In advanced biotech manufacturing and testing environments, scale is rarely limited by equipment alone. More often, the real constraint is architectural. Walls, corridors, airlocks, pressure zones, and regulatory boundaries are frequently not designed to support rapid increases in throughput. As demand grows, these physical constraints can quietly become the limiting factor, even when the underlying automation technology is capable of much more.
That was the challenge facing a leading synthetic biology company during the rapid scale-up of a high-throughput automated laboratory. The objective was to scale a new automation line to deliver twice the effective throughput. The system had to operate under a strict constraint, with all testing and material handling confined to tightly controlled airlock environments to preserve biosafety and prevent cross-contamination.
What followed was not a typical automation problem. It was a systems-level engineering challenge that required rethinking how space, motion, and containment could coexist inside a highly constrained facility.
The laboratory architecture separated pre-PCR and post-PCR operations into physically isolated spaces. This separation is foundational to biosafety. Even minimal unfiltered airflow between environments can compromise samples, invalidate results, and create unacceptable risk for operators and downstream processes.
To achieve the required throughput, the organization needed to activate a secondary lab space across a central hallway from the primary automation area, but blocking the hallway was not an option. Manual transport was unacceptable from both a contamination and efficiency standpoint. Creating a direct opening between labs would have violated containment requirements and regulatory controls.
In effect, the lab needed to function like a single continuous automation line, even though it could not exist as a single continuous room.
Rather than forcing additional automation into an already constrained footprint, Re:Build DAPR reframed the problem entirely. If horizontal expansion was not possible, vertical movement could become part of the solution.
Re:Build DAPR designed a custom airlock elevator and elevated catwalk system that allowed automated sample transport over the hallway while maintaining strict environmental isolation between lab zones. This approach preserved the integrity of both pre-PCR and post-PCR environments while enabling continuous automated flow between physically separated spaces.
This was not a standard lift or a conventional cleanroom pass-through. It was a fully integrated automation subsystem engineered to operate as a seamless extension of the lab’s smart conveyor network.
At the center of the solution was a robotic elevator and airlock workcell designed to solve multiple challenges simultaneously. Containment integrity was preserved at all times through the use of a HEPA-filtered airlock and carefully sequenced door operation. Pressure control systems and interlocks ensured that one environment was always sealed before the other could open, eliminating any risk of cross-exposure.
Automation precision was maintained across a complex physical span that included vertical travel, an elevated catwalk crossing above an active hallway, and re-entry into an adjacent lab. Samples traveled on a smart conveyor platform that rode the elevator, crossed the catwalk, and descended into the second lab space. Track alignment across this span had to be held within millimeter-level tolerances despite nearly fifteen feet of unsupported structure. Structural analysis and finite element modeling were used to validate stiffness and deflection limits, ensuring repeatable positioning and reliable handoff.
Robotic handling inside the airlock presented its own challenge. Space constraints ruled out traditional corner-locating methods. To solve this, Re:Build DAPR engineered a custom precision-locating mechanism using pneumatic actuators capable of approximately 35-micron repeatability. This approach allowed a six-axis robot to reliably pick and place tube racks inside the sealed airlock without sacrificing cycle time or accuracy.
The elevator towers, catwalk structure, enclosure panels, gaskets, and locating mechanisms were all custom designed and fabricated as a single integrated system, balancing biosafety requirements, automation performance, and structural integrity.
What makes this project distinctive is not the elevator itself, but the way the problem was approached. Many automation challenges are addressed by adding more stations, more loops, or more equipment. In regulated environments, that strategy often collides with physical constraints, airflow requirements, and compliance boundaries.
This project required treating the building as part of the system. Architecture, airflow management, robotics, conveyance, and structural mechanics were all engineered together rather than in isolation. The result was a solution that allowed two physically separated lab spaces to operate as a single, coherent automation line without compromising biosafety, reliability, or throughput.
As advanced manufacturing operations continue to scale, many organizations will face a similar reality. Throughput demands often outgrow the original building footprint long before budgets or timelines allow for new construction.
The lesson from this project is clear. Scaling is not always about adding more equipment. In many cases, it requires rethinking how systems move through space and having the engineering depth to execute that vision safely and predictably. By integrating vertical motion, containment, and automation into a single engineered solution, Re:Build DAPR helped unlock capacity that the floor plan alone could not support.
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