Hi all,
I want to do this simple integration where a robotic arm would move the plate from the Liconic incubator to the Celigo plate imager, image the plate and move the plate back into the incubator. I have talked with a few integrators and they all said that it is simple integration and gave me a quote ranging from around $100k to $300k. I was expecting it to be less than $50k. Could someone recommend an integrator for this solution?
Thanks.
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I’ll second Tek-matic (currently wearing their T-shirt that I picked up from SLAS) and I’ll also add Retisoft. I got a quote from them last year that was really competitive.
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We start using thermo right now and they are coming at a very resoanble price compare to other companies.
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For Thermo do you have to use Momentum and pay driver/license fees?
@Rishi I would expect that you could by a spinnaker bundle from thermo, for like 70 to 80 K and you could do the integration yourself. It comes with a robot, software and three drivers but they may add a bunch of crap on there that you don’t need like apps time and tables and stuff.
Also check out BioNex Solutions
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You could get close to that price point, excluding hardware, using a GBG basic license. Includes 1 arm, 2x Standard devices, and 1 barcode reader. The only downside to a GBG basic license is that it cannot be scaled in the future, but if the system you described above is what you are looking for. This would be a cost effective and easy to use solution.
Feel free to PM directly and happy to talk you through it privately.
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As @Pete mentioned u can buy basic package and there drivers are interchangeble, so u can change in future with other options if u need,
Thanks Pete. That is what I don’t get. Why do I have to pay 70k for a robot, software and 2 drivers. Robots like the UFactory one are less than 10k. I am in a science department where we support our own automation and I don’t get a significant budget. I would want to get more of such smaller and simple integrations than spending a bunch on one smaller integration.
Thanks @Optimize and @jnecr. I am working with Tekmatic. The amazing thing that they could do is that they could work with your lab bench instead of selling you a new table for your device. This itself decrease the cost. Plus, they are ready to write some code and teach us their programming so that we could finish coding. This is win-win as this will help us learn and get into semi-DIY option.
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@Rishi I would guess that the Spinnaker robot that Thermo has is a bit more expensive than others (like a PF400). I’ve gotten a quote as low as $15k for a PF400, that’s just the robot itself though, there’s still software/driver costs on top of that. These companies have to make money and it’s a pretty low volume business so the markups are pretty high. They also know that science is not cheap so companies will pay the money.
As an example I recently spec’d out a pretty simple workcell and got quotes from 4 companies, they ranged from $700k to $1,000K. But with the throughput we were looking at just our NGS costs per month from the samples from this workcell would be $300k. So fretting over this $300k difference in quotes is almost negligible considering that we’re going to pay $3.6M just to do part of the science on the workcell for a year.
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Thanks for your insight. Yeah, I got a similar system for that range for NGS prep and it is easier to justify.
The devil is in the details. 100K for a fully application programmed collaborative robot with a microplate gripper, in a fully customized environment could actually be a deal; all the little bits start to add up quickly. Sure, there are small robots out there for under 10K that might be able to do the job. But support might be sketchy, and the process design, application programming, and user interface issues add up fast. The robot might be the anchor, but it’s only a small part of the complete system.
it sounds to me like you’re striking up a good relationship with Tekmatic, and they’re working with you to keep costs down. In this busy environment, support like that is hard to find for small projects.
Please - keep us posted on how it goes!
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If you are price sensitive and are only integrating one device have you considered writing the software yourself? Of course it depends on your circumstances, operational needs and skills etc. Liconic uses basic serial commands for instance. A precise arm and some trespa tables are cheap.
What you are paying a vendor for is the time to make the system and the support when it goes wrong, which completely makes sense in a lot of circumstances.
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@Dovod Yes, we have considered integrating it ourselves but that would be a side project and would proceed as the time allows. However, I would like to keep the DIY solutions to the minimum such that it is not tied to the engineer who developed the solution. I agree with you and SamStoney that we do have to consider the support post installation. These small projects are the opportunities at the same time to develop relations with different vendors and assess their support and whole process.
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Hi Derek,
I’ve got a left over arm Precisearm that Im wanting to sync up an integration between our BioMek, cytomat and Platereader. Sounds like the GBG basic license could be the one, what are your thoughts?
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Hi @DaveWigglesworth,
Unfortunately, the basic license is limited to 2 standard devices and an arm. With the Biomek guessing this is a complex device and would need a normal version of GBG. If you PM me an email address, we can work together, or I can connect you with the local sales rep in your area.
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