Design of a laboratory automation system for a large clinical laboratory in São Paulo, Brazil

Laboratório Fleury is a reference clinical laboratory performing more than 1,200 different laboratory tests, with a workload of 3.5 million tests in 1998. With 60% of this workload directed to our clinical chemistry section, we started a project three years ago to evaluate the possibility of an automation system to fulfill our needs of quality, increased productivity, and as a base for further increases in workload. A workforce was assembled, and after detailed studies of our necessities and possibilities as well as an extensive program of visits and contacts in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, a final solution was settled.The system is being manufactured by IDS, Japan, and will be delivered by April 1999. It includes an inlet unit, an error lane, a decapper, a waiting line, a retrieve unit, a sorting table, a recapper unit, and an outlet unit. One of the main characteristics of our system is that it can be easily upgraded in order to receive more machines and/or more samples. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 11: 335–337, 1999