For many years we have proudly served the healthcare industry—supporting laboratories and research facilities focused on everything from patient diagnostics, to cancer research, and more. We constantly strive to better support these critical industries by advancing our internal processes, implementing new technology and automation, and fostering valuable partnerships.
Recently we collaborated once again with PaR Systems, a highly skilled intelligent solutions provider well known for their work in robotic automation systems.
After successfully implementing joint solutions with PaR for our customers, we reached out once again to PaR’s team to explore potential advancements that we could make within our own facility.
Continuous improvement starts here
While some of our customers benefit from their own in-house automation, many come to learn that it simply isn’t necessary for them to maintain or invest in that level of advanced technology in order to achieve their goals.
Labware Prep™ Services is a program that we developed over 20 years ago to provide our customers with labware that is ready for immediate use. This outsourced labeling service allows our customers to reap all the benefits of automated label application to labware—without the investment of the automation itself.
Labware Prep™ Services started with pressure sensitive and ceramic labels and has since expanded to include proprietary Direct Mark technology where the codes are printed directly onto the labware. Since its debut, this program has grown exponentially and we have continually invested in that growth.
DirectMark 360 fully automated work cell
The scope of this project was to take an existing manual process of directly marking variable data onto labware, then verifying the information and quality—and replacing those repetitive human functions with exact robotic movements as well as consistent vision system checks. This solution, the DM360 fully automated work cell, is an excellent pairing of our printing experience and PaR’s automation expertise.
The DM360 automated work cell includes four hot foil direct mark printers and four robotic arms that work together to move vials through the printing process. This system verifies and quality checks every vial, and completes one vial every 2.4 seconds.
In the simplest terms—one of our trained operators will load full racks of unlabeled customer vials onto a conveyor, and the system will output full racks of precisely labeled, quality checked vials. In the future, we will use this system in combination with our other Direct Mark workstations to fulfill our customers’ orders.
Adding automation to the DM360 work center increases our capacity for Labware Prep™ Services, improves our ergonomics, allows for improved quality checks and eliminates human handling of the vials, greatly reducing the risk of DNA contamination.
We take our responsibility toward the healthcare industry very seriously and we are excited for the opportunities this new resource will allow. PaR elevated our abilities and allowed us to maintain our meticulous focus on advanced labeling and tracking while increasing our throughput and streamlining our workflows. We can now proudly offer our customers a better, faster experience thanks to their involvement.
