The Challenge
Manufacturing of drugs for clinical trials is characterized by manual processes and high personnel requirements. In this specific case, extremely limited space in the existing production facility posed a massive hurdle. The goal was to develop a packaging line for bottles including transport with a mobile robot.
Identified Pain Points & Risks:
- Downtime Risk: High dependence on manual personnel; in case of staff absences (e.g., due to epidemic situations), immediate production interruptions threaten
- Space Constraints: The existing infrastructure offered hardly any room for standard automation solutions
- Complexity: Large variance in bottle types (round and square up to 250ml) as well as different packing patterns in packaging boxes
- Compliance: Necessity of a GMP-compliant system (cleanroom class C) due to integrated quality controls
Our Solution
Pharmabotix developed a customized, compact automation concept covering two core areas: packaging of vials/bottles and autonomous material transport.
System Architecture & Components:
- LowVolume Packmate: A specially designed, compact robotic cell (footprint approx. 800 × 1700 mm) for packaging bottles including interleaf handling
- Control & HMI: Use of state-of-the-art control technology enabling simple operation via HMI without requiring programming knowledge or the robot teach pendant
- Flexible Gripper System: A modular concept that can handle round and square bottles and can also serve as infeed/outfeed solution for labelers in the future
- Mobile Robot: An intelligent system for autonomous transport of pallets from central warehouse directly to production lines
Technology Highlights:
- Smart Safety Concept: Enables box changeover by operator without interrupting the running process
- Intelligent Recipe Management: Solves the challenge of high variance in bottles and packing patterns directly via system control
- Counting Function: Integrated counting function for vials to ensure correct batch size
Project Gallery
3 Images