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I bought a replacement Cartesian Tip (in Australia) on the 8th of october, 2007 and got charged $660 AUD (of which 60 bucks was the GST tax) - on the 8th of october, the AUD-USD exchange rate was 0.8956, so that would be $537 USD, which is quite a long way from both '$700' and 'under $300'. The tips are quite fragile, and you could guess 10-20% breakage each year of use, gauging from the stories told around here. Janet -----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Boutin, Ray Sent: Thursday, 10 January 2008 11:42 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] crystallization robot Not to inject a commercial tone, but there seems to be a bias in the posting below. The ceramic tips are breakable, but not all find them incredibly so. And the price is less then $300, not $700. -----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lisa A Nagy Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:21 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] crystallization robot We chose the Phoenix crystallization robot because: It has no expensive consumables (tips) intrinsic to the machine. This was also a big item for us because we worry about being able to run the machine for more than 3 years. Would the tips for our 2008 machine be available in 2014? It is easy to program (BIG ITEM) for different tray configurations, and various dispensing methods- even on the same tray. Right now you may not think you'll have to vary drop sizes or add additional components (ligand? detergent?) to your drops, but you probably will. It can draw from 2ml block plates. Reformatting from block plates to your trays is a pain. The nitinol tips won't break (Compared to ~$700 apiece for the incredibly breakable ceramic tips on some other machines). It has cooling blocks for your samples. This is more important than you think. It's fast. It is easily integrated into a fully automated lab system. Right now, though, our humans (including me) are cheaper than rails and robots. It's incredibly accurate, even with 30% PEG 4000 (we tested this ourselves). You can use it for other low volume dispensing applications. -- Lisa Nagy University of Alabama-Birmingham [log in to unmask]