Keep your samples safe

UV Light

The flowbot® ONE is available with UV light to make your clean-up process simple and effective.

The UV-C light source in flowbot® ONE has a wavelength of approximately 254 nm and consists of two W48 bulbs. It disinfects the robot on the inside, effectively preventing cross-contamination and enabling you to work safely with sensitive material.

The intuitive user-interface allows you to manage the duration of the light exposure, which will vary depending on your samples, with just a few clicks.

During disinfection, the pipette modules will move around to prevent shadows forming and to optimize disinfection.

The door itself provides protection from radiation by filtering the UV light. For maximum safety precautions, the UV light turns off automatically if the door is opened during a cycle.

I would like more information about UV Light in flowbot® ONE:

... and there're more

UV Light is just another bonus for you.

flowbot® ONE remains one of the most flexible and user-friendly solutions on the market, featuring:

  • Intuitive browser-based software
  • Plug & play for immediate adjustment
  • Full sample traceability
  • Liquid level detection
  • Machine vision technology
  • 2 pipette modules (choose between 1, 4 and 8-channel)

… and much more.

White paper

More information on UV Light

Ever wondered how much UV Light you need to kill a specific bacteria or virus? Then check out this whitepaper for a good overview.

UV light what is it and how does it kills bacterias

Get a copy

Frequently asked questions

Check out the questions below – if you have other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us

The flowbot® ONE is available with two 48W bulbs with a wavelength of approximately 254 nm.

For microorganisms

Disinfecting with UV-C light kills >99.99 % of all viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms depending on the duration of light exposure.

It will for example kill >99.99% of COVID-19 in ~5 minutes.

For DNA

When DNA is exposed to UV irradiation, it will result in pyrimidine dimers formation. This renders the e.g., free DNA from being useful templates in subsequent PCR – effectively preventing cross-contamination.

The bulbs are specified for 10,000 hours operating OR 3500 turn-on/off cycles.

At 30 mins per day, every day (including weekends), that is 54 years. At 1 turn on/off cycles per day that is 10 years.

Please note that the bulbs’ lifetime will be shortened if they are regularly used for less than 5 minutes.

Yes, the UV light output will reduce over their lifetime, settling at about 85% of the starting value. The supplied data about UV power in the robot is based on the end-of-life values, so disinfection at the start-of-life will be correspondingly faster, giving an additional safety margin.

Yes, UV-C light does not reflect well so the bulbs are positioned in a way that shadows do not form on the deck. In addition, the modules move around during a cycle, to ensure everything gets even coverage.

Before running the UV cycle, you need to empty flowbot® ONE completely.

This is because labware will generate shadows, which will leave undisinfected spots inside the robot. The UV-C light will also not penetrate plasticware.

No disinfecting components should be done separately to the robot. This is partly because some materials (incl. PLA) react poorly to UV-C light and partly because the components will generate shadows inside the robot.

A strong smell is typically omitted when the UV-C system is on. This is NOT Ozone, but the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emitted by dying organisms. You can use the smell as a good indicator that the system is working.

If you use the UV-C lamp on a perfectly clean robot, or in a clean room, you shouldn’t get a strong  smell.

Yes of course! The door in the robot filters the UV-C light. In addition, if the door is opened during a cycle, it disables the lamps.

We recommend that you do a deep clean, in addition to UV-C, on a routine basis for extra cleaning reassurance.