Our Work

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.  

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