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Care and maintenance

No daily maintenance is required for the XL9B.

Routine preventative maintenance

  • Keep the pick head clean. The four fingers comprising the pick head can be periodically cleaned with alcohol.
  • On a quarterly basis, clean the main robotic arm with a lint free cloth.
  • A standard maintenance schedule for calibration of the analytical balance should be determined. Please refer to the Analytical Balance Calibration Procedure for further details

Servicing requirements

The XL9B has several main components, almost all are maintenance free and do not require regular calibration.

Motors and controller board:

  • these are internal to the XL9B
  • no maintenance or calibration is required

Mechanical drive system (gears and slides):

  • these are internal to the XL9B and are sealed
  • linear bearings require lubrication, which is carried out by reliance as part of an annual maintenance visit.

Pick head assembly (with the teal stripe on the cover):

  • this assembly is not adjusted unless there is a mechanical issue
  • preventive maintenance may include cleaning the pick head tube gripper fingers with alcohol, and checking for bent fingers.
  • the pick head gripper may require recalibration, which can be carried out at the annual preventative maintenance visit.
  • If persistent errors occur, replacement of the pick head gripper unit and solenoid is recommended. Please contact reliance for support.

Mechanical draft hood on the balance:

  • the linear slide is prepacked with lubrication and “sealed”, as is the motor. It may be necessary to regrease those components in approximately 1-2 years depending on usage. This should be done by a reliance technician, as it requires some disassembly.

Teaching tube pick and place positions:

  • typically no maintenance or calibration should be needed
  • if you are seeing a few pick and place errors, contact reliance for advice.
  • XL9B Calibration Procedure instructions can be provided, contact reliance for assistance.

XL9B Balance

The XL9B balance is a Sartorius WZ64S OEM balance. You can test the operation of the balance periodically using a calibration weight and following the test weighing procedure.

We recommend using the test weighing procedure to check balance operation every 6 months.

  • if balance operation is OK, then balance calibration is not needed (we recommend not recalibrating your balance, if calibration is not needed)
  • we have found many XL9B balances pass the test weigh procedure repeatedly and do not require calibration after one or more years of use

XL9B balance calibration weight

  • A 50 gram calibration weight (Class 1) is supplied with the XL9B (it is in a small white box or brown box marked Troemner)
  • A white glove is included with the weight for use when handling the calibration weight

Balance test weigh procedure

  1. Power ON balance for 4 hours at normal operating conditions
  2. Weigh a minimum of 36 test tubes using a test worklist (you must use a worklist for this process, unlike other weighing operations)
  3. Use the Loader Control Panel (on the Tools menu) to manually control the balance and the draft hood.
  4. Weigh the test weight (typically, this is the 50 gram calibration weight included with the XL9B) The test weighing procedure is: 
        1.  close draft hood
        2. tare empty balance
        3. open draft hood
        4. place test weight in balance
        5. close draft hood
        6. weigh test weight. Note: draft hood is closed during tare and weigh.
  5. The 50 gram test weight should return values between 49.9995 and 50.0005 gram (+/- 0.0005 g)
  6. You may need to repeat test weighing procedure several times as external vibration can affect the balance at the time of test. 

Balance calibration procedure

  1. The XL9B balance can be calibrated using XL9B software's balance calibration routine.
  2. In this procedure, the software prompts you to load and unload the balance with the 50 gram calibration weight.
  3. This procedure may need to be repeated several times to obtain a good calibration result, as external vibration can affect the balance at the time of test.
  4. After balance calibration, the 50 gram test weight should return values between 49.9995 and 50.0005 gram (+/- 0.0005 g).
  5. Under good operating conditions, the 50 gram test weight may return values between 49.9997 and 50.0003 gram (+/- 0.0003 g) or better.

XL9B lighting and camera


The XL9B uses LEDs to illuminate the test tube's 2D bar code. The LED brightness is controlled by the XL9B's software (via the Loader Control Panel). The LEDs are unlikely to dim over time.

Adjusting the XL9B lighting:

  1. Run the XL9B software and use the Loader Control Panel to adjust the LED brightness (the LED brightness is usually set at 11 or 12 (clicks) in a scale of 1-16).
  2. Use the Loader Control Panel to pick a tube (Get Tube button), place it at the camera (Camera Position button) to check tube image, and decode by clicking the Take Picture button.
  3. At this point, you can adjust the LED brightness, if you need to. Click on the Adjust Brightness button to step through the settings range.

Cleaning the black belt

Over the life of the instrument, the XL9B Tube Hander's black belt can accumulate a build-up of material. In some cases we have found this build-up to cause robot encoder errors.

Use a clean, damp cloth to clean the belt. Contact reliance if you are continuing to experience encoder errors.

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