Industrial automation specialist Festo and systems integrator QM systems have collaborated on the evolution of a new automated laboratory system that fills, caps and labels test vials at speeds of up to 3000 vials per hour.

Seeds are the new gold. Why is that? Plant-based foods can feed an ever-growing world population. But climate change, pests and diseases threaten plant breeding. To help develop resistant seeds and make them available to agriculture, plant breeders need vast amounts of DNA. That is precisely why Synchron Lab has developed the "DNA factory", which is automated with handling gantries, electric axes, pneumatic grippers and sensors from Festo.

If there’s one thing the corona pandemic has taught us, it is that laboratories place tremendous importance on high sample throughput rates. Even with highly qualified laboratory personnel, this demand can no longer be met. There’s no getting round the automation of laboratory processes. That’s why MolGen in the Netherlands developed PurePrep TTR, which can prepare 320 patient samples per hour for molecular downstream processing. And the Dutch company uses laboratory-specific automation technology from Festo.