Artel Liquid Handling Service

Improve productivity and quality at the same time when you bring an Artel liquid handling expert into your lab to help with your automated liquid handling workflow.

Our on-site service is customizable – we can quickly measure volume transfers using your liquid handling methods, tips and reservoirs – and depending on the testing parameters, liquid types can be Aqueous, DMSO, PCRMix, SerumSub and more.


Great Service!

-Holly Shen, QPS
Application Area: Bioanalysis



Extremely helpful & knowledgeable

-Lloyd Halsell III
Forensic lab



Documentation is excellent

-Ming Lai Cheng, Assay
setup

Overview

Managing the careful balance between productivity and quality in the lab can be tough, but with the Artel Liquid Handling Service, it doesn’t have to be. Keep your focus on what matters to you—whether it’s personalized genomics, drug discovery, assay development, food safety, forensic testing, or any of the many other areas where liquid handlers are used—and let the experts on the Artel Liquid Handling Service team help with liquid handler method optimizations, volume verifications, method transfers, and more.

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Stay on schedule
Have the Artel team help you perform volume measurements on all your critical liquid handlers to avoid downtime and stay on schedule.
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Save money on expensive service contracts
Knowing that your liquid handlers are performing well can give you the confidence to minimize your purchase of expensive service contracts.
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Keep your workflows moving forwards
By optimizing your volume verification methods, the Artel team can help ensure that your automated liquid handlers dispense the correct volume the first time, removing the need to troubleshoot volume transfer variability when things do not go as planned in your assays.
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Bring your liquid handlers back online faster
Have an Artel specialist perform volume verifications with you for new and newly-serviced instruments to help minimize instrument downtime.
Measure Liquid Volumes
Get more use out of your current liquid handlers
Knowing how your instrument is truly performing can give you the confidence to push the limits on your low-volume transfers and keep older instruments running longer.
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Stay focused on your work
Remove the distractions of maintaining liquid handling quality—methods optimization, volume verifications, etc.—and stay focused on the work that matters most.
How The Service Works
This service is customizable to suit your laboratory’s needs as long as the testing parameters are within the limitations of the MVS system. We work with your laboratory to understand your volume transfer testing parameters and requirements, such as target volumes of interest, tip configuration(s), number of replicates, etc. Our service allows specific target volumes, that are important to your workflows, to be measured in 96-well or 384-well plate formats. Once the test volumes are measured and the results are evaluated with you, where applicable, the Artel service engineer can make recommendations for adjusting liquid class variables for method optimization. The Artel Service provides a means to indiscriminately show volume transfer performance, for nearly all liquid handler makes/models, with volume measurement results that are traceable to the International System of Units (SI) through standards maintained by NIST (USA) and the NPL (UK).
Good data happens when you get an automated liquid handling expert for a day.
With the Artel Liquid Handling Service, you get a liquid handling expert in your lab for a day, a series of days, or on a regular schedule, to help you verify your automated liquid handling methods. After communicating and agreeing on a test plan, the Artel specialist comes with the MVS, and works with you to troubleshoot and/or optimize methods so your lab never has to slow down or deal with unnecessary rework. The Artel specialist operates the MVS and the laboratory personnel operate the liquid handlers under test.
Step 1: Call to schedule a service
When you reach out to the Artel Liquid Handling Service, one of our specialists will discuss and assess your needs before developing a customizable test plan with you for the service visit. Our specialists have experience with the most commonly-used automated liquid handlers that dispense critical volumes, such as:
• Tecan (Freedom Evo, HP D300)
• Labcyte (Echo)
• Hamilton (Star)
• Eppendorf (epMotion)
• Agilent (Bravo)
• Beckman (NX, FX, 3000/4000)
Note that our diverse team has experience with a great many more liquid handlers than appear on this list, so contact us even if you don’t see your liquid handler listed here, and we’ll work with you to develop a testing plan. Once a test plan is in place, the Artel service engineer can work with your lab to schedule the service visit.
Step 2: Artel specialist conducts on-site service
The test plan is critical for creating efficiencies and so that expectations are met by both parties: (a) your Artel specialist will come fully equipped to test, troubleshoot, and verify your volume transfer methods (Artel supplies the QualAssure solutions, plates and volume measurement equipment, the MVS); and (b) the laboratory technician writes methods and operates the liquid handlers under test (your laboratory supplies the required labware, such as tips and reservoirs, that are used in your daily workflow). If the test plan needs to be changed or manipulated during the visit, ad-hoc testing can be performed on-site as needed and when applicable.
Step 3: You receive comprehensive test reports
All testing data, and associated certificates (if applicable), are given to your laboratory during or after the service visit. The reports containing volumetric test results that are traceable to the SI might assist with your compliance to regulatory requirements.

