Research and hospital laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and other industries perform a vast number of chemical tests on an ongoing basis. The testing procedures require pipetting, which involves transferring a precise amount of liquid from one vessel to another. The work is highly repetitive, tedious, and error-prone.

According to Global Market Insights, the market for liquid handling robots was around USD 3 billion in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% between 2021 and 2027.

We explore the subject of these robots through the following topics:

• Industries Using Liquid Handling Robots
• Reasons to Automate
• Types of Liquid Handling Robotics
• Complementary Solutions
• Maintenance
• Helpful Tips in Making Your Decision

Industries Using Liquid Handling Robots

Industries using liquid handling robots include:

• Commercial Testing Laboratories
• Research Laboratories
• Pharmaceutical Companies
• Food and Beverage Industry
• Water and Fuel Research

Reasons to Automate

Pipetting robots will not replace human beings in the laboratory, at least not any time soon. Many lab tasks require people, including tending to a robotic pipetting solution. Setting up the machine, loading samples, operating the controls, and analyzing the results are all done by laboratory technicians.

Nonetheless, there are many advantages to automating your pipetting processes. Here are the top five reasons to consider automating your pipetting processes.

Reduce Injuries

According to an article published by the University of Pittsburgh, studies have found a significant increase in the risk of hand and shoulder repetitive-strain injuries when laboratory workers pipette for more than 300 hours per year. That works out to be an average of only two hours of pipetting per day. Many laboratory workers perform pipetting operations far more often than that.

Minimize Errors

Proper and consistent technique is crucial to achieving accuracy in pipetting. It is easy to make mistakes when fatigued, and it is difficult for a person to repeat the same action with great precision. Using robotics, test results with excellent accuracy and repeatability can be attained. Fatigue is no longer a problem.

According to an article in Rapid Microbiology, as much as half of all research funding in life sciences is used to repeat experiments. This is primarily caused by an inability to reproduce test results. This irreproducibility has, in turn, been caused by an incorrect execution in liquid-handling workflows.

Improve Traceability

Traceability means being able to trace something back to its source to verify every step of the production and distribution process. Among other things, it involves recording the step-by-step actions taken by a lab technician. The operator identity, technique, and a variety of additional data also need to be captured. Even with modern computers, this record-keeping can be burdensome. Pipetting robotic systems automate the gathering of much of the required data. As a result, the automated systems produce excellent traceability while significantly reducing manual data entry.

Improve Productivity

The COVID pandemic created a tremendous increase in the number of laboratory tests needed. The vast and sudden rise in testing volume stretched many labs to their capacity and beyond.

According to an article in GMC Genomics, sample preparation is the bottleneck of experiments for many research and clinical laboratories today. Many laboratories are considering automation to address this issue.

Case studies show that implementing pipetting robots results in an enormous increase in productivity. In one example, hands-on time was reduced from 2 hours 15 minutes to 20 minutes in handling a batch of eight test samples. That is a reduction of almost seven to one.

Enhancing Safety

Most labs operate safely without robotics. Yet, implementing robotic pipetting adds another layer of safety. Lab technicians are more isolated from the samples when using robotics. Especially in the COVID era, extra safety is a good idea.