By: Mitch Valdmanis, Senior System Designer If you recall, back in my first post in this series, I implied that the robot arm in RIVA doesn’t qualify as one of “the big little things.” While it’s true that the robot as a whole certainly doesn’t fit the theme of these posts, there is one critical... Read more
Categories: Announcements | Automation | Blog | EngineeringBy: Mitch Valdmanis, Senior System Designer Part III: Of Pass-through Chambers and Control Systems In parts I and II of this series we described how RIVA has been designed to achieve ISO level 5 air cleanliness by sealing the compounding chamber, filtering incoming air, and maintaining laminar airflow inside of the cell. So far so... Read more
Categories: Announcements | Automation | Blog | Engineering | RegulatoryBy: Mitch Valdmanis and Ron Rob Part II: Air Cleanliness In Part 1 of this series we discussed the importance of laminar airflow and the impacts it had on the design of RIVA’s air handling system. Laminar airflow is critical to preventing the spread of any contaminants in the airflow, but even better would be... Read more
Categories: Announcements | Automation | Blog | EngineeringBy: Mitch Valdmanis and Ron Rob One of the interesting challenges to solve in the design of IV automation is to create and maintain an environment where the compounding process can be carried out in air conditions compliant with ISO Class 5 and USP<797>. There are many factors to consider in the design – far... Read more
Categories: Announcements | Blog | Engineering | SafetyBy Mitch Valdmanis, Product Manager Continuing our series on the subtle, but important aspects of RIVA’s operation, I would like to turn our attention to the matter of managing gas pressure inside of drug vials as liquid and gas are drawn out or injected in. Vial stoppers are designed to seal the contents of the... Read more
Categories: Automation | Blog | EngineeringBy Vladimir Shterenberg Software quality assurance (SQA) and testing can be as rewarding as it can be frustrating. Every organization has different ideas on what quality means and what level of quality is needed for their products. You would think the highest quality possible would be the universal answer, but when it comes down to... Read more
Categories: Blog | Engineering | Regulatory | SoftwareBy Jonathan Bagot, M.Sc., B.C.Sc. (Hons) Lines of Code (LOC) is a software metric that has been used since the mid-1960’s to estimate effort and productivity [1]. It is the simplest method to estimate the size of a software program. There are many different ways to count LOC, but the gist of the idea is... Read more
Categories: Blog | Engineering | SoftwareBy Walter Eliuk, P.Eng. RIVA is a fully automated IV compounding system that produces IV bag and syringe medications in a Hospital pharmacy. The Port Disinfection Subsystem (PDS) is a powerful feature unique to RIVA. This feature helps to assure reliable aseptic processing of compounded products. A state-of-the-art UV light source is used to disinfect... Read more
Categories: Automation | Blog | Engineering | SafetyBy Mitch Valdmanis, M.Eng. When a person sees RIVA operating for the first time, they see the robot dancing around the cell, shuttling items to-and-fro between subsystems; they watch as fluid is transferred between containers at one of the syringe manipulators; and they notice how the inventory carousels rotate around to present the correct inventory... Read more
Categories: Blog | EngineeringBy Cornel Van Egmond MSEE, C.I.M. Although RIVA is made up of many different parts that act in harmony with one another, the robot at the center of RIVA always garners the most attention. Whether you have seen RIVA for the first time or the 100th time, there is something fascinating about watching the robot... Read more
Categories: Automation | Blog | Engineering