Meet The Team
Services are only as good as the people who provide them, and at Artel, we’ve worked hard to assemble a team of caring and knowledgeable professionals with extensive hands-on experience with a range of automated liquid handlers.
Our team members include metrologists, scientists with expertise in standards and regulatory requirements, and former field application scientists from major automated liquid handler manufacturers. While our team brings together wide-ranging and diverse experiences, they are all united in their dedication to helping customers generate high-quality data.
Keith Albert
Keith is an expert in liquid handling performance management, providing customized services across a wide range of platforms, applications, liquid volumes, and liquid classes. As Senior Applications Scientist, Keith combines his extensive knowledge and experience with rigorous science in his work in liquid handling system performance research, customer education, and assay/method validation.
Dana Campbell
Dana is a professional life sciences application enthusiast, with extensive experience applying liquid handling automation in a variety of laboratories throughout North America. As a field Applications Specialist at Artel, Dana works directly with laboratories to solve complex liquid handling and process issues that are often critical to their productivity and compliance, and to the integrity of their test results
Kaziya Lee
Kaziya is a Laboratory Applications Scientist with nearly a decade of experience as a bench scientist. Kaziya understands the real-world challenges of the lab and applies her extensive scientific knowledge to assist customers in solving liquid handling process and assay issues that critically impact productivity and data integrity. Kaziya is trained and qualified to comply with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and is part of the team that delivers both the Artel Liquid Handling Service and the ISO/IEC 17025 Accredited Calibration Service.
Andre Allard
Andre is an experienced laboratory technician in the medical, research and pharmaceutical industry. As an Applications Specialist, he provides support and service in the Canadian Market, providing solutions to liquid handling challenges, assay optimization, method standardization and regulatory guidance.
Nicholas Enea
Nick is a Laboratory Applications Specialist with hands-on experience in genomics and immunoassay development. Having worked in the molecular diagnostics and instrumentation space, Nick understands the issues involved with taking a regulated product from research to the market and uses this experience to help find meaningful solutions for customers’ liquid handling challenges. He is qualified to comply with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 and is part of the team that delivers both the Artel Liquid Handling Service and the ISO/IEC 17025 Accredited Calibration Service.
Karlton Moore
Karlton is a Laboratory Applications Specialist with over a decade of experience at the bench. He knows first-hand both sides of the molecular diagnostics market, having run many clinical diagnostics tests as a medical technologist as well as being part of a molecular diagnostics instrument product launch team. Along the way he’s been involved in technologist training, liquid handling optimization, and assay development/validation. With all of this experience, Karlton truly understands the demands of clinical and pharmaceutical labs and uses this expertise to help Artel’s service customers with their liquid handling challenges.

Artel Liquid Handling Service

Be confident in your liquid handlers, focus on your science.
Increase productivity and confidence in assay results by removing liquid handling as a source of error in your processes.

We needed an operational qualification for one of our liquid handlers and we chose Artel as the provider to calibrate and qualify our instrument performance. The Artel team was very communicative throughout the service process. They came on-site to perform the ALH Service, utilizing the MVS technology to calibrate our instrumentation. I was impressed by how easy the MVS platform was to setup and get going and how quickly it qualified our liquid handlers.

Jeff Cabello
ArcticDX, Inc.

