APS One New Automated Petri Dish Filler Evaluated at Rennes Hospital

M. GAUDIN - Bacteriology laboratory- Hospital Rennes, France

’10 litres of culture media in just 40 minutes without reloading the carousel!’

’We were pleasantly surprised by the speed and efficiency of the APS One from AES CHEMUNEX. This new automated Petri dish filling system is very reliable and can carry out a complete culture media dispensing cycle without supervision.

The large plate loading capacity makes it ideal and it’s a true walk-away pouring system. Its high-speed filling rate was very useful. The double pump accessory makes this automated filler very practical for large volumes: 10 litres of media in just 40 minutes at 18 ml per plate, without any need to reload the carousel with empty Petri dishes!

Loading the columns of the carousel is simple as the nominal height facilitates the easy stacking of Petri dishes. Another innovative aspect of the APS One is the pouring quality: smooth, level media in the Petri dishes without any ’wave’ effect, even for low volume agar plates. The new distribution system provides outstanding blood agar and chocolate agar plates.

We also appreciated the flexibility of use, clear menus, colour display screen and the fact that it is easy to use. The APS One provides high quality, sterile plates, minimizing the risk of contamination with the machine’s easy to clean, smooth surfaces. The risk of contamination of sterile distributed media is radically reduced because the opening of each plate is limited to 4 seconds per Petri dish when pouring.

The facility to change the distribution volume at any time during opera

tion is also very reassuring and practical.

We also noticed that it was easy to remove the carousel, if required, as there are no screws, but nonetheless it is an effective assembly. Furthermore the shuttle system is very accessible and easily removable allowing free access for thorough cleaning.’

M. GAUDIN - Bacteriology laboratory- CH Rennes, France