Plant leaf cutter and well plate loader

Labman built a multi-bladed cutting block which is mounted on a stand and integrated with a set of vacuum pads. Leaf material (e.g. wheat leaf) is clipped onto the block and with a swing of the lever the knives cut the sections which are held by the vacuum pads. In a second action, these cut sections are lowered onto agar and released so that, in under 20 seconds, a full set of 24 perfectly sized leaf sections are loaded onto the agar plate. This process is commonly used as part of mould and leaf disease studies for fungicide development. This principle can be expanded or used for many similar applications. The unit is hand operated and extremely safe to operate, the cutting blades are guarded to avoid injury and can be replaced with ease by laboratory technicians.