Abcam and Cambridge Design Partnership Solve a Vial and Sticky Problem

A breakthrough in labelling technology promises a 450% increase in throughput for leading antibody supplier, Abcam plc. The innovation, developed by Cambridge Design Partnership, enables each tiny plastic vial of product to have a unique identifier and have a label automatically applied, removing the potential for human errors and accelerating the fulfilment process.

Adam Cleevely is Head of Business Intelligence and Opportunities at Abcam plc, which provides the global scientific community with over 57,000 different biological materials. He explains that fast, accurate labelling is crucial to the business.

“We needed a system that is capable of applying a human readable label to each tiny plastic tube of product, cross checking it with the 2D barcode and verifying it against our database. At present this is a manual operation, performed thousands of times each week, that requires considerable time, dexterity and accuracy. We wanted to automate this process to speed up our operations and eliminate any possibility for labelling errors.”

Dr Jez Clements, Senior Engineer and Project Leader at Cambridge Design Partnership, was tasked with finding a solution. “Part of the problem was that the labels had to withstand freezing at up to -190°C and to potentially be applied to frozen vials. We discovered an ultra thin material that would meet this requirement, not jam Abcam’s automated tube storage and retrieval systems and still allow their customers to see the contents of the tube. The challenge then was how to apply it automatically. To achieve this we invented a new way of peeling the labels off the backing material so that they are wrapped around the tubes effortlessly.”

The two companies worked together to design a novel tube labelling system that rapidly applies and prints freezer-proof labels in a fraction of the time it takes by hand. The device includes an integral barcode reader which verifies the identity of the product within the Abcam database and prints this information on to the tube in a single step.

Jim Warwick, Chief Operating Officer of Abcam plc, sees huge commercial potential for the technology which can be used in a wide range of applications in the healthcare sector. “We are delighted with the labelling technology that we have developed in collaboration with Cambridge Design Partnership. It provides an elegant solution to a logistic issue, and delivers a major efficiency improvement to our operation.

“Collaborative research between a product design consultancy and an end user is an interesting business model that has benefits on many levels. It has resulted in a highly innovative product and an interesting commercial opportunity.”

Dr Clements agrees, “We believe that this technology has many applications, for instance in labelling patient samples at point-of-care and in high throughput diagnostic laboratories, and we are now seeking routes by which the technology can be commercialised.”