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March 1, 2024
Stäubli Robotics supports Merck & Co. together with a local community college to source the next generation of talented employees.
Merck & Co. located in West Point, Philadelphia has more than 12.000 employees at this location. The site focuses on research & development as wells as production of pharmaceutical goods. Together with the nearby Montgomery County Community college, Merck & Co. started the collaboration on a program to build a pipeline for the next generation of employees.
The Department at Merck & Co. that is driving the program is using Stäubli robots in their day-to-day processes. In the laboratories of today the perfect candidate has a biotechnology and a robotics/automation background. Stäubli robots are used widely in laboratory settings to support scientists by taking over simple and repetitive tasks which can be often very time consuming.
Scott Ziegler, Director Scientific Automation Engineering at Merck & Co. approached Stäubli with the idea of a challenge that focuses on the tasks of the robot in their laboratory setting. Within a couple weeks a program was designed that involves biotechnology, computer science, engineering, and robotics.
The students were challenged with a real-world issue and were asked to come up with their own solution on how to overcome these issues. A comparison was made between manual process and a automated process, which highlighted benefits of using a robot.
Stäubli provided a training cell for the "Merck challenge" that included a TX2-60 robot in a very compact and safe setting to train or educate.
The training cell can be customized to your needs. Following options are available:
The students had no or minimal prior knowledge about robotics and never worked on a Stäubli robot. After an initial introduction to the teach pendant and the software, the students worked over 3 days on their own solution.
The feedback that Stäubli received from the students was very positive and even without prior programming knowledge within a short amount of the time everyone felt comfortable using the industrial robot.
The training cell provided the level of safety and ease of use to the students and teachers which is very important. By providing a hands-on experience together with Merck & Co. and the Community College, Stäubli is eager to bring automation to the next generation.
