Small and clean
Yaskawa wants to optimise the automation of the filling of medications under cleanroom conditions using a hygienic handling robot.
16 Oct 2024Share
New regulations and, above all, the widespread shortage of skilled workers are making automated filling of medications increasingly attractive for smaller laboratories as well. Goldfuß Engineering has therefore developed a new system in which a hygienic Motoman HD7 handling robot from Yaskawa fills up to 120 vials per hour under cleanroom conditions.
Cost-effective filling of small batches
Clinical studies and personalised medicine usually require small batches of medications, such as injection solutions, filled into vials. These small bottles or glass containers must be sterile and aseptic. However, the small batch sizes normally make it uneconomical to fill them using conventional systems. Thomas Goldfuß, CEO of Goldfuß Engineering, is convinced that automation is now becoming interesting for smaller laboratories for two reasons: "On the one hand, the First Air principle in the new version of the EU-GMP Annex 1: It requires that all products must be continuously surrounded by clean, filtered air during an aseptic process. And then, of course, the shortage of skilled workers."
Motoman HD7: high-performance robot with hygienic design
Goldfuß Engineering specialises in customer-specific laboratory automation in cleanroom environments. The company, based in the southern German town of Balingen, has worked with containment experts Weiss Pharmatechnik to design a robot-based filling system for small batch sizes. This system enables the automated filling and closing of small batches of up to 120 vials per hour in a class B laboratory. However, the cell can also be flexibly adapted for other processes, such as cell cultivation, R&D automation or product and water analysis.
Multifunctional gripper with three sides
The centrepiece of the system is a safety workbench from Weiss and a Motoman HD7 industrial robot from Yaskawa, specially designed for hygienic and cleanroom applications (HD stands for "Hygienic Design"). Goldfuß Engineering has developed a multifunctional gripper with three sides especially for this: the Motoman HD7 uses it to pick up the individual parts of the vials, bring them to the filling station, seal the filled vials and then transfer them to a magazine. Optionally, the robot and the functional units can also be integrated into an isolator from Weiss.
Easy operation and programming
Goldfuß Engineering has been working with Yaskawa robots for 16 years. "The features of the Motoman HD7 are perfectly suited to our solution. For this application, the robot has to meet the requirements of cleanroom class A (ISO 5), and the corresponding certificates are important for the validation of the system according to GMP. It is also crucial that the surfaces can be cleaned with all common media and that sterilisation with UV light or H2O2 fumigation is possible," says Thomas Goldfuß. Goldfuß Engineering's experience with Yaskawa robots made integration and programming very easy: "We also chose the Yaskawa model Motoman HD7 because it is intuitive to operate and program. And we have also had very good experiences with Yaskawa's support, for example with regard to training, loan units and tests."
The first customer enquiries are being processed
Goldfuß Engineering presented the system to the public for the first time in the summer of 2024. Thomas Goldfuß and his team are now already processing the first customer enquiries. And not only from small laboratories: a pharmaceutical company is even considering the system as a backup during downtimes of the large-scale plant for maintenance and service calls.
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