Robot sales in the pharmaceutical industry are rising, having increased by 26 percent since 2016. Due to the special hygiene demands of industries such as pharmaceuticals, robotics has several advantages in pharmaceutical manufacturing, including increased production levels and assistance in meeting certain regulatory requirements of the sector.
Improvements in motors and drive systems today have enabled the development of the automated technology needed to address the immense speed that can be accomplished with highly automated processes. Early motorized components were limited in movement, with robotic arms only capable of performing simple insert and eject functions. Then, engineers started incorporating additional control modules into plate handling systems so that technicians could increase their liquid handling throughput.
Since speed is particularly pertinent in a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility where, for instance, a broken ampoule or spilled syrup can mean a breach of the aseptic environment — which could lead to costly downtime and significant losses. This meant plate handlers and motorized pipettes could now shuttle on more than one axis, and robotic arms could grip sample plates and transport them to other workstation areas.
The benefits of automation include improving efficiency, saving workers from repetitive tasks, reducing overheads, and increasing repeatability and reproducibility on the production line. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have long used different types of automation in their facilities, for example, conveying systems and bowl feeders to sort and transport medicines around the plant.
Just as there is an increase in the use of robots for these applications is particularly significant in dispensing, sorting, kit assembly, and light machine-tending, especially in product packaging, particularly end-of-line packaging.
With impressive levels of flexibility, robot-based automation solutions are the first choice for small batch production runs in personalized medicine. They offer the additional advantage of reducing human contact to a minimum, thereby avoiding contamination risk. Not only does the robot perform its tasks exactly as it is told to, everything it does can be thoroughly documented.
Today’s robotics and robotically-assisted surgical devices often require Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors to meet demanding requirements. While motors and motion are core to all robotics, pharmaceutical robotics demand the capabilities of both traditional robotics and traditional surgical hand tools. In addition, devices used in the pharmaceutical industry must be sterile. Often these devices must reliably and consistently function despite repeated steam sterilization during reprocessing, in addition to demanding production use.
The success of any automation project depends first on choosing the right equipment. Whether it’s a robotic arm, linear actuator, rotary table, fluid pump, centrifuge, or dispensing system, precise motorized positioning and speed control are necessary. There, in essence, are three types of industrial robots most commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacturing — cartesian, SCARA, and articulated. And Assun Motors is a manufacturer and designer of these high-quality brushed/brushless motors with multi-axis control that is integratable into robotic arms for the laboratory automation industry.
