The laboratory automation market accounts for approximately 7% of the analytical and life sciences instrumentation market. It consists of four technology categories: liquid handling, microplate readers, management informatics and robotics. It is a medium-sized market and consists of technologies designed to automate repetitive laboratory procedures to increase the speed, efficiency and accuracy of work done in the lab. It helps organize and govern the workflow for increased overall productivity.

The laboratory automation market is hardware dependent and is driven by sales of initial systems and service, which accounted for 55% and 20% of the market, respectively, in 2013. In 2013, demand for the overall market increased slightly to $3.0 billion. Market growth was fueled by solid demand in Asia. The mainstream markets, including the US and Europe, were somewhat mature, with growth driven mainly by sales of replacement systems. Japanese sales posted a sharp decline, primarily due to currency effects.

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries account for the largest lab automation end-market. Drug discovery is the most significant application area. However, demand from drug development labs have become an important segment of the market, particularly for electronic lab notebooks (ELNs). Demand from clinical research and molecular diagnostics labs represents a large and growing segment of the market, mainly for liquid handling products. Demand from CROs is also expected to drive growth.

For 2014, the laboratory automation market is forecast to increase 4.8% to $3.2 billion, elevated by solid sales growth for liquid handling products and management informatics. The liquid handling market includes manual and handheld pipettes and automated workstations, which together accounted for 41% of the laboratory automation market in 2013. Eppendorf and Mettler-Toledo lead the handheld pipette market, which is fueled by continued expansion in Asia Pacific. Tecan and Beckman Coulter (Danaher) lead the automated workstations market. IBO forecasts the liquid handling market to increase 4.2% in 2014, driven by demand from clinical diagnostics and sequencing-related applications.

The laboratory automation market is a fragmented market, with the top five companies accounting for about half of the market. Tecan leads the market with approximately 14% market share. PerkinElmer and Thermo Fisher Scientific account for 10% and 9% of the market, respectively, while Danaher and Eppendorf each have 8%.

The microplate readers market, which includes high-throughput screening readers, multimode single detection systems and microplate washers, accounted for about 30% of the lab automation market last year. The market is forecast to increase 5.2% this year due to strong growth in initial systems sales. Multimode readers account for the largest segment. market, PerkinElmer and Molecular Devices (Danaher) are the leading microplate reader vendors .

The laboratory robotics market consists of automated workcells and platforms, sample storage systems, and robotic arms and stackers. The market for robotics accounts for 11% of the laboratory automation market and is forecast to increase 4.5% in 2014 due to demand from the clinical research, molecular diagnostics and pharmaceutical end-markets. While workcells account for the largest segment of this market, demand for automated sample storage systems and biobanking continues to be a key driver of growth. Overall, the demand for components and service is relatively high for robotics compared to other lab automation technologies due to the requirement for increased uptime and productivity.

Management informatics software consists of laboratory information management systems (LIMS), ELNs, laboratory execution systems (LES) and scientific data management systems (SDMS). This market is expected to be the fastest growing segment of the lab automation market in 2014, increasing 5.8%, fueled by ELN and LES demand. The leading vendors are LabWare and Thermo, mainly due to their LIMS.