Robotics—An Efficient Tool for Laboratory Automation

Abstract

The Dyckerhoff AG, Amoneburg cement plant, Germany, comprises a grey and a white cement production line. As part of a major upgrading project, a fully automated quality control and quality assurance system has been installed. The laboratory automation system installed is the robotics-based QCX / Robolab system, which is supplied by FLS Automation. At the production laboratory, samples from nine automatic sampling points arrive via a pneumatic tube transport system. Samples are received by the industrial robot and distributed to sample preparation and analytical equipment placed around it. The robot-controlled analysis activity comprises X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, particle size distribution, and color measurement. The results from these devices are used for automatic process control applications. Further to the fully automated production laboratory equipment, a number of manually operated analytical devices are connected to the system, allowing automatic analysis data collection for activities like quality test of incoming and outgoing products, environmental protection, etc. Via a network, all analytical and associated production data from the production control system are automatically transferred to the central plant data management system, thereby providing a reliable basis for the plant's comprehensive general quality control and quality assurance system. © 1992 IEEE