Questions and Answers

What is the Artel Liquid Handling Service?
The Artel Liquid Handling Service is an on-site verification service. An experienced scientist brings equipment and supplies to troubleshoot, test, and verify your liquid handlers. Someone from your lab will run your liquid handlers with your pre-written methods and together we will ensure your liquid handlers are optimized.
Test at any volume, method, and/or labware to optimize or troubleshoot any automated liquid handler capable of dispensing into a mircrotiter plate.
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What are the advantages of Artel Liquid Handling Service?
Artel Liquid Handling Service is faster than other services, provides you with expert Artel scientists and employs Artel technology – the acknowledged global measurement standard.
Artel technology provides NIST-traceable volume measurements, whereby the volume transfer tests can be directly compared regardless of liquid handler make, model, location, or operator.
Test reports, which include well-by-well and tip-by-tip measured volumes, are supplied during or immediately following the service event. Where applicable or required, summary tables and trending plots can be created. The test reports are available in HTML format and can be opened in Explorer, Excel or other spreadsheet programs. Alternatively, XML-tagged test reports can be fed into your LIMS.
Our mission is to help you meet your quality, productivity and compliance requirements. As the volume measurement experts, our professional, efficient, organized service team will communicate directly with you before, during and after the service event.
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What is included in an Artel Liquid Handling Service visit?
Your service plan will be customized to meet your laboratory’s needs, and can cover such areas as:
  • liquid handler tip configuration(s), target volumes of interest, plate type, number of replicates per tip, etc.
  • evaluating pipetting techniques, methodologies or even different tip types (forward vs. reverse mode air gap usage wet vs. dry dispensing sequential dispense vs. single dispense, etc.)
  • directly comparing multiple liquid handlers under the same test conditions.
  • liquid handler performance for low-volume DMSO transfers.
  • facilitating method transfer from one liquid handler to another.
  • determining the best liquid handler for a specific task.
  • and many others.
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How is liquid handler performance verified/calibrated?
Artel Accredited Calibration Service uses the Artel MVS to measure volumes of solution delivered by the instruments under test.
The MVS employs a dual-dye, ratiometric absorbance-based measurement method for calculating the volume of sample dispensed into a well of a microplate. The results of the verification tests are traceable to national and international standards.
Specially formulated sample solutions containing dyes of known concentration are dispensed into Artel Verification Plates – specialized microplates with dimensionally-characterized wells. Verification Plates are mixed on a plate shaker to ensure homogeneity of samples. Absorbance readings are taken in the plate reader at 520 nm and 730 nm and a summary report containing the calculated dispensed volume for each dispensing tip is created.
Accuracy and precision of the dispensed volumes are measured against user-defined tolerance limits and failing values are flagged in the report. Summary statistics by well, by row, and by column are also contained in the summary report. Results are saved in a secure database and are available for printout or export in HTML or XML format.
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What are the advantages of Artel measurement technology over other volume verification methods?
Artel technology provides analysis of accuracy and precision for each independent dispensing channel simultaneously, which saves labor and liquid handler down-time.
The technology is virtually immune to environmental conditions and provides traceable measurements. The sample solutions are manufactured by Artel to precise tolerances using ISO-acknowledged methods. There is no need to generate standard curves. The technology provides standardized results making it possible to compare instrument performance between makes and models of liquid handlers as well as between locations, i.e., 2 µL dispensed by liquid handler X on Tuesday in Boston can be directly compared to 2 µL dispensed by liquid handler Y on Friday in San Diego. Compared to other methods, more testing events can be conducted in a shorter period of time with standardized, accurate results.
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Can Artel Liquid Handling Service be used to verify any liquid handler?
Yes, Artel can assess, calibrate, verify, optimize and document the performance of virtually any liquid handler that is capable of dispensing into a standard 96- or 384-well microplate.
Will I need to allocate any of my own personnel or labware resources?
A person from your laboratory, who is proficient in the operation of each liquid handler being tested, will be required to work with the Artel specialist during the service visit.
Disposable tips, system fluid, pumps, source reservoirs, and other labware required for the specific liquid handler, must be supplied by your laboratory. Artel provides all testing reagents and microplates required.
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What will I need to purchase?
Artel Liquid Handling Service is available in 8-hour, daily increments. Costs to you include:
The per day charge, plus travel and living costs for the Artel applications specialist, and the time required for your automation-proficient technician to work with the Artel applications specialist for the duration of the service visit. At the conclusion of the service event, Artel will provide a complete summary of the testing which includes summary tables and data in electronic form. Additionally, at your request, we can review the overall testing results with your key stakeholders.
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How many liquid handlers can be tested in one day?
This depends on your lab’s needs, and your specific goals. For instance, your prime concern may be well-characterized, scheduled performance verification for regulatory compliance.
On the other hand, you may be engaged in a complex and critical method transfer that you would like to optimize. With your primary requirement as a framework, the number of liquid handlers that can be processed is then dependent on:
  • the length of time required to execute the liquid handler method for the test solution and diluent buffer additions
  • the number of methods/robots to test
  • the amount of replicate testing events required
  • time required to fix/optimize a method/robot
  • any unexpected events that may affect the testing process.
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Can I schedule Artel to come periodically to verify the performance of my liquid handler(s)?
Yes, Artel Liquid Handling Service can be purchased one day at a time or, alternatively, can be contracted for periodic frequencies (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) to satisfy your liquid handling quality requirements.
What are the specifications for accuracy and precision of the measurements?
The Artel technology performance claims may be viewed here. For a detailed uncertainty budget, please contact Technical Support.
Can an Artel Liquid Handling Service calibrate multichannel pipettes?
Many quality-minded labs use the Artel MVS for calibration of their multichannel pipettes. However, Artel does not offer a service for calibration of these instruments at this time.
Is the measurement technology FDA approved?
The technology is not subject to FDA approval because it is not directly associated with human samples or specimens. However, all measurement results are traceable to national and international standards.
Why is liquid handling quality assurance important?
Superior liquid handling quality assurance leads to superior assay data. Read more about the importance of liquid handling quality assurance.
Does Artel provide liquid handler methods?
No, Artel does not provide liquid handler methods.

Ready to transform your
automated liquid handling process?