Terminology

Carrier

The carrier holds the plate through the conveyors of HPTLC PRO Modules.

Consumable

Consumables are products that consumers use recurrently, i.e., items which “get used up” by the process of using them or discarded. Therefore they do not fall under the regular warranty terms. HPTLC PRO Modules operate with a set of consumables such as bottle contents and rack contents

  • visionCATS documents consumables for all CAMAG devices.

  • visionCATS manages and check consumables for HPTLC PRO Modules only.

Conveyor

The transport unit in the front part of the HPTLC PRO Module:

  • on which carrier insertions are performed from the left (manual loading position)

  • holds the carriers and moves them to the right or the left

  • moves a carrier to the feeding position

  • performs the carrier identification once it was transported in the feeding position

  • transports the carrier either to the right of each individual Module or System or to the manual unloading position

Conveyor Manager

The software component belonging to the visionCATS Server which:

  • organizes HPTLC PRO Modules in a HPTLC PRO SYSTEM

  • trigger carrier to manual loading/ unloading position

  • organizes and computes the sequence of the runs based on the analyses to be processed at any given time on a HPTLC PRO System

Feeder

The component within each HPTLC PRO Module, which moves the carrier between the feeding position on the conveyor (front), the park position, reference position and the processing position in each module (rear).

Feeding position

This refers to the position in the front of the conveyor of each module, where the feeder fetches the carrier to feed it into the rear of each module or unload it back to the conveyor.

HPTLC PRO Administrator

New visionCATS user role which can setup HPTLC PRO SYSTEM in the HPTLC PRO SYSTEM Configuration view.

HPTLC PRO Instrument Service

HPTLC Instruments communicate with visionCATS through the HPTLC Instrument Service whereas HPTLC PRO Modules communicate with visionCATS through the new HPTLC PRO Instrument Service. The HPTLC PRO Instrument Service detects and establish USB connections with the HPTLC PRO Modules. It executes requests coming from the Conveyor Manager and gives feedback. The HPTLC PRO Instrument Service is installed by the visionCATS Installer.

HPTLC PRO Module

Each single Module of the CAMAG® HPTLC PRO SYSTEM. The HPTLC PRO SYSTEM consists of:

  • HPTLC PRO Module APPLICATION

  • HPTLC PRO Module DEVELOPMENT

  • HPTLC PRO Module DERIVATIZATION

  • HPTLC PRO Module MS-INTERFACE

  • HPTLC PRO Module DETECTION

  • HPTLC PRO Module PLATE STORAGE

HPTLC PRO SYSTEM

The HPTLC PRO SYSTEM consist in a set of HPTLC PRO Modules (order is important) connected together to execute automated runs. The definition of the HPTLC PRO SYSTEM in visionCATS must match the way HPTLC PRO Modules are physically arranged.

HPTLC PRO SYSTEM Supervisor

New visionCATS user role defining the ability to trigger the execution of sequences in the HPTLC PRO SYSTEM after having prepared all the necessary consumables.

Move

Transport of a carrier between any given defined position within a HPTLC PRO Module or a HPTLC PRO SYSTEM.

A run is divided into several moves. Each move consists in:

  • Loading the carrier for the first move, or unparking from previous instrument for subsequent moves

  • Moving the carrier though the conveyors (to the left or to the right) until reaching the unpark position of the step’s instrument being executed by the move

  • Parking the carrier

  • Executing the step associated with the move

  • For the last move only, unparking and moving the carrier to the last instrument of the line and ejecting it

Park position

When the Conveyor Manager parks a carrier, the module’s feeder moves the carrier inside the instrument. The carrier is then in park position. The park position is the starting point of the execution of a step by the instrument. Once in park position, the module is ready to move the conveyor if another carrier must go through the instrument.

RFID

A carrier is identified by its RFID tag when it reaches the Feeding Position on the conveyor.

Run

The run represents a set of automated HPTLC PRO steps to execute for a given analysis in a given HPTLC PRO SYSTEM. If an analysis contains HPTLC PRO and HPTLC/TLC steps, the software automatically sets the run in the queue, as soon as the user performed the pending manual HPTLC/TLC step. The software then automatically continues the run.

Sequence

The runs added to a CAMAG® HPTLC PRO SYSTEM are grouped into sequences. The runs placed in the same sequence are compatible in term of consumables and there are up to 5 runs pro sequence.