Document Type
Article
Version Deposited
Published Version
Publication Date
10-10-2021
Publication Title
HardwareX
DOI
10.1016/j.ohx.2021.e00220
Abstract
Robotic positioning systems are used in a variety of chemical instruments, primarily for liquid handling purposes, such as autosamplers from vials or well plates. Here, two approaches to the design of open-source autosampler positioning systems for use with 96-well plates are described and compared. The first system, a 3-axis design similar to many low-cost 3D printers that are available on the market, is constructed using an aluminum frame and stepper motors. The other system relies upon a series of 3D printed parts to achieve movement with a series of linker arms based on Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) design principles. Full printer design files, assembly instructions, software, and user directions are included for both samplers. The positioning precision of the 3-axis system is better than the SCARA mechanism due to finer motor control, albeit with a slightly higher cost of materials. Based on the improved precision of this approach, the 3-axis autosampler system was used to demonstrate the generation of a segmented flow droplet stream from adjacent wells within a 96-well plate.
Recommended Citation
Murray, G., Bednarski, S., Hall, M., Foster, S., Jin, S., Davis, J., Xue, W., Constans, E., & Grinias, J. (2021). Comparison of design approaches for low-cost sampling mechanisms in open-source chemical instrumentation. HardwareX 10, October 10 2021, e00220.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Open Access publishing of this article was made possible by the Rowan University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund.