Innovative lab automation for residues’ and contaminants analysis
A new era of food & feed testing
Oct 2025 (update). Eurofins WEJ Contaminants in Hamburg is setting new standards in the analysis of residues and contaminants in food and feed with its new robotic system Robi III. The fully automated sample preparation robot offers flexible analytical capabilities for the analysis of mycotoxins and plant toxins, veterinary drug residues and organic contaminants. The development of Robi III was enabled by several years of close cooperation between Eurofins analytical experts and the automation specialists at Elbatron.
Get your own impression of Robi III
Watch the video and see in fast motion how Robi III was built. Find out how it benefits and supports our employees. Convince yourself of its performance and precision.
Capabilities of Robi III
Robi III contains various common laboratory devices such as extraction modules, pipetting modules and a centrifuge. With its 3 robotic arms, Robi III can operate these modules individually for each sample and perform the respective method-specific laboratory process steps. These include:
- Solid/liquid extractions
- Salt-assisted solid/liquid extractions
- Addition of standards (up to 48 different cooled standards applicable)
- Centrifugation
- Filtration and dilution
- Evaporation and dissolution
- Cooled storage of finished extracts
- Waste separation
With its 24/7 availability, Robi II can prepare up to 450 samples per day from the weighed-in sample to the ready-to-measure vial. 60 methods in the area of mycotoxins and plant toxins, veterinary drug residues and organic contaminants will be validated making Robi III extremely versatile.
With Robi III Eurofins also sets new standards for the work of laboratory technicians. Instead of performing repetitive laboratory tasks, employees will be able to work in a high-tech laboratory environment and dedicate themselves to exciting development tasks.
Quality and benefits for customers
To ensure the consistently high Eurofins quality standards, Robi III has undergone various controls and release stages. A complex Factory Acceptance Test at Elbatron was the first milestone. After its transport to the Eurofins Campus in Hamburg, countless tests of all process steps were carried out before the Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) were completed under real laboratory conditions.
Each of the 60 methods will be transferred to the automation and validated to ensure the following benefits for customers:
- Flexibility of laboratory capacity
- High reproducibility and precision
- Low error rate
The robot family at Eurofins WEJ Contaminants
With the start of operation, Robi III joins the robot family of Eurofins WEJ Contaminants. Robi III together with its robotic-brother Robi II (already in operation since 2018) have a combined capacity of 800-900 samples per day for the analysis of mycotoxins, organic contaminants and veterinary drug residues.
The latest addition to the robot family is now also operational: a robot that automates the analysis of metals and elements was commissioned in autumn 2025. It adds automated metal and element analysis, including sample digestion and ICP-MS analysis, to the automated laboratory portfolio of Eurofins WEJ Contaminants.
Get in touch
Would you like to find out more about our testing solutions, or do you need tailored analytical support? Contact us today to get in touch with our experts.
Written by:
Mareike Rathke
Eurofins WEJ Contaminants GmbH