Our Work

Intellitech Automation was formed in 2001 to commercialise and export the waterbath robot (now known as the ILAS3000) that was originally developed by parent company Motion Design Ltd for Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) in New Zealand.

Today we have customers in NZ, Denmark, Sweden, France and China and are now expanding our products and services to provide a more complete automation solution to both dairy and soil testing laboratories.

Livestock Improvement Corporation

Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) is one of the oldest farming co-operatives in New Zealand. They provide a range of services and solutions to improve the prosperity and productivity of our farmers.

Our work with LIC began in 2000 when they needed to automate a complex sample pairing operation that other companies had so far been unable to find a solution to.  We were able to satisfy the seemingly contradictory need for both speed and gentle handling of the samples by using an intelligent motion planning algorithm and carrying up to three samples at any one time.

The success of this project lead into a range of other automation projects, one of which was the waterbath robot that became the ILAS3000.

In 2002 LIC commissioned us to develop a new Laboratory Information Management (LIM) system, as their recently adopted system could not cope with the massive volume of daily sample data.  This project was a success, and today we continue to be a part of their continuous improvement process as they continue to request improvements and changes to better suit their business requirements.

Today we now have 14x ILAS3000’s, 6x ILAS2000’s, 2x Animal Health sample sorting robots, 2x wash automation systems, 1x sub-sampling robot and the custom LIM system installed and in operation at LIC.

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Bentley Instruments

Bentley Instruments SARL are the European distributors for our dairy laboratory automation products.  They are based in Maroeuil, France.

We have continued selling the ILAS3000 into Europe through Bentley, however we have also been working with them to expand our product range.  So far we have introduced a new machine for automating bronopol dispensing and vial capping for laboratories using the 5×10 vial trays used on the French ILAS3000’s.  We are now working together to develop a sample sorting robot to enable grouping of samples by testing requirements.

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Analytical Research Laboratories

Analytical Research Laboratories (ARL) is New Zealand’s leading soil, plant, feed, water and fertiliser analytical laboratory.  The tests available through ARL provide information essential to measuring and managing the productivity and health of soil, crops and animals.

We began working with ARL in 2011 when we investigated the possibility of automating the sub-sampling of dry soil samples, as well as documenting all business rules around this process.  The outcome of the investigation was the decision that they were not ready to automate sub-sampling, but would get back to us as soon as they identified a process they were ready to automate.

In 2013 ARL were ready to automate the folding of filter papers.  We worked with them to refine their initial specification, and developed a number of proof-of-concept folding designs to evaluate the best way to fold the papers within the budget they had available.  The machine developed from this project has now folded more than 500,000 filter papers.

In the second half of 2014 we began working with ARL on a research project investigating and testing the possibility of automating the grinding and sub-sampling of fresh soil samples, as well as a separate project to develop an apple sub-sampler.  One of the key motivations for these projects was to help ensure the health and safety of their staff.

The soil grinding methods developed in the 2014 project lead to a full machine design and build project in 2015.  We have worked with ARL since installation to refine the design and ensure that all of their requirements are met.  This machine is now known as the Soil Crusher, and by the end of 2016 there will be four Soil Crushers in operation.

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Hill Laboratories

Hill Laboratories (R J Hill Laboratories Ltd) is an analytical testing laboratory and a 100% privately owned New Zealand company. They supply a broad range of laboratory tests to domestic and international markets and use the latest technologies to supply the most accurate and reliable results available. They have three major testing areas: Agriculture, Environmental and Food.

We were contacted by Hill Labs in 2013 as they were not satisfied with the value for money an existing supplier was offering for a custom liquid dispenser previously developed.  We worked quickly to develop a simpler, smaller liquid dispenser that we were able to deliver for half the price they were quoted for the previous system.  This liquid dispenser has been very successful, and there are now seven in operation.

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