Laboratory equipment

Upgrade your sample preparation and analysis with an automated laboratory

Your operation's profitability relies on timely and accurate decision-making, supported by data you can trust. Laboratory automation from FLS delivers this, providing precise, consistent, and prompt quality control data and improved analysis. Automating your laboratory also enhances worker safety.

Home/.../Laboratory equipment/Automated laboratories

Headline

  • Title

    Description

    Watch now

  • Enhance laboratory safety

    Mining labs are hazardous places, with dangers including loud noises, high temperatures, and acidic fumes – not to mention moving parts and risks associated with handling potentially heavy samples. Reducing human presence in the laboratory is a simple but effective way to reduce those health and safety risks. An automated laboratory does that by default.

  • Reduce laboratory operating costs

    Automated mineral processing labs require reduced staffing levels. Improving process consistency also often reduces the consumption of reagents and consumables compared to manually operated systems. Both factors help lower laboratory operating costs and deliver a faster return on investment. And the higher the number of samples per day, the greater these gains will be.

  • Reduce need for skilled labour

    We all know the mining industry needs more skilled labour. This lack can make it hard to attract the people you need to run your mineral processing lab, especially when the mine is in a remote location. With their reduced for human involvement, automated laboratories negate that challenge, ensuring a reliable and accurate flow of sample data, regardless of staffing concerns.

Our automated laboratories

Our automated mineral processing laboratories deliver accurate, reliable data for process and quality control and optimisation. We have extensive experience delivering laboratories for most mining and mineral processing applications, such as iron and steel, precious metals, including automated fire assaying, non-ferrous, and phosphates. We supply complete lab automation, integrating all equipment needed to prepare and analyse both dry samples and slurries. Each automated lab is configured and optimised to your application, capacity, and layout requirements. 

Maintenance & Service of automated laboratories

Regular servicing and aftermarket support are critical to maintaining the performance benefits of your automated laboratory. We will typically be involved in installing and commissioning the lab, including post-commissioning optimisation. We then continue to support you through preventative maintenance services, spare and wear parts supply, and breakdown support via our highly specialised global support teams.

Learn more about FLS service centres

Want to talk? Reach out to our experts

Frequently asked questions

FAQs for automated laboratories

Automated laboratories for mining use advanced automation and robotics to handle mineral samples from various stages of the mining and mineral processing flowsheet, delivering data that support process and quality control and optimisation.

Lab automation delivers several benefits including enhanced data consistency and accuracy, improved lab safety, and more rapid sample throughput, compared to manual laboratories.

For most applications, the complete laboratory process can be automated. For example, we deliver fully integrated automated laboratory solutions for end-to-end sample preparation and analysis. 

Costs will vary depending on the application and throughput, but automated laboratories are generally more expensive to implement than manual laboratories. However, operating costs are often lower for automated labs. 

There is no general answer to how many staff will be required since this will depend on the specific application, but automated laboratories will, in most applications, require fewer staff than manual laboratories. 

In most applications, automated laboratories are more economical to operate than manual laboratories due to savings in personnel costs, consumables, and reagents. Whether these savings will offset the higher capital expenditure required largely depends on sample throughput.