PreciseFlex 400/300 Sample Handler

The PreciseFlex 400/300 are autosamplers developed specifically for benchtop applications where price, ease-of-use, space requirements and safety are critical. The controllers, harnesses and power supplies are embedded within the mechanisms' structures. Combined with their space saving design, the PreciseFlex's are able to service many stations in an extremely small workcell. They have been adopted by nearly all of the major life science/laboratory automation integrators as their robots of choice and have been integrated into several life science OEM products.

These products are available in a four axis configuration with a servo gripper for handling laboratory plates stored in stacks and hotels (PF400) or in a three axis configuration with a servo tube gripper for handling cylindrically shaped samples from a sample rack (PF300). These robots are also available with a linear rail to service multiple stations. Their servo grippers permit these robots to pick up a wide variety of different size samples without using expensive and complicated tool changers. In addition, with servo motors on all of the axes including the gripper, the PF400/300 provide facilities for collision/drop detection and squeeze force control not found in other autosamplers.

The PF400/300 sample handlers include safety features that disable motor power when a minimal, unexpected force is encountered, thus allowing these robots to operate without safety shields in benchtop applications. Even at full speed, their inherently safe design limits forces to meet ISO collaborative robot standards making these mechanisms safe to use even with people or delicate equipment inside the active cell.

The PF400/300 feature a powerful embedded Guidance Motion Controller. This controller offers unique free mode teaching aids and excellent capabilities for automatically generating elegant and reliable motion sequences. It permits you to program smooth straight line and arbitrarily complex paths by simply moving the sample handler by hand to start and end positions and letting the controller handle the rest. Combined with the collaborative nature of these mechanisms, the PF400/300 offer unique features such as compliant placement, which is an auto centering aid to reduce failures due to fixture or sample variations, and automatic sample Z-height detection.