Rapid Testing
Balancing Cubes
A laboratory/analytical balance is an instrument
used for the accurate weighing of substances or
materials within a scientific environment.
T
he Sartorius Cubis balance with
Pipette Tracker soft ware was
recently installed by Labotec at the
South African National Control Laboratory (NCL) for Biological Products
at the University of the Free State. The
aim of the new system is to make the
performance of calibration-checks of
pipettes more manageable. The NCL
performs testing, evaluation and release
of all batches of vaccines for human use
in SA and is the only vaccine testing
laboratory of the SA Medicines Control
Council accredited to do vaccine testing
for the World Health Organization.
The NCL ensures that SA receives
high quality and safe vaccines, making
it imperative that the pipettes used in
the process are repetitive and accurate.
Marlena Visagie, QA Manager at NCL
explains, “The new Cubis balance and
tracker software system calibrates the
pipettes used for vaccine testing. At
the NCL we have about 50 pipettes
to perform calibration-checks on.
The system currently in-use was time
consuming. This system will allow
us to perform pipetting repetitions
faster and generate electronic reports
automatically. It will also allow for a
quality assurance trail that is stored
electronically.”
These balances are designed for
individual integration into a specific
application and are able to schedule
calibrations, automate data collections during calibration, perform all
calculations and corrections as well as
produce reports. It is suitable for single
and multi-channel pipettes and liquid
dispensers of fixed or variable volumes.
The software in the balances has a
selection of 1100 pipettes. The Cubis
MSU225S - 100DU model, which the
NCL chose allows automatic levelling
and environmental self-adjustments.
This system also meets GLP and ISO
requirements and will enable any
company to meet their accreditation
requirements, and at the same time
allow for custom protocols based on
internal SOPs to be configured, saved
and used at run-time. To ensure that the
staff at NCL were equipped to manage
the system, Labotec also provided on
site training. ⚛
Labotec
Tel: 011-315-5434
Fax: 011- 315-5882
Email: sales@labotec.co.za
LMS Issue 4 | 2014
41