KD legato 180 picoliter syringe pump: a review

Introduction about KD legato 180 picoliter syringe pump

KD Scientific designs, manufactures and sells a range of quality fluidics equipment and evaporators used by research laboratory markets worldwide.  The KD Scientific Legato 180 Picoliter Syringe Pump  is designed for micro and nanofluidic applications. As explained here, conventional syringe pumps can generate flow oscillation at low flow rates and long settling times. The KD Scientific Legato 180 Picoliter Syringe Pump is an excellent example of a microfluidic syringe pump that does not generate visible flow oscillations, even at low flow rates down to the picoliter/min.

To learn more about syringe pump and microfluidics and how to optimize their performance, please read our review about the use of syringe pumps in microfluidic applications.

Flow oscillation, minimal flow and reproducibility of the KD Legato 180

Let us come back to flow oscillation, the pump specifications for the Legato 180 are quite impressive. The pump can reach a minimum flow rate of 0.54 pl/min when using a 0.5 ul syringe. The accuracy of the KD Legato 180 Syringe Pump is 0.35% with a reproducibility of +/- 0.05%.

(Note that manufacturers may use different methods to determine accuracy and reproducibility in their specifications. The Elveflow microfluidic team cannot guarantee which manufacturer is the best suited for each microfluidic situation.)

To achieve the performance required for microfluidic applications, the KD Scientific Legato 180 Picoliter uses a microprocessor controlled microstep angle stepper motor which drives a lead screw and pusher block. Advanced microstepping techniques are employed to further reduce the step angle to eliminate flow pulsation. This precision syringe pump has a step resolution of 0.031 µm/µstep and produces up to 20,480 µsteps per one revolution of the pump lead screw.

Response time and settling time

The Legato 180 does not include a flow rate feedback loop to integrate into your microfluidic device. For additional information about how to reduce flow oscillation and increase responsiveness of your Harvard Apparatus Pump 11 Pico Plus Elite syringe pump please review our review about the use of syringe pumps in microfluidics.

.

Additional information about KD Legato 180 picoliter syringe pump

Front panel control

The 4.3 inch (10.92 cm) WQVGA TFT color display with touch screen coupled with the advanced user interface allows programming simple to complex experiments. The touch screen interface also includes enough memory to save two programs directly on the pump. All programming is done on the pump interface, all without the use of a computer.

Internal and external trigger

The pump includes trigger capability for synchronization with other instruments such as a microscope or camera. This feature is very useful as more microfluidic experiments require synchronization between several instruments.

Back panel connections

The Legato 180 Picoliter syringe pumps  includes several external interfaces for advanced connectivity. All KD Scientific Legato 180 Picoliter syringe pumps come standard with a footswitch, USB, RS-232, RS-485 and I/O connectors.

The KD Scientific Legato 180 Picoliter syringe pump can be used either horizontally or vertically to optimize bench space or to minimize tubing.

[ob1f_rebound]

.

For more information about KD Scientific syringe pumps, please visit KDscientific or contact us. This review was written with input from KD Scientific.

Discover other microfluidic syringe pumps from our review: Cellix ExiGo syringe pump, New Era 1002X syringe pump, Harvard Apparatus Phd ultra advanced syringe pump, Harvard Apparatus 11 pico plus Elite syringe pump