Isoplater180 Vista Technologies Streaking Machine

ISOPLATER180 VISTA TECHNOLOGIES STREAKING MACHINE

DAILY MAINTENANCE

Each morning before using the isoplaters, perform the following procedures:

1. Clean aluminum plate guides
2. Lightly sandpaper buildup on loops
3. Swab clean any buildup under loop holders
4. Enter “Done” in the LIS QC program “Daily cleaning” and Daily loop checking. If entering as “Not done”, you will be required to enter a comment to explain.

DAILY QUALITY CONTROL

1. BA streak-sterility check: Four times a day (08:00, 12:00, 16:00 AND 20:00) a sterile BA plate is loaded in each isoplateralong with the regular specimens as a sterility check labeled as follows (preprinted labels are available):

Date, time, Tech initial, and ISOPLATER ID# (M1AUM1-1 OR M1AUM1-2)

Initial the plates and incubate them with the Urine bench plates.They are read and resulted in the LIS QC program by the technologist reading the new urine plates. Sterility or streaking problems are reported immediately to the Senior QA technologist and the planting bench who will follow up with corrective action as needed.

1. Carry-over check: Four times a day (08:00, 12:00, 16:00 AND 20:00) a BA plate is inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 from the stock slant provided by the QC bench. The inoculated plate, followed immediately by a sterile BA plate is loaded in each isoplater to check for carry-over. The plates are labeled as follows (preprinted labels are available):

Date, Tech initial, and ISOPLATER ID# (M1AUM1-1 OR M1AUM1-2)

The pseudo plate is labeled as PSEUDO Set #1 08:00 – 12:00, PSEUDO Set #2 12:00 – 16:00, PSEUDO Set #3 16:00 – 20:00, PSEUDO Set #4 20:00 – 22:00

The sterile BA is labeled as CARRY OVER Set #1 08:00 – 12:00, PSEUDO Set #2 12:00 – 16:00, PSEUDO Set #3 16:00 – 20:00, PSEUDO Set #4 20:00 – 22:00 and Loop check.

Initial the plates and incubate them with the Urine bench plates. They are read and resulted in the LIS QC program by the technologist reading the new plates. Carry-over, sterility or streaking problems are reported immediately to the Senior QA technologist and the planting bench who will follow up with corrective action as needed.

1. Following each carry over check the isoplator loops must be visually inspected

If there are residuals, please clean loops. Initial Loop Check on plate.

OPERATION

1. The main power can be left on except when cleaning or servicing.The switch is located at the left rear of the isoplater.
2. Label plates, keeping the label away from the edge of the plate to avoid interfering with the frosted inoculation mark that is used by the isoplater to locate the start postion.
3. Inoculate the plate over the frosted inoculation mark.
4. Place the petri dishes, media side down, in the Load Carousel (max 20 in each stack).
5. Plates can be added while the machine is running. Be careful as the Load Carousel may move while you are adding plates. Remove finished plates from the Unload Carousel as you are adding new ones to avoid overflow of the Unload Carousel.
6. Push the green POWER button to start the machine. The green power LIGHT willcome on. After a brief delay, the amber READY light will come on
7. Push the white CYCLE ON button. The green CYCLE light will come on and the amber READY light will turn off.
8. The ISOPLATER will now cycle unattended until finished or a problem occurs. Green indicator lights come on when the machine is running.
9. When the Load Carousel finds 2 consecutive empty carousel pockets, the machine will shut down and the amber COMPLETE will come on along with a beep.
10. To manually stop the machine before it has finished, press the CYCLE OFF button. The plate currently being streaked will finish and the machine will pause. Then press the STOP button to turn off the machine.
11. Pressing the STOP button(withoutpressing the CYCLE OFF button) immediately shuts down the machine even if it is streaking a plate. This is normally only used in case of a plate jam. Clear the jam and PRESS the CYCLE ON button to restart or the CYCLE OFF button and then the STOP button to shut down the machine.
12. When removing plates from the ISOPLATER, it is important to check at least one plate from each stack as a quick check on the streaking pattern to detect problems as soon as they occur. Technologists reading the plates should also feedback to the planting bench if there are any problems with streaking.

TROUBLESHOOTING

For detailed instructions for troubleshooting consult:

The ISOPLATER180 OPERATING MANUAL, VISTA TECHNOLOGIES INC.

(May 1, 1996), Sections 6, 7 and 8

UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK/MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY

NOTE: This is a CONTROLLED document. Any documents appearing in paper form that are not stamped in red "MASTER COPY" are not controlled and should be checked against the document (titled as above) on the server prior to use

S:\MICROBIO\Microbiology\New Manual\Live Manual\Quality Manual\Process Control\Microbiology Laboratory Specimen Management Manual\Planting Bench Instrument\ISOPLATER180 VISTA TECHNOLOGIES STREAKING MACHINE.docS:\MICROBIO\Microbiology\New Manual\Live Manual\Quality Manual\Process Control\Microbiology Laboratory Specimen Management Manual\Planting Bench Instrument\ISOPLATER180 VISTA TECHNOLOGIES STREAKING MACHINE.doc