The Ultravap Mistral from Porvair Sciences is designed to remove the traditional laboratory ‘bottleneck’ of solvent evaporation from microplates.
It is our most sophisticated automation-friendly model yet, giving significant throughput advantages to laboratories looking to optimise microplate sample preparation. Faster than centrifugal evaporation for single plates, significant increases in sample throughput are achieved through advanced evaporator head technology and an innovative manifold design, which directly injects heated nitrogen into each individual well of the microplate simultaneously. Installation requires only connection to a gas supply and mains electricity. Safety of operation is ensured as this CE-marked compact unit fits into all fume cupboards and boasts full integral fume management within the unit.
The UltraVap Mistral may be operated with a supply of clean, dry compressed air in place of nitrogen, if the chemistry allows. An in-line gas filter must be used in this case. The new Ultravap Mistral is the latest fully robotcompatible nitrogen blow-down evaporator, suitable for integration adjacent to several leading laboratory liquid handling robots. Designed with the demands of linear robots very much in mind, the Ultravap Mistral offers a plate shuttle which can serve and retrieve plates from the deck of Perkin Elmer, Tecan, Hamilton and Beckman liquid handlers. The colour touch-screen controlled dry down station accepts 24-, 48-, 96- or 384-well plates and comes complete with clear safety side screens and integral fume management leading to a 4 inch duct adaptor.
We recently supplied an automation friendly Porvair Ultravap Mistral to a large Pharmaceutical company in France to integrate to their liquid handling system. The process is always the same:
- evaporation is performed by cycle of 20 minutes (max temp and nitrogen flow)
- after each cycle, the level of liquid is checked by the robot and the needle depth is automatically modified to be about 1cm above the liquid
Having the system fully integrated makes the whole process much simpler and efficient, allowing the scientists to carry out other important work.
Haakon C Howard, Director, Wildcat Laboratory Solutions
Flexible programming
The Ultravap Mistral has been designed to allow robots with standard gripper arms to place and remove microplates directly onto the shuttle. In comparison with previous models, the Ultravap Mistral has a 10% smaller footprint, allowing better access and saving valuable bench space.
The evaporation table is able to rise under the control of a stepper motor as the drying process proceeds. This can be programmed at a suitable rate for each solvent type being evaporated. In addition, gas temperature, pressure and flow rate can all be programmed individually and stored in up to thirty multistep programmes on the Ultravap Mistral controller. Each programme allows the table to rise in up to five distinct ramped phases, so that a fast initial drying period can be followed by a gentler final drying phase. The new Ultravap Mistral lends itself to full integration with most robotic liquid handlers, where it is usually located on the right-hand side of the deck. Control commands are sent directly from the robot controller to the Ultravap. These standard commands are listed in the manual, but most robot manufacturers have drivers available to control the Ultravap, making integration a seamless process.
Solvent compatibility
With a choice of 96 straight or 96 spiral needles, plus 24, 48 and 384 straight needles, the sphere of application for With a choice of 96 straight or 96 spiral needles, plus 24, 48 and 384 straight needles, the sphere of application for Ultravap Mistral is huge. Most common chromatography solvents can be evaporated with ease, such as dichloromethane, methanol, acetonitrile and hexane. The nitrogen blow-down method is not, however, suitable for high-boiling point solvents such as DMF, DMSO and water. It is also unable to be used with acids or acid chlorides, as special corrosion-resistant systems are needed for this work. The choice of straight or spiral needles allows the user to choose between faster dry down (spiral) and better final drying in V-well plates (straight). The spirals cause a vortex to form in the solvent, increasing the surface area and thus speeding up the rate of evaporation.
Evaporator System Requirements
Gas flow rate: 28L/min minimum, 80L/min maximum at 6 bar pressure. Can be used with nitrogen or dry compressed air if the chemistry allows. Not suitable for use with strong acids or acid chlorides.
Features
- Fully liquid handling robot compatible dry down station
- Plate shuttle sends/retrieve plates from robot deck
- Adjustable shuttle position and height
- Intuitive graphical colour touch screen display
- Up to 30 stored evaporation programmes
- Up to 5 programmable steps per method
- On board gas management
- Master & multiple slave configuration supported
- Remote control from PC option
- Reversible screen for integration at side of robot
- Built in fume management and duct connector
- Faster evaporation times
- Choice of 384, 96, 48 & 24 well heads
- Small footprint to fit in your hood