Automated Processes in the Laboratory

Robot accessories set new standards in the medical and pharmaceutical industry!

Nowhere are uncompromising safety, absolute precision, and highest hygiene as crucial as in the laboratory and medical industry. Automation of workflows in these areas plays an important role in ensuring quality and reliability.

Hygienic Design for Clean Gripping

In addition to the general requirements for handling and automation technology— such as easy integration into existing systems, high availability, high degree of automation, and great flexibility — special requirements for hygiene, cleanroom classification, and lubricants are of great importance in the pharmaceutical and medical industry.

A hygienic design that allows easy cleaning and sterilization, including with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), is crucial. Furthermore, components must not only be robust but also protected against corrosion and the ingress of dirt and bacteria to avoid contamination. These requirements apply to both end effectors and corresponding robot accessories such as tool changers and other components.

Originally developed for a customer in the pharmaceutical industry, Zimmer Group has included a tool changer in its standard portfolio that meets the requirements of hygienic design. This tool changer is made of PEEK (Polyetheretherketone) and features cable glands and sealing caps made of PTFE. The sealing of the changer corresponds to protection class IP67, thus also protecting against water ingress. All openings, including the spring pins and connection cables, are securely sealed. The high-quality material also enables reliable cleaning with H2O2 without damaging the surfaces of the changer.

Depending on the payload of the robot, the handling weight can be up to ten kilograms. The tool changer features several spring-loaded pins, ensuring the transmission of various signals and currents. An integrated encoding switch can differentiate up to seven different workpieces.

A notable safety feature of the changer is its permanent electromagnet, which not only enables the magnetic exchange of the tool part but also securely locks the tool and workpiece in the event of power failure or emergency shutdown. This ensures a reliable process. Additionally, the anti-rotation device ensures a rotational alignment between the fixed and tool parts, ensuring that the required torque is reliably transmitted.

Mechanical self-locking for secure holding

As an expert in automation and handling technology, Zimmer Group has long been familiar with the challenges of the pharmaceutical industry and therefore places particular emphasis on process safety. For example, if sample containers with infectious contents were to fall and contaminate entire laboratory areas, this could have serious consequences for both humans and technology.

For this reason, many grippers, such as those in the GEP2000 series, are equipped as standard with mechanical self-locking, which ensures secure holding of the workpiece even in the event of a power failure or emergency stop. Particularly practical is the emergency release, which allows the gripper to be opened manually even if the power supply is cut off.

In addition, the small parts grippers are ideally suited for use in hygienically sensitive areas such as laboratories, as they have been specially developed to meet increased hygiene requirements. The electric grippers have a standard protection class of IP54, which protects them from contamination. They are also equipped with food-grade H1 lubricating grease, making them ideal for use in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries as well as the food industry. The use of stainless steel components reliably protects against corrosion and facilitates cleaning. Thanks to low particle emissions, they are also certified for Class 2 cleanrooms.

The GEP2000 grippers are available in Digital I/O and IO-Link versions, with the latter offering particularly convenient control and integration into the system.

Furthermore, both variants feature integrated position sensing to reliably identify and securely grip various products. Automatic part detection provides additional quality assurance in the process by storing standard values for workpieces with tolerances in the gripper. Thanks to automatic part detection, deviations in the workpiece are immediately recognized, and sorting can be done promptly.

Automating complex applications

The importance of handling and automation technology is increasingly recognized in the pharmaceutical and medical industry. An essential goal of automation technology is to ensure product quality while optimizing production processes. This also applies to complex operations in laboratories. A vivid example of this is the opening and closing of sample tubes.

A gripper from the GEP2000 series can be combined with a rotary module for this application. The combination of the rotary and gripping modules enables the opening and closing of sample tubes as well as the attachment of barcodes. The individual adjustability of forces and positions of the gripper and the rotary module allows containers of different sizes to be handled quickly and precisely. This enables high process speed and flexibility.

For the advancing automation in laboratories, flexible and intelligent handling components are essential, meeting the strictest requirements such as reduced particle emissions and hygienic design. Over 500 standard products from the Zimmer Group are now certified for cleanroom use. With its comprehensive range of components, system solutions, and robot accessories, the Zimmer Group is a reliable partner for the future of the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

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Author information: Johanna Pompe, Editorial Office & Content Editor, Zimmer Group

This post originally appeared here.