If there’s one thing the COVID pandemic has taught us, it’s that laboratories have a huge demand for high sample throughput rates. Even when a laboratory has highly qualified staff, this demand can no longer be met. There’s no getting around the automation of laboratory processes. That is why Dutch company MolGen has developed the PurePrep TTR, which can prepare 320 patient samples per hour for further molecular processing. And they use laboratory-specific automation technology from Festo.
Dependable collaboration
“I’ve been working together with Festo for ten years, especially with Festo’s national company in the Netherlands”, reports the Member of the MolGen Management Board. He describes this collaboration as exceptional, because Festo is always prepared to do more than just sell standard products. “Their innovation unit caters to our requirements and provides us with modules for pilot projects. That was the case with the controller CPX-E and now again with the "magic box", as we call it – the decentralised pressure and vacuum generator PGVA”, says Kruize and adds: “We were among the first, maybe even the very first, to use it.”
Decentralised pressure and vacuum supply
“It is more or less hidden in the machine housing”, explains Bert Baas, Dutch sales engineer for laboratory automation at Festo. The PGVA integrates compressor, air preparation including filter system, reservoir and electronic pressure and vacuum control in the smallest of spaces. “In order to meet the huge demand during the COVID pandemic, we supplied MolGen with the pressure and vacuum generator while it was still in the technical approval phase”, reports Baas.
“The PGVA shows how passionate the various teams at Festo always are about automation, and that results in successful collaborative solutions for us. This inspires confidence in their ability to produce prototypes and systems much faster and more flexibly than the competition”, concludes the Member of the MolGen Management Board.
MolGen is a global provider of complete solutions for DNA/RNA technology with hardware, reagents, consumables, software and services for human and animal diagnostics, agriculture and the biotech industry. The company's automation solutions are developed to meet the specific needs of customers and always take into account the latest state-of-the-art technology in life sciences.