Copan Diagnostics has announced that it will launch a new addition to its Walk-Away Specimen Processor, or WASP, and to its line of automation.
WASP will now have an optional automatic Gram slide-preparation module.
Just as Copan's WASP has automated planting and streaking tasks, the Gram Slideprep will allow clinical microbiology laboratories to automate the preparation work associated with Gram-stains.
This latest application is said to be an example of how modular the WASP instrument is, allowing new tasks, such as the Gram Slideprep, to be added and giving customers the freedom to customise automation for their specific needs.
Copan is able to offer the WASP, with or without certain applications, with new modules as they become available.
The automated Gram Slideprep is designed to prepare a Gram slide after a sample has been inoculated onto culture plates by the WASP.
The instrument will make a smear, with a customisable amount of sample volume, spreading the specimen within a defined area of the slide.
Patient information is then immediately printed onto the slide using an inkjet printer.
Slides will then pass along a conveyor belt, where they are gently air dried until they are ready for unloading and fixing with Methanol or processing by the operator.
The Gram Slideprep completes the entire process of automating specimen processing.
The WASP decaps specimen containers, plants and streaks, and the Gram Slideprep performs Gram-slide preparation.
The Gram Slideprep will be unveiled by Copan Diagnostics at the 110th General Meeting for the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego, California, in May.
