smartLAB: intelligent laboratory creates huge stir long after fair ends

The undisputed highlight of last year’s BIOTECHNICA/LABVOLUTION fair was the smartLAB – a world-first window on the future of intelligent laboratories. The smartLAB was a joint project of a group of German companies and scientists who wanted to demonstrate the possibilities opened up by digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies. And their display was a resounding success. More than half of the around 10,000 industry professionals who visited BIOTECHNICA/LABVOLUTION explored the smartLAB and gave the showcase top marks. That’s why the showcase will return in Mai next year, when the next combined BIOTECHNICA/LABVOLUTION fair is staged. The 2017 edition of smartLAB will ponder the question of when the future visions of laboratory technology are likely to become reality.

“We find that smartLAB 2015 was an outstanding success,” said Simon Bungers, the CEO of labfolder, a Berlin-based software company. “Our vision of the laboratory of the future as an integrated but highly flexible, modular system has enormous appeal. We came away from the fair with several hundred qualified leads, a number of which we have already converted into new business. However, the most important thing for us was that by working closely with the other smartLAB partners, we were able to make great strides in developing our business before the fair had even started.” Jan-Gerd Frerichs, Director of Information Integration at Eppendorf AG, agrees: “For us the fair went very well indeed, thanks to an excellent joint effort by the smartLAB partners. As far as I am aware, it was the first time a group of lab technology companies from completely different disciplines have collaborated in this way to present a fully functional lab solution.”

The three broad themes of last year’s smartLAB showcase were flexibility and modularization, integration and functionalization, and digitalization and automation. A total of 12 companies and institutions collaborated to illustrate the possible future trajectory of laboratory infrastructure. The joint project was coordinated by the Institute of Technical Chemistry of the Leibniz University Hannover.

Visually, the smartLAB was also a stand-out showcase. The display was designed in the vivid white and green color scheme of the new LABVOLUTION fair and its inviting octagonal shape worked well in terms of drawing in visitors and focusing their attention on the futuristic laboratory at the center of the expo area. The design of the laboratory itself was based on the “ballroom” manufacturing concept, which facilitates flexible processing. The modular workstations featured simple laboratory equipment, such as stirrers, scales and sensors. These were mounted on honeycomb-shaped plinths supplied by laboratory furnishing company Köttermann GmbH, leaving plenty of free work surfaces in between.

“As a manufacturer of innovative laboratory furniture, we like to work closely with the laboratory staff who use our solutions. And the smartLAB project gave us plenty of opportunity to do just that,” said Tobias Thiele, Köttermann’s Managing Director. Thiele also reported strong interest at the fair in his company’s honeycomb-shaped laboratory furniture. Thiele: “We are already designing the next generation of this product for a new customer. The new version will incorporate many of the wishes and suggestions of the people who visited the smartLAB, such as user-friendly data and power connections.”

The smartLAB was a joint initiative of the Institute of Technical Chemistry at  the Leibniz University Hannover, Laser Zentrum Hannover, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automatio, Eppendorf, iTiZZiMO, Köttermann, labfolder, Merck, PreSens Precision Sensing, Sartorius, Stäubli Tec-Systems Robotics and Deutsche Messe AG.