KingFisher Flex 96

The KingFisher Flex 96 performs magnetic bead-based purification of DNA, RNA and protein. Magnetic rods covered by a disposable tip comb move the beads between plates, rather than liquid moving between vessels — so there is no pipetting and nothing to carry over.

At a glance

Type	Magnetic bead-based purification processor
Samples per run	Up to 96
Revolution control	Run a full protocol; position the carrier by name or number

Specifications

Thermo Fisher publishes the following.

Consumable	96-well plates, with magnetic rods covered by a disposable tip comb
Heads	24-magnet head for volumes up to 5 mL; 96-magnet head for full 96-sample throughput
Run time	A 96-well plate in under 2 hours
Heating	+5 °C above ambient to +115 °C
Depth	23.6 in
Height	15 in

The head fitted decides the volume, not just the sample count: the 24-magnet head takes you to 5 mL, while the 96-magnet head gives full throughput. That is a hardware choice made before a method is written.

Note the heating range starts at +5 °C above ambient — like several instruments in this catalogue, it heats but cannot cool below room temperature.

Supported methods

• Run protocol — run a purification protocol end to end, from a protocol file. A run report (Report.kfrun) is written to a report folder you supply.
• Move to position number — move the carrier to a numbered position (1–8)
• Move to position name — move the carrier to a named position

Positioning by name or number is both supported. Names survive a protocol being re-ordered; numbers do not. Prefer names where your protocols define them.

Integration

Prerequisites

• The instrument must be reachable from the Revolution host.
• The purification protocol the schedule runs must already be defined in Thermo Fisher’s software.
• The magnet head fitted must suit the sample volume the protocol expects.
• Tip combs and plates must be loaded for the protocol — a bead-based run with no tip comb moves nothing.
• Positions referenced by name or number must exist on the instrument.
• Locations picked from or placed to the instrument must be named with a trailing digit giving the position number, e.g. KingFisher1_1, KingFisher1_2.

Device configuration

Property	Purpose
Url	Address of the controller service the Revolution host connects to
Instrument Name	Identifies which physical instrument to connect to
Config File	Vendor client configuration file used to reach the instrument

If you need more of this instrument driven from a schedule, get in touch — the driver is extended on demand.

Operations

These are available from a Run Device Operation step.

Move To Position Name

Rotates the carrier to the position that a location name refers to, instead of to a position number. The position is read from the last character of the name, and the step fails if that character is not a digit.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
position Name	string	—

Move To Position Number

Rotates the carrier to a position given directly as its number. The same rotation happens automatically before a plate is picked from or placed at a position, so this step is only needed to move the carrier by hand.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
position Number	int	—

Raise Error

Makes this device report a failure on demand: the step fails with an error naming the device, and the operator is offered the usual error recovery choices. No command reaches the instrument and nothing moves, and the failure is raised in simulation as well as on a real system, so this is the step to use when rehearsing how a schedule handles a device failure.

Run Protocol

Runs a protocol file on the instrument and holds the step open until the run finishes, writing the run report into the report folder. The file must hold exactly one protocol: the instrument cannot start a protocol file that contains several.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
protocol File Path	string	—
report File Folder	string	—
timeout	TimeSpan	—