Understanding how lids are handled
A plate is never covered or uncovered by just moving its lid. Instead, lid handling always happens along with plate movement:
Uncover a plate:
The plate (covered) is moved to another location on deck.
Then the lid is moved off the plate to the plate’s “home position” on deck (that is, to the location where the plate was originally allocated).
Cover a plate:
The plate’s lid is moved on the plate (from the plate’s “home position”).
Then the plate (covered) is moved to another location on deck.
In other words, the lifecycle of a lidded plate in Synthace is as follows:
At its home position on deck, plate is always covered.
When moved across the deck (away from its home location), plate may be either covered or uncovered (see below when it’s configurable and when it isn’t). But, when the plate is moved back to its home location, it always gets covered again.
Synthace always moves the plate to a different location, and then moves the lid back to the plate’s original location. This allows lidded plates to be placed in locations that are inaccessible for pipetting, eg. a hotel.
Initially, a lidded plate is lidded. Its lid is removed:
When moved to a device location and, after the device has done its job, the plate is moved back to its original location (and re-lidded) straight away. For example:
To Te-Shuttle (chromatography collection plate defined within
Run Chromatography Stageelement).To a peripheral device, such as a plate reader (with
Run Plate Readerelement) or a plate washer (withRun Plate Washerelement).To Te-VacS (with
Run Filtration Stageelement).Using the
Move PlatesandMove Plates Backelements.
2. When the transferring liquids to/from the lidded plate. This is implemented via moving the plate to a temporary location (“deck reconfiguration”).
Unlike when moving to a device location, plates on temporary locations are not re-lidded immediately.
A de-lidded plate stays on its temporary location, without its lid, until the end of the workflow (unless this plate is moved out from its temporary location early by another plate movement).
⏱️ If you need to immediately re-lid a plate that is on a temporary location, you can initiate plate handling using the Move Plates and Move Plates Back elements. Explicit Moves with Move Plates or Move Plates Back Element
Pipetting from/to a Lidded Plate
When transferring liquids from/to a covered plate, Synthace moves the plate to a temporary location and uncovers it.
That is, now automatic moves to temporary locations (aka “deck reconfigurations”) may happen because of two different reasons:
Plate is located at an inaccessible location on deck (e.g. a hotel).
Plate is covered.
💡 If your workflow pipettes from/to a lidded plate, remember to specify at least one temporary location in Deck Options.
💡 If the plate has been explicitly uncovered with Move Plates element, deck reconfiguration doesn’t happen (because it’s no longer necessary).
💡 Note that deck reconfigurations are lazy.
Once moved to a temporary location, plate stays there (uncovered!) until the end of the workflow (unless kicked out early by another plate). To cover a plate early, use “Move Plates Back” element.
Plate Moves to Devices
Plate also may be uncovered when moved on a device.
For incubators (Incubate element + also Add Incubate And Wash and Run Filtration Stage elements, which can also trigger incubation), one can configure whether to incubate lidded plates covered or uncovered:
💡 The default setting is Covered. It’s the same as in Move Plates element — but remember, this parameter affects lidded plates only!
On other devices, plates are always uncovered:
plate reader (
Run Plate Readerelement)plate washer (
Run Plate Washerelement)Te-VacS (
Run Filtration Stageelement)Te-Shuttle (RoboColumn collection plate defined in
Run Chromatography Stageelement)