Some of the greatest challenges pharmaceutical companies face in filling applications is not only maintaining a sterile environment while filling the containers, but also being able to adapt to different container types. Historically, this was done using several manufacturing lines, each dedicated to a particular container style. Automated Systems of Tacoma Inc. (AST) was asked to develop one flexible robotic system that could do both - the ASEPTiCell system is able to fill pre-sterilized vials, syringes, cartridges, and infusion bags using one streamlined system, while also maintaining an aseptic environment.
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Safety is a primary concern with their products, as AST offers innovative solutions for the life sciences industry. They had to consider alarm scenarios and conditions that required an E-stop. "ATI Industrial Automation's Fail-Safe Locking Mechanism helped ensure the system could safely recover from any condition", says Josh Russell, Product Manager of Life Sciences at AST. "The ATI Tool Changers were absolutely critical to AST being able to achieve this goal." Due to their successful past experiences, they chose to use ATI’s Tool Changer for this project because of ATI’s high-quality, well-engineered, and versatile products. "Given the complex tooling designs that were required to meet our customer’s manufacturing process, specifically for syringes, we needed something that was customized." He also states that ATI supported the project "from the initial concept and quoting phase, all the way through execution." That level of support is especially necessary for an application in which safety and adhering to regulations is so crucial. "It is imperative that the system producing these products is robust and repeatable when in use." He goes on to say "humans within the clean rooms are the greatest source of viable contamination, particularly in the set-up phase." ATI’s Tool Changers are used in automating the set-up process, thus minimizing human contact with the critical aseptic areas, which aids pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in producing high quality products that are safe for their patients.The ASEPTiCell's design and the tools that it uses reduce the amount of capital equipment and facility space requirements necessary to fill-finish sterile drug products, which is another benefit to this innovative system.
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ATI Robotic Tool Changers provide the flexibility to automatically change end-effectors or other peripheral tooling. These Tool Changers are designed to function reliably for millions of cycles at rated load while maintaining extremely high repeatability. For this reason, the ATI Tool Changer has become the number-one tool changer of choice around the world.
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More information on AST here.
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More information on ATI Robotic Tool Changers here.
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View a video of the ASEPTiCell here.
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