Abstract: A method for treating an electrically conductive contact element includes applying a lubricant to at least a partial region of a contact surface of the electrically conductive contact element. The contact surface is metallic. The contact surface is changed by plasma treatment to produce a coating of a solid lubricant on the partial region of the contact surface.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods for monitoring a thermoelectric heating and cooling device (103, 203, 303) of a system (100, 200, 300) for cycling liquid reaction mixtures through a series of temperature excursions, and such systems adapted to perform these methods. A first quantity being either an electric current or an electric voltage is applied to the heating and cooling device (103, 203) or a portion (314) thereof (303), and a second quantity being either the non-selected first quantity or temperature is measured to obtain a first test value. The selected first quantity is applied to another thermoelectric heating and cooling device (104, 204) or another portion (315) of the first device (303), and the second quantity is measured to obtain a second test value. Comparison of the first and second test values yields a monitoring value which is compared with a pre-defined threshold value to obtain a monitoring result.

Abstract: The present invention pertains to methods for monitoring a thermoelectric heating and cooling device (103, 203, 303) of a system (100, 200, 300) for cycling liquid reaction mixtures through a series of temperature excursions, comprising applying a first quantity selected from an electric current and an electric voltage to, in a first case, said heating and cooling device (103, 203) or, in a second case, to a portion (314) of said heating and cooling device (303), and measuring a second quantity selected from the non-selected first quantity and temperature to obtain a first test value; applying the selected first quantity to, in the first case, another thermoelectric heating and cooling device (104, 204) or, in the second case, another portion (315) of the heating and cooling device (303) and measuring the second quantity to obtain a second test value; determining a monitoring value based on a comparison of said first and second test values; and comparing said monitoring value with a pre-defined threshold valu