Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems have been used by manufacturers and distributors of electronics, medical instruments, drugs, pharmaceuticals and many other industries needing clean high-density storage.  Some innovative installations by Pacific Integrated Handling and its customers have proven these systems to be a great storage solution in medical testing, clinical labs and biotechnology as well.  Technical advances in controls and computers have led to high-speed storage and retrieval, light-directed operations, and enhanced bar code reading and tracking systems.

Today’s storage systems have proven to be very reliable and are being used in hospitals, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other industries with large inventories of drugs and specimens.  When interfaced with robots, they become very accurate and dependable systems.

The Power Column VLM is an enclosed, high-speed, high-density, AS/RS device capable of storing hundreds of thousands of specimens and delivering any one specimen to an operator in seconds.  The operator gets the specimen he needs without entering a harsh environment.

  Cube Utilization:  Reduces floor space by as much as
  90% with machine heights from 10 to 45 feet.

  Accuracy:  Once the tray arrives, all picking and
  stocking is fully automatic, no errors!

  Productivity:  The robot works on its own putting
  specimens away, purging or taking inventory.
 

For cooler and freezer applications, an insulated enclosure is constructed around the storage unit and all of the cooling equipment and environmental controls are built into the enclosure.  In extreme environments (-20^o and colder), product is moved  automatically from the -20^oC storage unit to a +5^oC or ambient processing area.  Trays delivered to this processing area may be handler by a robot or by the system operator under the control of an Inventory Management System.




 

Once the tray is in place, the protective cover that separates the ambient room and freezer retracts to expose the tray and frozen specimens for processing, see photos.  Processing of the materials in the tray may be by a system operator or with a robotic arm as shown.

In this –20^oC specimen storage system, each specimen is tracked to an exact tray location.  The robot removes a specimen from the delivery tray, passes it by the bar code reader and stores it in a tray location selected by the inventory management system. 

This system is capable of tracking and storing about 250,000 specimens.  When a specific specimen is needed for testing, the tray is delivered to the processing area, the robot retrieves the specimen and passes it by the bar code reader, and the specimen is placed in a delivery tray.  There is also an automatic process for weeding out and discarding obsolete specimens.  This can be done during an off shift and the system will keep a complete record of actions.

With all of the government rules that must be followed in the medical and Biotechnology industries, companies are now turning to these proven storage systems for many types of storage.  The Power Column 2 vertical storage device combines very-high density storage with high-speed item retrieval and a workstation that can be set up for people or robotics.  Once the operator enters the item needed and starts the retrieval process, the item is delivered to the pick window in less than a minute.

With up to 8 different tray heights in one unit, items of many different sizes can be stored in a single PC2.  Furthermore, a simple parts locator system built into each PC2 enables each PC2 to track thousands of specimens, parts or tools to tray precise locations.

With up to 8 different tray heights in one unit, items of many different sizes can be stored in a single PC2.  Furthermore, a simple parts locator system built into each PC2 enables each PC2 to track thousands of specimens, parts or tools to tray precise locations.

For more information and for a free, no obligation, survey, please contact us.