Festo provides a complete system
The dispense head VTOE was the first modular complete solution developed by Festo for quickly and accurately dispensing extremely small quantities of liquids. Festo was thus able to offer customers an integrated system for liquid handling, including kinematics, that is based on the functional principle of pressure over liquid.
By using a proportional pressure regulator, such as the VEAB, pressure is built up in a filled reservoir. The liquid is delivered to a dispense head or a media-separated valve via an additional line. By opening and closing the valve (e.g. VYKA or VYKB) the liquid is dispensed via special fluidic push-in fittings (NLFA) using a dispensing needle (VAVN). The pressure and valve opening time can be used to regulate how much liquid is dispensed. The opening times can be easily adjusted, for example with the valve control module VAEM. Thanks to this setup and a suitable handling system, microwell plates in laboratory automation applications can be precisely filled in no time at all.
New application options
The media-separated solenoid valves VYKA and VYKB and the media-separated pneumatic valve VZDB open up completely new applications beyond those in laboratory automation. These include adding flavorings to food products and feeding ink in the printing industry, cleaning cow teats, controlling fluids in dental chairs and inoculating eggs in the incubation process.
Innovative dispensing solutions and much more
The valve control module VAEM is another LifeTech product that offers very diverse application options. It can switch a wide range of solenoid valves and it makes child’s play of parametrizing all holding current reduction values. This makes it very easy for you to configure your own individual dispensing solution, from a single channel to a 12-channel dispense head and valve control module VAEM.
More effective pipetting
The LifeTech development team in Boston, USA, has developed the new dispense head VTOI which is capable of dispensing to eight outlets via a single inlet. Furthermore, the VTOI can also be used for pipetting, i.e. withdrawing liquids from a particular source and dispensing them elsewhere. All in all, this contributes greatly to further accelerating key processes in laboratory automation. The team in Boston is also working on a complete pipetting system as well as decentralized pressure/vacuum generation. Festo is opening up more and more opportunities and new perspectives to manufacturers for making precision liquid handling even more efficient.
Dispense head VTOE: ready-to-install dispensing solution
- Configurable dispensing solution comprising manifold duct plate, media-separated dosing valves and nozzles
- Highly precise
- Typical coefficient of variation (CV): < 1% at 10 to 1000 μl
- Media-separated dosing valve for sensitive and aggressive liquid media
- Good rinsability and small internal volume
Dispense head VTOI: extremely precise
- For dosing a liquid into 8 channels in parallel
- 9 mm grid dimension ideal for microwell plates
- Simple design with side-by-side mounting for increased throughput
- Complete system using just a few components
Valve control module VAEM: easy actuation of valves with holding current reduction
- Ultra-precise control of solenoid valves with a time resolution of 0.2 ms
- Digital interface (RS232 and Ethernet) for configuring and controlling the valves
- Easy to set the calibration factor between the individual channels (opening terms per valve)
- 24 V trigger input for actuating the valve
- Graphical user interface for easy operation and clear visualization
Valves: media-separated for aggressive liquids
Media-separated valves VYKA/VYKB/VZDB: compact and extremely precise
- FDA-listed materials
- Developed to ISO 13485
- Reliable media separation
- For aggressive liquids
- Very easy to clean
- Flexible to use thanks to 3/2 and 2/2 (NC/NO)
- Various nominal widths for dosing, aspirating and for continuous flow applications
Fluidic fittings and dosing nozzles: FDA-listed materials
Fluidic fittings NLFA and dosing nozzles VAVN: easy to install
- Fittings for liquid media, especially suitable in laboratory applications
- Five different fittings for a range of tubing
- Dosing nozzles for dosing media
- Ten different nozzles with optional tapering and chamfer
- Suitable for aggressive liquids
- FDA-listed materials
- Excellent rinsability thanks to connector without dead space
