Cambridge design partnership solves vial problem

Accurately labelling vials containing antibodies is crucial to Cambridge-based antibody producer Abcam’s business, but until recently it was a time-consuming process that was performed manually.

To speed up operations and eliminate any possibility for labelling errors, Abcam’s production team wanted to develop a system that would automatically apply a label to each plastic vial of product.

Compared to the task of producing research-grade antibodies for use in academic and commercial institutions throughout the world, creating such a system might not seem all that challenging. However, when the engineering team at Cambridge Design Partnership was approached by Abcam to assist in the development of an automated system that could perform the task, it found that the process of making labels stick to such vials was far from straightforward.

First, the system had to read a small barcode on the bottom of each of the vials, then cross check the barcode data with product information on the database of a personal computer. It then had to apply a human-readable label with that information on it to each tiny plastic tube.