Carrier-free tube transport and the answer to micro-abrasion
At the Shinchon Severance Cancer Center, AirLab has been running through transparent pipes since March 2023. The micro-abrasion caused by carrier-free transport was not played down but solved in a year of development work with the Active Dust Remover. In 2026 the system will be extended to the main building.
route bridged from the collection room to the lab
of development work to the Active Dust Remover
AirLab sets ordered for the 2026 extension
Transport without a carrier: unique feature and risk at once
Since March 2023, AirLab has connected the blood collection room on the ground floor with the lab on the second basement level: two send stations, two receive stations, a route of around 100 metres. Unlike a classic pneumatic tube system, AirLab does not pack the tubes into carriers but sends them straight through the pipe. This saves the entire carrier cycle, but at high speed it runs tubes and rubber stoppers along the pipe wall. In day-to-day operation this produced microscopically fine rubber and plastic abrasion – a quality issue in a lab environment where contamination is not negotiable.
Visible pipes and a year of development against the abrasion
The whole pipe network was built transparent from the start: clinical and lab staff can follow every sample through the pipe in real time, so trust in the system grows in plain sight rather than on paper. For the micro-abrasion, passive filters were tested first. They tended to clog and caused pressure drops that slowed transport. After a year of joint development with the laboratory medicine team, the answer was the Active Dust Remover instead: targeted bursts of high-pressure air blow micro-particles out of the transport route in real time – with no loss of pressure and no break in the airflow.
The weak point became the decision to expand
The micro-dust problem is fully solved, and the Active Dust Remover has been part of the system ever since. The trust built up in the cancer centre building carries further: in 2026 Shinchon Severance decided to extend AirLab to the whole main building. Five more sets will be installed this year. What began as the most critical feature of carrier-free transport has become a technology advantage in its own right.
From estimate to certainty.
We check your potential directly against your processes – solid figures instead of estimates.