Fully automated robotic analysis of TAN and TBN in petrochemical samples
The robotic analysis system shown in Figure 1 is designed for complete autonomy—saving time, increasing sample throughput, reducing effort, and improving the safety of daily operations in quality control or contract laboratories.
The automated workflow consists of the following steps:
- The sample vial is picked up and identified by its barcode.
- The vial is placed on a vortex shaker to homogenize it before a representative sample is taken.
- The cap of the sample vial is removed while the robotic arm places a clean titration beaker on the balance and picks up a fresh pipette tip to avoid any cross-contamination.
- The sample is aspirated while the balance is tared to prepare for the measurement of the added sample to the beaker.
- The sample weight is automatically transferred to the OMNIS software that controls the complete setup.
- The vial is closed and put back into its original position.
- The beaker with the sample is transferred to the OMNIS Sample Robot where the potentiometric titration takes place at one of the available workstations.
- Before the titration takes place, the titration equipment is cleaned and the sensors are preconditioned to guarantee optimal results.
- Once the sample beaker is mounted in the workstation, the solvent is added automatically to reduce contact with aggressive chemical reagents.
- After the titration is complete, the beaker is automatically emptied, and the equipment cleaned.
- The results are calculated and transferred to the connected LIMS system.
Titer and blank determination as well as sensor calibration and check samples can be easily added to the workflow if desired. The OMNIS software controlling the setup offers everything to keep the system running and to immediately inform the operator in case of limit violations.
Due to both robots working in synchronicity, the next samples are already prepared while previous ones are determined, guaranteeing constant high throughput. The presented system in Figure 1 works with two parallel workstations. This can easily be upgraded to a system that can handle up to four workstations running with the same or even different applications.
This robotic system from the partnership of Metrohm and KA Industrial Engineering Pte Ltd offers a completely traceable workflow which includes many security features. For high throughput completely automated sample analysis and minimal contact with aggressive reagents, this robotic system is the optimal choice.
Seeing is believing—watch the video below to see the next step in robotic automation of chemical analysis.