16 ANALYTICAL AND LABORATORY EQUIPMENT


20 years prior to automation was manually handling specimens. A national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a wholly-owned enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology, ARUP was created in 1984 by the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology faculty to support its academic missions of education and research. ARUP supports the Department of Pathology by providing laboratory testing for the University of Utah Hospital and clinics while engaging in cutting-edge technology needed to establish ARUP as a leading national reference laboratory specialising in esoteric testing. ARUP has established itself as a role model for bridging the gap between academic medicine and successful business enterprise.


Making the switch from manual to automated specimen handling


Robotics and smart conveying are streamlining specimen handling at one of the largest medical testing laboratories in the US, capable of storing 2.3 million samples and processing 4000 specimens per hour. Jim McMahon reports.


À l’heure actuelle, la robotique et la technologie de « smart conveying » (transport intelligent) simplifient la manipulation des échantillons dans l’un des plus grands laboratoires d’analyse médicale des États-Unis, capable de stocker 2,3 millions d’échantillons et d’en traiter 4000 par heure. Jim McMahon nous l’explique.


Roboter und intelligente Förderungstechniken, die 2,3 Millionen Proben speichern und 4000 Proben pro Stunde bearbeiten können, rationalisieren die Probenhandhabung in einem der größten Medizintestlaboratorien in den USA. Bericht von Jim McMahon.


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Fig. 1. Smart conveyors into and out of the freezer utilise Slip-Torque, low back pressure accumulation to minimise sample damage.


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RUP Laboratories is not only one of the largest medical testing laboratories


in the United States, it is also one of the most automated. Sporting the world’s largest clinical laboratory freezer, 60ft x 30ft x 26ft in size, and operating at minus 20°C with a two-story automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) that


can hold up to 5220 stainless steel storage trays of specimens on indexed shelf locations, the system’s capacity exceeds 2.3 million individual specimens. At the heart of the operation is a highly-automated sorting and transport system consisting of two robotic sorters designed by Motoman – which load and unload finished specimens into storage trays – and continuous-flow ‘smart’ conveyors built by Shuttleworth, which jointly retrieve and transport specimens for clinical testing in less than 2.5 minutes with a capacity of handling 4000 specimens per hour. For high-volume, efficient laboratory specimen handling, the system is truly a showpiece of precision automation.


But it was not always this way for Associated Regional and University Pathologists Inc (ARUP Laboratories, or ARUP), who for


With 2500 employees, ARUP offers in excess of 2,000 tests and test combinations, ranging from routine screening tests to highly esoteric molecular and genetic assays. ARUP’s clients include more than half of the nation’s university teaching hospitals and children’s hospitals, as well as multi-hospital groups, major commercial laboratories, group purchasing organisations, military and government facilities, and major clinics. In addition, ARUP is a worldwide leader in innovative laboratory research and development, led by the efforts of the ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology.


“Before automation, ARUP was using walk-in freezers at three different locations to store specimens,” says George Falk, Project Specialist at ARUP’s Central Support Services Group. “Te samples were stored manually in cardboard trays, with a capacity of about 400 000 specimens. To find a sample, a tech had to go into the walk-in freezer with a box number (an X/Y reference) and search manually. Personnel were required to enter the freezer in pairs for safety reasons, wearing coats, when looking for a


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