PHARMACEUTICAL ROBOTS - FAST, FLEXIBLE AND ACCURATE

By far the most common applications for industrial robots in the pharmaceutical sector is manufacturing and packaging, particularly end of line packaging. The key factors in this context are speed, payload and flexibility, all areas in which Toshiba Machine’s range of SCARA, six axis and Cartesian robots excel.

Speed is particularly pertinent in a pharma manufacturing plant where, for instance, a broken ampoule or spilt syrup can mean a breach of the aseptic environment - leading to costly down time and significant losses. Indeed, pharmaceuticals require more speed, precision and faster cycle times than typical robotic operations. In automotive production for instance, cycle times are generally greater than four seconds. In pharmaceutical applications, cycle times are usually less than four seconds.

Another significant factor is payload. While few laboratory applications require significant payloads, in pharmaceutical manufacturing or packaging applications, robots can often be required to lift quite heavy items.

The third of the three key issues to consider is flexibility. I have often encountered applications where SCARA, Cartesian or six axis robots could all perform effectively and meet the same set of requirements. This illustrates the flexibility of the different kinds of robotic systems on the market. However, key things to consider are the ease with which the robot can be programmed and the space it occupies. The most important factor, of course, is programming simplicity. If, for instance, a single manufacturing line in a contract manufacturer is producing syrups for one client for the first half of the year and another client for the second half of the year, the re-programming of the robot should be as simple as possible to facilitate the changeover. Simple programming languages such as SCOL, teach pendant functionality and 3D simulation software are all benefits Toshiba Machine robots offer in this context.

Robot vision for proofreading
The pharmaceutical industry depends on automated process-control and quality-assurance systems to ensure that batch production is carried out repeatably, reliably, and accurately. Like many other manufacturing industries, especially those concerned with the production of high-value products, pharmaceutical producers are constantly looking at ways to increase throughput and maximise yield.

Critical to this level of control is incoming material inspection and proofreading of labels. FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) guidelines specify that each package must carry a label exactly the same as the one originally approved by the manufacturer. This process is now improving thanks to the combination of bar codes and robot vision, but development in the industry is slow and it’s often still done by two human proofreaders comparing incoming product to a master sample. The issue is that many human proofreaders, who are rightly proud of how much better at their job they are than the average Joe, believe they are also superior to a computer. However, the computer will perform 100% reliably, in seconds, the task they may take several minutes to complete. As a result, a vision equipped robot can often be the answer. 

Robot vision in clean room applications
All Toshiba Machine robots have clean rooms options available. This is because, when this option is applied, it saves the significant cost of a human going in and out of the clean room. The human cost can be found in the protective suit, the time it takes to put the suit on and take it off and counteracting the potential for contamination each time a person steps over the threshold. When one factors this process into the equation four to eight times a day, the costs start to look significant.

Of course, a vision equipped robot drastically reduces the human intervention required in the process. In addition, if a human rarely needs to access the clean room, the space itself can be smaller. Toshiba Machine’s TH180, TH250T and TH350T SCARA robots reflect this trend towards small footprint robots. With arm lengths only 180mm, 250mm and 350mm respectively, they are small enough to fit in a very snug area and are significantly more efficient and quicker than a human operative.

The future of robots in pharmaceutical manufacturing
This range of vision applications in the pharmaceutical industry means it is one of the sectors with the most potential for growth in the entire field of robotics. Indeed, the scope of uses found for materials handling robots is only now beginning to become transparent. What is clear though is that the fundamentals of speed, payload and flexibility will continue to be important and that Toshiba Machine and TM Robotics will continue striving to offer industry leading machines that meet and surpass these requirements.