Technicians in a commercial laboratory manually uncap up to 700 sample tubes daily in preparation for bioanalytical testing. Manually twisting off sample tube caps not only is a time-consuming task, but also poses increased risk for muscle fatigue and repetitive-motion injuries. An automated device capable of uncapping sample tubes at a rate faster than the current workflow would be valuable for minimizing strain on technicians’ hands and saving time. Although several commercial sample tube–uncapping products exist, they are not always usable for a workload that uses a mix of tube sizes and specific workflow. A functioning uncapping device was developed that can semi-automatically uncap sample tubes with three different heights and diameters and was compatible with the workflow in a commercial laboratory setting. Under limited testing, the average success rate with uncapping each of the three sample tube sizes or a mix of them was 90% or more, more than three times faster than manual uncapping, and met standard acceptance criteria using mass spectrometry. Our device with its current performance is still a prototype, requiring further development. It showed promise for ergonomic benefit to the laboratory technicians, however, reducing the necessity to manually unscrew caps.

商业实验室的技术人员每天手动打开多达 700 个样品管的盖子，为生物分析测试做准备。手动拧下样品管盖不仅是一项耗时的任务，而且还会增加肌肉疲劳和重复运动损伤的风险。能够以比当前工作流程更快的速度打开样品管的自动化设备对于最大限度地减少技术人员手上的压力和节省时间非常有价值。尽管存在几种商业样品管开盖产品，但它们并不总是适用于混合使用管尺寸和特定工作流程的工作负载。开发了一种功能正常的开盖装置，可以半自动地开盖具有三种不同高度和直径的样品管，并且与商业实验室环境中的工作流程兼容。在有限的测试中，对三种样品管尺寸中的每一种或它们的混合进行开盖的平均成功率为 90% 或更高，比手动开盖快三倍以上，并且符合使用质谱法的标准验收标准。我们的设备目前的性能仍然是一个原型，需要进一步开发。然而，它为实验室技术人员带来了符合人体工程学的好处，减少了手动拧开盖子的必要性。