White paper
Automated Coating Solution for
Plastic Capillar y Tubes
Introduction
Ginolis has developed an automated coating solution using the Delilah™ robotic platform and piezo motor actuated bellows
pump, the Ginolis PMB™. The automated coating solution applies a hydrophilic solution to a small plastic capillary tube used
for collecting blood from a patient, verifies the process with automated visual inspection and cures solution with UV light.
Picture 1. Automated Coating Solution
The Solution Setup
The automated coating system consists of feeder, Delilah robotic cell, dispensing station and rotation table. The feeder
mechanism consists of a hopper and bowl feeder, as well as feeder rail. The Delilah robotic cell is equipped with a high precision
Scara arm and custom gripper, which allows for precise and stable movement.
The dispensing/aspiration station includes a Ginolis PMB 1500 pump, vacuum pump and co-centric needle, also known as
a dual functional tip (gauge 25 and 20). Multiple cameras, sensors and positioning software is utilized for process and inline
quality control. The final cell, a rotary table, is equipped with loading, unloading, air drying and UV curing sectors.
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Picture 2. Hopper feeder, bowl feeder and feeder rail.
Picture 3. Delilah Robotic Cell, Scara and gripper.
Picture 4. Ginolis PMB pump.
Picture 5. Rotary table with comb shaped racks.
Coating Process
The coating process begins with the feeder module. The plastic capillary tubes are fed into the hopper feeder, which supplies
the bowl feeder with the appropriate number of devices. The bowl feeder and feeder rail orientate the plastic tubes and
transport them to the Delilah cell.
The Delilah’s Scara arm and customized gripper pick up four plastic tubes from the feeder rail and transfer them at the dispensing/
aspiration station. A camera positioning system locates the bottom of the first tube and the co-centric dual function tip. The
plastic capillary tube is lowered so that the dispensing tip is inside the capillary tube.
Picture 6. Hopper feeder.
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Picture 7. Bowl feeder and feeder rail.
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Picture 8. Ginolis Scara and gripper.
Before dispensing a quality control check is initiated to inspect for any foreign particles and to ensure the plastic tube is intact.
Following an affirmative result, the co-centric dual function tip and Ginolis PMB pump dispense a hydrophilic solution into the
plastic tube. The quality control cameras check to ensure no air bubbles are present during the dispensing process. Once the
tube is full of hydrophilic solution and the result is verified and the solution is aspirated away into a waste bottle. This step is
repeated for all four tubes held by the Scara and gripper.
Picture 9. Quality control check to ensure no
foreign particles are present and tube is intact
Picture 10. Quality control check to ensure
tube is completely filled.
Picture 11. Quality control check during aspiration.
Dispensing the exact amount of required solution inside the capillary tube and the corresponding aspiration process ensure
that the coating solution will not splatter and touch the outside, bottom or top surfaces of the plastic tube.
If any of the quality control checks fail, then the tube is consequently moved to the reject station. All capillary tubes that have
passed the machine vision quality control checks are placed onto a comb shaped rack on the rotary table. Each comb shape
rack can hold a maximum of 40 plastic tubes and there are six racks in total.
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The rotary table contains six sectors which include the loading point, three air drying zones and a UV curing station. The final
sector is an unloading station where the capillary tubes are placed into plastic bags. The rotation table is fitted with two cooling
air fans, exhaust vent and UV lamp fan to ensure proper ventilation. The table also contains sensors to test the UV-light intensity
to ensure proper curing takes place.
The automated coating solution is operated using Ginolis’s desktop automation platform, Ginger. The intuitive user interface is
easy to use and manage. The equipment surfaces are made from glass, polycarbonate, stainless steel and anodized aluminum,
to make the system easy to clean and hygienic.
The automated hydrophilic coating solution and its features are designed and manufactured to be easy to use, easy to clean
and easy to maintain.
Picture 12. Comb shaped rack.
Picture 13. Rotation table with six sectors.
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the prior written permission of Ginolis Ltd. Ginolis Ltd. retains ownership and all other rights of all drawings, models, shapes, solutions, ideas
or any kind of industrial property rights presented or expressed in this White Paper. All other use of the material presented or expressed in this
White Paper except for getting acquainted with, quoting, ordering or use otherwise related business with Ginolis Ltd. is strictly prohibited.
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