[Histonet] cassette printers/slide printers/slide labelers

[Muhlhauser, Petrina R]

We use the Brady cassette printer and it's working great so far. It does not require proprietary cassettes - we use the Surgipath Multi Cassettes and the labels attach very well. The only issue we've found is that the labels will sometimes get a small bubble in the center when the block is cooled at embedding, but it does not affect legibility and the label is still securely attached at both ends with the stapling. It did take some fiddling with the settings to get everything printing correctly (thanks Victor!), but it's now working very smoothly.

We use the SlideMate printer for slides, and it's definitely temperamental; it misprints several times a day, so we have to keep a close eye on the printing. It also stalls out and needs to be restarted once or twice a day, but I'm not sure if that's a general issue with the printer or if it's something specific to the interface with our LIS.

We also have a Brady slide label printer, but we don't use it with the LIS (I have no idea if it's capable of that or not). It prints very nicely and the labels stand up well to all the chemicals we use, but it is slower to label each slide this way. Hope that helped!

Petrina Muhlhauser
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Department of Pathology
206-288-1355


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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:21:14 +0000
From: "Victor A. Tobias" <vtobias <@t> uw.edu>
Subject: RE: [Histonet] cassette printers/slide printers/slide
        labelers
To: "'Kelly Boyd'" <kdboydhisto <@t> yahoo.com>, "'histonet'"
        <Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Message-ID:
        <C6003BE0D913D849A1FC97B6AA5B0FD00104E0D8 <@t> uwit-mbx09.exchange.washington.edu>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Kelly,

The only small scale cassette printer I know of, is the one from Brady. We have a small facility that is using it with good results as far as I know. You don't print directly to the cassette. They are printing to a 1" x .25" chemically resistant label on a Zebra printer connected to the LIS. The label is then placed on the beveled surface of the cassette and attached using Brady's tool. Because Brady's tool destroys both ends of the label, we had to play with the size and alignment of the barcode and text.


I don't know what the cost of the Brady instrument is, but it has to be way cheaper then any other offering. Does it need to use a proprietary cassette, I don't know. I only assisted with the LIS part of getting the label formatted correctly.

Slides labels are being printed on chemically resistant labels from a Zebra printer as well.

In our 2 larger facilities we use General Data cassette printers and slide printers vary. One uses Zebra printers and chemically resistant labels and the other uses Thermo Slide Mate printers with mixed results. When they are working good, they're great, but they can be temperamental.

By the way, which LIS are you using?

Victor

Victor Tobias HT(ASCP)
Clinical Applications Analyst
Harborview Medical Center
Dept of Pathology Room NJB244
Seattle, WA 98104
vtobias <@t> u.washington.edu
206-744-2735
206-744-8240 Fax
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-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Kelly Boyd
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 6:30 AM
To: histonet
Subject: [Histonet] cassette printers/slide printers/slide labelers

?
I am looking for recommended brands, the pros/cons and cost advice on small scale cassette printers, slide printers or slide label systems for "on demand" printing at the gross stations and at ?microtomes for tracking barcodes through the lab. NO software needed, these would have to interface into a new LIS system.
?
Also, any advice/tips on yearly maintenance and consumable cost (cassettes, slides, labels, ink, print heads...) would be appreciated!!!!!!! Vendors welcome to contact me by personal email.
?
?
Thanks,
?
Kelly
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