Incubators General Information
Description
The incubators contain 18-slot carousels that are belt driven by a stepper motor with rotary encoder feedback and home sensors.
The heat is generated by two heater foils wrapped around the aluminum body and bottom base-plate of the incubator and insulated with foam.
The heaters can provide approximately 140 watts of heat and are precisely controlled by dual thermistors.
A high-speed fan pulls air from the center of the incubator and blows it out across the top of the incubator and down around the sides.
Rotation of the carousel and airflow as well as thermal control maintains temperatures to a small tube-to-tube variation.
The incubator carousel incorporates baffles between the MTUs.
The AMP incubator carousel slots contains magnets to pull beads to the side of the MTU
Multi-tube unit—Container used to process tests in the instrument. An MTU contains five separate reaction tubes. The MTU is moved through the instrument by the linear distributor and includes five tiplets for pipettiing to be used in the mag wash station. tubes for accurate Real Time Fluorometer (RTF) signal measurement.
Three types of incubators can be installed on a Panther System:
- High temperature Incubator (HT)
- Transition Incubator (TRANS)
- Amplification Incubator (AMP)
Incubator Hardware Comparison
There are three UNIQUE incubators in the Panther System.
The comparison table below shows the differences between the three incubators:
| Incubator | Base Plate | Fan | Magnets |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Temp | No holes | 11.8W Sunon | None |
| Transition | No holes | 6.7W Sunon | None |
| Amp | 6 holes for RTFs | 6.7W Sunon | Yes |
Because of these differences, the incubators CANNOT be interchanged.
For example, you cannot use an Amp Incubator in lieu of a High Temp Incubator.
Interfacing Modules
The incubators receive MTUs from the Linear Distributor.
Real Time Fluorometers can be installed on the AMP Incubator for AptimaAutomated Probe Transcription Mediated Amplification. Trade name for amplified NAT infectious disease assays and reagents designed for use with Hologic's instrument platforms. Real Time assays.
Theory/Sequence of Operation
Description
The incubator is equipped with the following control modules:
- Thermal control
- Carousel movement control
See also Panther System Theory of Operation.
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