Automated Lab: Robots optimise adhesive development

Robots already take over a large number of monotonous, repetitive tasks today – freeing up time and resources for creative and more exciting tasks. Henkel is also automating work steps in its new Inspiration Center Düsseldorf (ICD). In a data-driven laboratory, new adhesive formulations are automatically prepared and tested around the clock.

In an interview with K-MAG, Tim Welters talks about the Automated Lab and the extent to which it relieves employees, accelerates the product development cycle and shortens the time to market for new products.

Mr Welters, you use automated testing machines from ZwickRoell in Henkel Adhesive Technologies' new Inspiration Center Düsseldorf (ICD). What does their work look like?

Tim Welters: In general, our product development staff need large amounts of data, for example from mechanical tests, to evaluate and optimise the performance of our adhesives. To do this, they carry out different types of tests, for example tensile and tensile shear tests at different temperatures or even after passing through hard tests for accelerated ageing. Either our employees prepare the samples in their laboratory and then bring them to the central automated laboratory. Or the samples come from our formulation line, where automated dosing and mixing takes place and at the end, for example, test specimens can be bonded or tensile specimens can be produced.

All parameters and boundary conditions of the test are defined by the employees in our laboratory information and management system and transferred to the automated laboratory. After the test specimens have been scanned and placed in the specimen carriers, the rest of the process is automatic. The robot picks up one sample after the other and inserts it into the test set-up. The control software sets the boundary conditions required by the user and the test takes place. Images of the fractured surfaces are created and the results are finally written back to our laboratory information system. Here, the staff from product development can then analyse and evaluate all the results.

To what extent does the robot relieve the employees?

Welters: The mechanical testing of large quantities of test specimens is a time-consuming and monotonous activity. Especially the tests at elevated or low temperatures require long equilibration times that disrupt the laboratory workflow and often cannot be used sensibly. These tests are therefore rather unpopular and tend to be abandoned. By using the robots, we increase efficiency because our employees have more time for other and creative research and development tasks.

To what extent can the use of the robot prevent errors - or also help to identify the source of the error?

Welters: The automation of materials testing and other laboratory tasks fundamentally increases reproducibility because it eliminates a whole range of sources of error, for example the inaccurate clamping of specimens or insufficient conditioning under test conditions. In addition, more tests can be carried out in this way. As a result, you get improved statistics and thus easier and clearer identification of causes and a better understanding of sources of error.

Are there other advantages?

Welters: Automated laboratory processes provide us with larger amounts of data of higher quality in a shorter time. This allows us to use other development and optimisation strategies, for example with the help of modern iterative methods of artificial intelligence. On the one hand, this helps us to bring optimised products to market. On the other hand, we accelerate the time to market of new products and can react faster to trends and developments.

What requirements are necessary for the use of automated machines?

Welters: At Adhesive Technologies, automation is used in product development, especially for standard tests such as tensile shear tests for the general adhesion of products to different substrates. The decisive factor here is always a sufficient number of tests to be carried out and the individual effort required to automate the test procedure. With an increasing variety of test variants, humans are often simply more flexible. Ultimately, the introduction of automated test procedures is always a question of economic evaluation.

In your opinion, what role will robots play in the laboratory of the future, and what role will humans play?

Welters: Basically, automation is not a panacea, it always has to fit the individual application. Automation and robots today lay the foundation for a more data-oriented and reproducible way of working in product development. Their use will become more important in the future because they can significantly accelerate development in a targeted manner. Robots increasingly complement humans, but they will not replace them. In product development, human creativity is a decisive factor, and artificial intelligence cannot yet provide this creativity. In addition, one of Henkel's great strengths lies in our specific application know-how. Customised customer-specific trials and tests, for example in the automotive industry or for electronics applications, often cannot be automated at a reasonable cost.