Robotics, Smart Conveying Streamline Specimen Handling at ARUP Labs

ARUP 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, 60’ x 30’ x 26’ in size, and operating at minus 20°C with a two-story automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) that can hold up to 5,220 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 4,000 specimens per hour. For high-volume, efficient laboratory specimen handling, the system is truly a showpiece of precision automation...