Patent ID: 8468900
Filing Date: 2013-06-25
Classification: B01L

Abstract:
1. A method of aligning a multi-channel pipetting head in a manually directed electronic pipetting system, wherein the manually directed electronic pipetting system comprises: a multi-channel pipetting head carried in a movable carriage, the multiple channels in the pipetting head being, arranged in a two-dimensional array of rows and columns; a deck having at least two wellplate nesting receptacles adapted to hold a multi wellplate or reservoir; a. motorized Z-axis drive mechanism for raising and lowering the pipetting head with respect to the deck; a motorized X-axis drive mechanism for moving the pipetting head laterally with respect to the deck; and a control handle mounted such that the multi-channel pipetting head moves in response to force applied to the control handle and the speed of the pipetting head in a given direction is generally proportional to the amount of detected force exerted on the control handle in said given direction; the method of aligning; the multi-channel pipetting head comprising the steps of: exerting force on the control handle in a given direction to move the pipetting head in the given direction in order to move the channels on the pipetting head into approximate alignment with wells in a wellplate set within one of the wellplate nesting receptacles on the deck; and biasing the X-axis position of the pipetting head to a predetermined X-axis position.