 5 minute warm-up is the figure that affects a schedule: a sealer coming from cold is not ready for the first plate immediately, and Agilent’s ~8 second cycle applies once it is at temperature.

Choosing seal time and temperature

Agilent is explicit that seal time and temperature depend on the microplate and the seal being used, and recommends running optimisation tests to find the right combination — pointing users at their Seal Selection Guide for starting points.

That is why Revolution takes both as parameters rather than storing one profile: the correct values are a property of the labware and consumable, not of the instrument.

Supported methods

Available on both variants:

• Seal — seal the plate, given a sealing time (seconds) and a sealing temperature (°C)
• Await temperature — wait until the instrument reaches a target temperature, bounded by a timeout. Use this to absorb the warm-up before the first plate arrives rather than inside the seal step

Available on PlateLoc only (not on PlateLoc-NT):

• Set temperature (async) — start heating to a target temperature without blocking, so the schedule can do other work while the sealer comes up
• Set seal count — set the seal count
• Clear error — clear an error state on the instrument

The async pair is worth using together on PlateLoc: set temperature early in a method, get on with the plate preparation, then await temperature immediately before the seal. Sealing without either means the first plate may reach a sealer that has not finished heating.

Two device variants

Revolution recognises two forms of this instrument, and they differ in more than seal counting:

• PlateLoc — the standard instrument. Supports all five operations above, including seal count tracking, clearing an error state, and asynchronous pre-heating
• PlateLoc-NT — described by the driver as without seal count tracking. Its device class implements only Seal and Await temperature; Set temperature (async), Set seal count, and Clear error are not available on this variant at all

If your instrument is an NT, expect the consumable roll to be managed by the operator rather than counted by the instrument, and plan warm-up and error recovery without the operations that variant doesn’t implement.

Integration

Revolution talks to the PlateLoc over a serial connection.

Prerequisites

• The instrument must be cabled to the Revolution host and its COM port number known before the device is initialised.
• A seal roll suitable for the labware must be loaded — clear or aluminium, pierceable or peelable as the assay requires.
• Skirtless or half-skirt PCR plates need the PCR Plate Support fitted, and the correct plate stage insert for the labware.
• Seal time and temperature should be determined by optimisation for your plate and seal combination before a method depends on them.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
Com port number	Serial port the instrument is connected on

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