Fully automated workstations will undoubtedly play a significant role in the lab of the future.
The market is growing and looking for new ways to automate - specifically, solutions that are more flexible, more scalable, and more affordable. These are all prerequisites for making automation accessible to everyone which is what Flow Robotics and Tek-Matic are all about.
Flow Robotics and Tek-Matic are collaborating to bring easy automation to the pharma and life science industry in the US through a distribution partnership. Not only is Tek-Matic the distribution partner for Flow Robotics' pipetting robot, flowbot® ONE, but they can also integrate their KX-2 robot arm with the flowbot® ONE. This creates a setup that leaves almost the entire liquid handling process to robots.
"Tek-Matic's KX-2 robot arm can prepare the work deck on the flowbot® ONE with easy-to-use software. This increases walk-away time significantly and helps laboratories' most valuable asset, which is people. We share Tek-Matic's vision of making lab automation accessible to everyone. Having a user-friendly and flexible solution will make end-to-end automation relevant to labs of all shapes and sizes," says CTO Kjetil Kræmer of Flow Robotics.
With robots carrying the heavy lifting, laboratories will be able to increase their throughput and reach their full potential. And as new technological achievements set standards for what lab automation needs to live up to, the market will grow in correlation.
"It is a good time to be innovating," says Chris Muldowney, President and Owner of Tek-Matic, and adds how the flowbot® ONE fits into the new market trends:
"There is a whole world of people who are still hand pipetting. What is needed in the marketplace is something between high-end liquid handlers and handheld pipetting. Something that is affordable, easy-to-use, multi-featured and has a good delivery. This is where the flowbot® ONE is the perfect fit. It fills out a gap and is different from most of the automation solutions that are provided to the pharma and biotechnology market today."
Historically it has been mostly large high-throughput laboratories that have implemented automation. But the future holds exciting prospects that will see the need to solve the challenges of automation.
"Price, delivery, ease-of-use, and the learning curve are all challenges that hold many smaller labs back from implementing automation. The flowbot® ONE practically makes those obstacles obsolete," says Chris Muldowney and confirms that automation is the way forward for both all kinds of different laboratories. Together the two companies will keep pushing the boundaries for automation so it is not difficult at all.
Source: https://flow-robotics.com/