Fundamentals
Liquid class optimization: a beginner's guide
What it actually means to optimize a liquid class, why defaults are only a starting point, and the precision-then-trueness loop that turns a guess into a trustworthy transfer.
Fundamentals
The core ideas behind liquid handling and liquid classes, explained from the ground up for anyone new to automated pipetting.
- Fundamentals
When to automate: manual, semi-automated, or full automation
More automation is not always the answer. A practical way to weigh sample count, throughput, reproducibility, dead volume, labor, and safety before you commit.
- Fundamentals
AI in the automated lab: why liquid classes are the ground truth
AI can draft a protocol from a sentence, but it cannot invent how a liquid behaves in a tip. Why validated, machine-readable liquid classes keep automated intelligence honest.
- Fundamentals
Choosing a starting liquid class: liquid families and their synonyms
The fastest new class starts from an existing one for a similar liquid. How to group liquids into families and pick the closest predefined class to adapt.
- Fundamentals
Accuracy vs precision in pipetting, and which parameters fix each
A biased class and a noisy class fail in different ways and call for different fixes. How to tell accuracy from precision and map each to specific liquid-class settings.
- Fundamentals
The physics behind a liquid class: the properties that decide your parameters
Viscosity, density, surface tension, contact angle, vapor pressure and more each push specific liquid-class parameters. A tour of the properties that make a class.
- Fundamentals
Open and shareable liquid handling: reproducibility beyond your own lab
A result no one else can reproduce is a fragile result. Why open protocols and shared, inspectable liquid classes make automated science more reproducible.
- Fundamentals
Air displacement, positive displacement, and the role of system liquid
Disposable tips with an air cushion or fixed tips backed by system liquid: the two fluidic architectures behind liquid handlers, and how each shapes your classes.
- Fundamentals
Well geometry and the meniscus: why one class behaves differently across plates
Flat, round, V, and conical wells hold liquid differently. The same class can miss when the well shape changes the surface, the depth, and the dead volume.
- Fundamentals
Liquid class principles: mechanisms, liquid types, and dispense functions
A working mental model for liquid classes: the transfer mechanism you are on, the three liquid types, and the wet, free, and mix dispenses that shape every parameter.
- Fundamentals
Reading the parameters: a vendor-neutral liquid-class glossary
Flow rate, air transport volume, blowout, swap speed, settling time and more, decoded, with the names each vendor uses so a class reads the same everywhere.
- Fundamentals
Porting a method across vendors: what a liquid class carries
Moving a protocol between Opentrons, Hamilton, and Tecan is rarely copy-and-paste. Which parts of a liquid class translate, which must be re-tuned, and how to plan the move.
- Fundamentals
What is a liquid class, and why it decides your pipetting accuracy
A liquid class is the parameter set that tells an automated liquid handler how to aspirate and dispense a specific liquid. Here is what lives inside one and why it matters.