PerkinElmer Panthera-Puncher 9 User Manual Download Page 14

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Under the plate map selection, a toggle switch lets you select whether to punch only start controls (3 green dots) or all

controls (6 green dots) to the plate prior to patient samples. By default, it is set to punch only the start controls, so that

plate can be packed in case it is not full.
If you know the plate will be full and you want to punch controls before punching patients, you can select the punching

of all 6 controls at the start of the plate. However, if you are not certain that your plate will be filled with patient

samples, choose to punch only start controls before patient samples, this will enable the plate packing after the

punching of patient samples is over. Plate packing moves the controls from the end of the plate to the wells following

the last patient sample.
When punching start controls and the 3-dot Control Toggle switch are selected, the program will not allow sample wells

to be placed before the start controls to remain unpunched.
A plate must have a unique plate barcode, an analyte, and a plate map assigned to it or the instrument will not be able

to punch disks to it.
For the first plate of a given analyte, the instrument will use plate map number 1 for the corresponding analyte. When

that plate is filled with punched disks and you replace it with a new, empty plate of the same analyte, the instrument

will use the next programmed plate map (i.e. 2 in this case). You can override this functionality and change the plate

map. Just press the textbox containing the plate map name and select the desired plate map from the list.
To create a plate map for a one-time use, select the plate by pressing it and go to the

Plate edit

view.

To create a plate map for frequent use, create a plate map in the plate area of the settings for the specific analyte.

For more details on this, refer to

Plate maps

on page 28. The puncher will get the plate maps from Specimen Gate

Laboratory if it is connected to it.
You can disable plates from the

Plates

view by pressing the corresponding ON/OFF toggle switch. All queries for this

plate will be removed until it is enabled again.
If a plate has an analyte that requires a punch size that is not available in the instrument at the time of loading, in

stand-alone mode, the software will display a warning message to inform you that disks for the analytes in question

cannot be punched with the current punch head configuration. When connected to Specimen Gate Laboratory, all

samples with the unavailable disk size will still be displayed on the punch screen, albeit they will be disabled, and you

will not be able to enable them until a punch head of the right size is installed in the instrument.

Note:

When connected to Specimen Gate, there is no warning about the missing punch head when loading plates. The

punch size is included in the sample information from Specimen Gate.

Note:

Plates with frames might experience plate barcode reading failures if the frame bulges from the edge of the

plate and overshadows the barcode

Note:

Using clear plates without a barcode can create issues, since the instrument can read the "empty position"

barcode on the plate tray through the plate and therefore considers this position empty. One way of preventing this

from happening is to have a barcode sticker on the plate, or at least a blank ID sticker.

Unloading the plates from the instrument

When the plates are full, or if for any other reason you need to unload the plates, press

Eject

from the

Plate

view. Be

aware that the worklists are written to the hard drive once the plates are unladed, the plate track has re-entered the

instrument and the barcodes have been read. For Specimen Gate customers, the plates will go from

punching

status

when loaded onto the instrument to

unloaded

punched

measured

when unloaded from the instrument. Plates

will not be considered removed from the instrument until the plate track re-enters the instrument and the barcode for

each plate position has been read.

Note:

For Specimen Gate customers, plates can only be reloaded onto the Panthera-Puncher 9 if their status is

unloaded

punched

The software will create a recovery file for each plate unloaded from the instrument.
Upon unloading, make sure to visually check that all wells in all plates contain the correct amount of disks. A punching

error may happen and remain undetected by the instrument. When unloading under the

Punch/Check

screen,

punching errors can be corrected by choosing

Repunch sample

to repunch a patient or

Clear

to either repunch a

calibrator or control or punch a different sample ID into the well. When unloading under the

Plates

view, there is no

option to repunch.