Planting for a better future

World's leading plant tissue culture technology

NuPlant produces patented robotic systems to propagate plantlets. Our robots improve throughput, lower costs, and significantly enhance the quality of plantlets. NuPlant’s automated solutions can be used for virtually any plant species to increase timely supply of plants at lower cost, and support the development of plants that are physiologically better prepared for field planting.

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SmartClone™

Up to 3x increased value & reduced unit costs

SmartClone™ plantlets have increased value, reduced unit costs and increased nursery success rates. The system also provides data to operators that can improve management.

Janus Transplanter

The Janus transplanter is synergistic with the SmartClone™ system. After a growth cycle and pre-hardening steps, it takes pods with grown plantlets, transfers agar plugs with corresponding plantlets to potting mix in nursery trays, then recovers empty pods, and re-assembles these in the empty growth box ready for cleaning and reuse.

Neptune Washer

After completion of growth and transfer of plantlets to the nursery by the Janus transplanter, the recovered SmartClone™ growth boxes contain only empty pods as the agar plugs (with plantlets) have been ejected. The Neptune Washer then efficiently washes these boxes without dis-assembly. This allows easy re-use of assembled growth boxes numerous times.

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Our products will impress from all angles

The benefits will extend across the whole business. Operators save time, Purchasers save money and investors will see increase in demand for better plantlets at lower cost.

For operators

Maximising efficiency and reduce time

For purchasers

Cost Benefits and sustainable consumables

For investors

Market growth opportunites

For operators

The SmartClone™ is deliberately configured to use a skilled operator rather than autonomous operation. Fully autonomous systems generally work with plants of defined architecture, with errors occurring when limits are exceeded, and requiring operator intervention. Operators need to be constantly available to rectify errors and stoppages.  Recognising that operators need to be present, the SmartClone™ approach is to use skilled operators that provide superior judgement for dissections, but support them with the robotic system providing plantlets and removing explants for the operator, who can more easily focus on key dissection processes with high throughput

For purchasers

The SmartClone™ robotic system fits into a laminar flow cabinet 1200 mm wide, but an 1800 mm wide system is recommended to provide adjoining space for lids, tools, etc. Each case is different, but SmartClone systems typically increase operator throughput three- to 20-fold compared to manual dissection, so fewer work-stations are required. For every two cabinets assigned to SmartClone™ use, we recommend one additional cabinet for pouring media and various other activities typical of tissue-culture laboratories. Overall, a smaller laboratory is needed with SmartClone™ compared to manual tissue culture. NuPlant also supplies the custom-designed “Zephyros” laminar flow cabinets in which the SmartClone platform is integrated. This cabinet has a modular design that reduces freight volume and allows easy installation when access is impeded by doorways, lifts, etc.

The NuPlant consumables are supplied as fully assembled boxes (two types) with 24 pods in each. They can be sterilised by autoclaving or Gamma irradiation, and are designed for numerous re-uses if autoclaving. The Neptune washer is designed to efficiently clean the assembled boxes with pods directly from the Janus transplanter. Re-use is generally limited by physical damage during handling; for guidance we advise to expect re-use ten times, but many more re-uses are certainly possible. When considered unsuitable for further use, the consumables, moulded from polypropylene, can be recycled. The growth boxes (assembled with 24 pods each) are provided in cartons of 100 boxes, comprised of ten sleeves each with a stack of ten assembled boxes that nest compactly. The carton size is 56(H)x32(W)x36(H), and weighs ~6.5kg.

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The SmartClone™ robots stand alone in enabling efficient plantlet dissection, unique ability to change growth environment to deliver plantlets of superior quality, and to provide a product suitable for autonomous nursery transfer with sustainable recovery of consumables for re-use. The quality enhancement translates into reduced attrition, fewer nursery management steps, and reduced nursery residence time. The greater certainty of success in shorter time provides the advantage of swifter response to late changes in demand.

The HMI (Human-Machine Interface) software was developed in-house and specially designed to facilitate the robotic arm's calibration, programming, and control. The software uses a MicrosoftSQL server to record, retrieve, and store the data that allows plantlet history and performance information to be correlated with operator methods and growth regimes to improve plant growth and quality.

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The SmartClone™ could be your differentiator

While competitors are still using traditional, slow and cost intensive methods your business can be propelled into market leaders with your new SmartClone™. No matter what industry, we work with you to get the maximum efficiency for your species. We are a hands on business that can help you to create workflows and procedures that will enable your staff to fast track your business.

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