To maintain lower CV’s and care for your pin tools, we recommend the VP 110PT-M-Cleaning kit. This kit comes with everything you need to clean and maintain your pin tool. Most problems with liquid transfers is an inadequate cleaning process. This kit includes reservoirs for your DMSO, bleach, water and alcohol baths. There are 2 common setups for cleaning your pins and they are determined by the compounds you are transferring.
Before each day’s Pin Tool use, it is recommended that the pins be cleaned with VP 110A Pin Cleaning Solution, which is designed to clean stainless steel and condition the pins. If the pins become coated with organic material, they can be mechanically cleaned with the VP 425 brush and a detergent. If you have access to an ultrasonic bath, we recommend using MICRO 90 from Cole Parmer, at a 1/100 dilution in the ultrasonic bath. If you use an ultrasonic bath, hold the replicator in the bath without letting the pins touch the bottom of the reservoir. It is not necessary to clean the replicators in an ultrasonic cleaner if you clean the pins with bleach and brush with detergent after each day’s use.
Step-By-Step Transfer and Wash Process
for Robotic Pin ToolsStep | Action | Recommended Product |
---|---|---|
1 | Dip pin tool into the Source Plate 3x to ensure proper coating of the pin. | Customer plate |
2 | Dip pin tool into the Recipient Plate/Petri Dish (agar) 3x to ensure proper mixing and inoculation into the recipient plate. If using a Petri Dish, stamp once, gently as to not pierce the agar. | Customer Plate/Agar |
3 | After the transfer, blot your pins as they will still have liquid attached. This is a very important step, especially for slottted pins. | VP 540DB |
4 | Dip pin tool 3x in 10% bleach. We recommend a 10% bleach solution with distilled water. Use the scrub pad to clean the pins. OR Dip 3x in DMSO(100%) or DMSO (50/50 water). Use the scrub pad to clean the pins. | VP 549H2O-4 (for aqueous based transfers) or VP 549ETOH-4 (for DMSO based transfers) |
5 | Blot pin tool again to remove the majority of the bleach solution as there will be liquid on the pins. | VP 540DB |
6 | Dip pin tool 3x in distilled water to wash. | VP 549H2O-4 |
7 | Blot pin tool to remove the majority of distilled water from the pins. | VP 540DB |
8 | Dip pin tool 3x in alcohol. We recommend always using a Pyrex dish for Alcohol. | VP 549ETOH-4 |
9 | Blot pin tool to remove the majority of alcohol from the pins (if you flame the pins, skip this step), | VP 540DB |
10 | You can dry the pins by air drying, a fan dryer, or flaming the pins. | VP 904A |