Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Automation

Clean-room robots are specially designed for pharmaceutical or laboratory environments and meet the standard requirements—IP67 standard—expected in these high-demand settings. Built with slim, encapsulated designs, FANUC’s LR Mate robot series of clean-room robots offer high flexibility levels, payload and reach.

To help achieve the speed and uncompromising quality control required in the pharmaceutical industry, FANUC has developed specialty robots excelling in high-speed pick-and-place applications. These high-precision robots—FANUC SCARA Robots and Delta Robots—offer the utmost in speed and accuracy.

Nearly every application within the pharma industry has been automated throughout the decades, improving working conditions and quality across manufacturing and lab environments. From vaccine production to automated syringe assembly, and medication dispensing to vial tub and tray palletizing, robotics can assist in a wide variety of ways, ensuring the safe processing, dispensing, labeling and packaging of pharmaceutical products.

Industries that are sensitive to environmental contamination—like pharmaceuticals, medical device or food and beverage industries—can rely on IP67 water- and dust-proof, clean-room robots. FANUC’s line of clean-room LR Mate robots also offer compact footprints to work within space-saving cells when necessary.

There are several factors to consider when implementing automation. For the pharmaceutical industry in particular, adherence to regulatory standards is key. Working with an Authorized System Integrator is a great place to start, given that they’re able to develop solutions specifically designed to meet unique manufacturer needs. When considering automation and robotics solutions, manufacturers will want to determine their primary goals—such as increasing production, reducing human error, or optimizing manufacturing floor space—and create an automation strategy that can address these directly.

Today, system integrators are responding to market needs for “off the shelf,” standardized automation solutions. Many of these pre-engineered systems can solve for common issues on the pharmaceutical manufacturing floor, including picking, sorting, dispensing and palletizing applications. Even with a low budget, little or no current automation, and limited skilled personnel, a pre-engineered system can have a pharmaceutical manufacturer up and running with automation quickly, with many systems available for delivery within a few weeks.