Dispensing fluids automated

Before developing an automated process for dispensing fluids, it is critical to know and understand the desired results and this begins by understanding the fluid characteristics. Often it is best to collaborate early with both the fluid supplier and the supplier of the dispensing equipment. 

For automated dissolution systems, OQ testing can include testing balance functionality, testing the functionality of individual components including bath communication, sample cannulae, waste cannulae, thermistor communication, tablet dispensers, sensors, valves, pumps, filter dispenser and holder, and testing fluid pathways. 

AUTOMATED FLUID DISPENSING FOR FUEL CELL MANUFACTURE AND ASSEMBLY... 

Automated Fluid Dispensing for Fuel Cell Manufacture... 

Jetting technology is one of the more recent technologies in automated fluid dispensing and is quickly evolving. These technologies eject discrete volumes of materials from a nozzle and do not rely on the surface tension of the fluid on the dispensed surface to pull the fluid away from the nozzle. 

Most of the equipment used in automated dispensing in the electronics industry is designed to place fluid on flat or nearly flat surfaces. This significantly simplifies the process since the motion of the robot during the dispensing operation can be limited to two axes. Robots that can dispense... 

It is often necessary to control the temperature of a part during automated fluid dispensing in order to gain control of the process. Heating the parts enhances material flow for encapsulation or underfill processes, for example, which are described later in this chapter. 

In order to place fluid accurately and consistently within the desired tolerance, it is often necessary to use automated vision systems to align the parts to the dispensing robot. This can add flexibility to a system and reduce the complexity of hard tooling which requires pins or mechanical alignment devices. 

This process will require a significant amount of labor to construct all of the samples, and then conduct extensive LC-MS and solid-state analysis to determine compatibility with a given excipient. Automation can be used to speed and reduce the amount of labor required for this process. One such robotic technique utilizes a robotic platform to construct the excipient and drug mixtures. There are a number of automated platforms that can dispense and mix powders in an accurate and reproducible manner. The platform can then utilize a fluid handling system to extract and inject the samples into an HPLC system for chemical analysis, or the samples can be removed and tested by a solid-state analysis system (XRPD or SSNMR). The samples can then be stored under accelerated conditions, and returned to the automation platform and tested to determine the stability when in the presence of the excipient. Most robotic platforms are able to track the samples using barcodes, to ensure that the sample identity and storage condition are linked properly to the data generated by the analytical systems. 

---