Share thisThe initial phase of developing a design for a cage processing area with robotics and automation includes discussions to establish the goals, requirements, and budget. A team consisting of the architect, equipment planner, and owner will discuss items in depth to gather the initial concepts and facts. The architect and equipment planner work with the owner to gather the information used for developing a layout, and ultimately, the construction drawings for the vivarium and cage processing area. Well-qualified architectural firms with vivaria experience will have an experienced equipment planner working with the design team. This person’s knowledge of how equipment works and is integrated with other systems is key to a successful vivarium. The discussion will yield needed information regarding the quantity of cages in the facility, space available, backup to equipment, vivarium cage changing protocols, and budget. The initial meetings will set the facts, needs, and goals for the project and equipment. During the programming process, the design team will develop an understanding of the owner’s specific needs for an integrated facility.
The types of equipment will also be discussed including the preferred automation/robotic system, tunnel washer, rack washer, and bottle washing systems. For users without experience with the automation system, a field trip to a facility with the automation system and the manufacturing facility willbe helpful.
In order for the entire system to function properly, a major consideration will be the interface between the automated process at soiled side and clean side of the tunnel washer and the bedding system. The soiled side bedding system has a hopper into which the robot will dump cage contents. Depending on what kind of items are being dumped into the hopper there may be a grinder to reduce the size and bulk of waste removed from thecage processing area. The filling of the cages at the clean side has two concepts, a measured or continuous conveyor filling. Rack washers are one of the simpler items to review due to the fact there is currently no automated system for washing cage tops, wire bars, and racks. It becomes more a question of equipment manufacturer, size, and quality of the equipment. In most cases, there will be a need for water bottle washing in the facility, even if there is auto-watering. This will affect what systems of automation are appropriate. With a facility that uses auto-watering, the only washing required is for medicated bottles. A small number of bottles washed minimizes the requirements for fully-automated systems. If a facility is 100 percent bottles, then a fully-automated system is one way to reduce potential man hours and increase the amount of bottles processed.