Total laboratory automation

Bauer S, Teplitz C. Total laboratory automation a view of the 21st century. Medical Laboratory Observer 1995 27(7) 22-5. 

Sarkozi L, Simson E, Ramanathan L. The effects of total laboratory automation on the management of a clinical chemistry laboratory retrospective analysis of 36 years. Chn Chim Acta 2003 329 89-94. 

Sasaki M. Total laboratory automation in Japan past, present, and the future. Clin Chim Acta 1998 278 217-27. 

Tatsumi N, Okuda K, Tsuda I. A new direction in automated laboratory testing in Japan five years of experience with total laboratory automation system management Clin Chim Acta 1999 290 93-108. 

The explosive growth in the availability of computer tools In the laboratory requires a new look at the concept of laboratory automation. Much larger gains in the efficiency and effectiveness of research can be realized by automating tasks rather than by simply automating instruments. Research is done by researchers, not by instruments. Instruments are Just one of many tools which can be used by the researcher. This paper will attempt to give an overview of instrument automation as the traditional view of laboratory automation, and extend this concept to the automation of the total task of research. 

Automation of today s laboratory should no longer be viewed simply as instrument automation. The modern scientist is an office worker as well as a technical worker and must be given the computer tools to allow the integration of the total laboratory task. The yields to the companies which recognize this will be significant Improvements in both the efficiency and effectiveness of their research function. 

A. Greenberg and R. Young, A totally automated robotic procedure for assaying composite samples which normally require large volume dilutions. In Advances in Laboratory Automation Robotics 1985 (J. R. Strimaitis and G. L. Hawk, eds.), Zymark Corp., Hopkinton, MA, 1985, p. 721. 

The final section of this chapter deals with a description of total systems automation in the analysis of tobacco smoke. This is used as an example partly because it is one of the few instances of large-scale laboratory automation of which full details have been published, but more importantly because it provides an example of both the benefits and the pitfalls which can be encountered when all the areas discussed previously are brought together for the solution of a specific problem. Here we give only a brief outline of the significant points a full and detailed discussion of the project can be found in Ref.48). 

Any consideration of total or modular laboratory automation should start with an evaluation of requirements. Such... 

In order to avoid problems with sample inhomogeneity, the entire oil sample from each sample of shale was dissolved in 1.5 to 2.5 mL of CS2 (about 1 g oil to 1.5 mL solvent). One pL of this solution was injected into a Hewlett-Packard Model 5880 Gas Chromatograph equipped with capillary inlet and a 50 m x 0.25 mm Quadrex "007" methyl silicone column. Injection on the column is made with a split ratio of approximately 1 to 100. The column temperature started at 60°C and increased at 4°C/min to 280°C where it remained for a total run time of 90 min. The carrier gas was helium at a pressure of 0.27 MPa flowing at a rate of 1 cm /min. The injector temperature was 325°C and the flame ionization detector (FID) temperature was 350°C. Data reduction was done using a Hewlett-Packard Model 3354 Laboratory Automation System with a standard loop interface. Identification of various components was based on GC/MS interpretation described previously (4). For multiple runs on the same shale, the relative standard deviations of the biomarker ratios were about 10%. 

One of the major developments in analytical chemistiy during the last few decades has been the appearance of commercial automated analytical sterns, which provide analytical and control information with a minimum of operator intervention. Automated systems first appeared in clinical laboratories, where thirty or more specie,t are routinely determined for diagnostic and screening purposes. Laboratory automation soon spread to industrial process control and later to pharmaceutical, environmental, forensic, governmental, and university research laboratories. Today, many routine determinations as well as many of the most demanding analyses are made with totally or partially automated systems. 

Clinical instruments have long been the focus for laboratory automation. Indeed, the Technicon AutoAna-lyzer. an air-segmenicd continuous flow system," w as the first truly automated instrument for a clinical laboraiory. In 1968 DuPont introduced the ACA (Automated Clinical Analy/er). the first totally automated discrete analy/cr. Ilie analyzer was based on prepack-... 

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