Automated tube handling system promotes accurate human fluid analysis.
 The STDK500 Automatic Sorter Decapper system allows users to feel confident that all analysis, which require a tube, have been done. They can then concentrate on the most important and value-added tasks like analyzing results. |
When clinical lab scientists research and analyze human fluids to develop new drugs, find cures, prescribe treatment or solve crimes, they require samples not compromised by contamination, infection or misidentification.
In most clinical labs, tubes of samples usually arrive during the morning mixed in boxes or bags sent directly from the extraction centers. Depending on the daily quantity of tubes that arrive at the lab, up to three people could have the morning chore of sorting each by type, manually placing them on trays and then distributing the samples to the different lab departments (hematology, biochemistry, immunology, etc.)
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To prevent mistakes from occurring during the sample preparation phase, NGNY Devices SL of Barcelona, Spain, developed the STDK500 Automatic Sorter Decapper system. The system automates the pre- and post-process of handling, sorting and decapping the vials or tubes of samples, which are organized in trays used with the analysis equipment. Human hands are taken completely out of the equation during this step.
The STDK500 consists of a robotic arm for inputting the tubes and another for outputting them, plus a conveyor and decapping module. The input robot picks up the tube from the tray, reads the barcode on the tube to retrieve information using the Laboratory Information System (LIS), and then places the tube onto the conveyor.
The LIS also identifies the specimen and confirms the specific tests to be performed, and relays that information to the STDK500 which determines if the tube needs to be decapped so that the sample can be accessed for analysis.
If required, the tube is decapped upon arrival at the Decapping Module. After that, the tube is gently gripped by the output robot, which places it in a predetermined spot in a specific tray that is forwarded for analysis.
A Galil DMC-2183 8-axis motion controller handles the precise motion of the robots, with axes one through four assigned to the input robot and axes five through eight assigned to the output robot. Directly attached to the controller are two Galil AMP20440 4-axis 200W servo drive boards which minimize space, cost and wiring.
Each robot moves independently on its own Cartesian axis X-Y-Z and T, with rotation of the tube gripper on the Z-axis. Galil’s DMC-2143 4-axis controller with a single AMP20440 board maneuvers the decapping module.
“This has been our first design using Galil controllers, and we found that they have an easy and intuitive programming method, which makes them very suitable for our applications,” explains Joan Viladomat, design engineer at NGNY Devices SL “The host PC is programmed in C#, and we used Galil’s .NET API command software to communicate with the controllers over Ethernet. We have the application programs burned in the controller’s non-volatile memory, and the host PC executes them depending on the state. We also use many variables that are read from the PC and others that are written by the PC, such as XYZ positions.”
The STDK500 features a GUI touch screen, real time updates of tube status, and the ability to handle tube diameters from 10 to 17 mm wide and heights from 70 to 110 mm at a rate of 500 tubes per hour. It accommodates standard and custom input/output trays, and automatically classifies tray type via bar code recognition.
The Galil controller also allows the STDK500 to accept more modules. “In the future, it will be very easy to add a recapping module that will be controlled by another Galil Ethernet controller,” Viladomat adds.