Central Research Laboratories

What Central Research Laboratories does

Central Research Laboratories (CRL) is a U.S.-based engineering and manufacturing company founded in 1945 in Red Wing, Minnesota by three MIT graduates. It designs and produces remote handling, transfer, and containment solutions for hazardous and sterile material handling, organized into three core product families: telemanipulators (mechanical master-slave arms in one-piece and three-piece configurations), transfer systems built around Alpha/Beta rapid transfer ports with mechanical interlocks and compatible single-use bags, and glove port/sleeve interfaces for isolators and gloveboxes. The company operates from a single Red Wing campus that includes an ISO Class 7 cleanroom and houses production departments for machining, assembly, and inspection.

CRL serves four primary verticals: nuclear (hot cell operations, radioactive material handling), life science and biopharmaceutical (aseptic manufacturing, fill-finish, cell and gene therapy), radiopharmaceutical (medical isotope and PET agent production), and cleanroom pharmaceutical manufacturing. Named customers span U.S. national laboratories (Idaho, Oak Ridge, Argonne), radiopharma specialists (NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, Lawson Health Research Institute), and the broader biopharma/cleanroom market served through distributors. Pricing is quote-based; products are sold direct with global distributor support including an exclusive U.S. partnership with Benchmark Products for Single-Use Beta Bags and a long-standing Canadian relationship with Canada Clean Room.

Revenue is generated through hardware product sales (telemanipulators, transfer systems, bags, accessories), recurring preventive maintenance contracts offered in 1-3 year increments, spare parts, and custom engineering services. CRL holds ISO 9001:2015 certification (TUV Rheinland) and ASME NQA-1 nuclear quality compliance, and operates as part of DESTACO's Engineered Systems segment, with DESTACO itself part of a larger privately held industrial group.

Name

Central Research Laboratories

Legal name

Central Research Laboratories Inc.

Website

https://crlsolutions.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1945

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Central Research Laboratories designs and manufactures remote handling, transfer, and containment solutions, including telemanipulators, Alpha/Beta rapid transfer ports, and single-use bags, for nuclear, radiopharmaceutical, and biopharmaceutical customers in over 22 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Remote Handling and Containment Equipment

NAICS

Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing (3391)

SIC

Laboratory Apparatus & Furniture (3821)

akta.pro primary industry

Lab Safety, PPE & Contamination Control (Hoods, Biosafety Cabinets, Clean Air) (HLAGAIAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Laboratory Consumables & Plasticware (Tips, Tubes, Plates, Filters) (HLAGAIAH), Diagnostic & Laboratory Packaging (Specimen Containers, Transport Tubes) (IMALAIAF)

Keywords

• Remote handling systems
• Telemanipulator manufacturing
• Transfer port systems
• Nuclear containment solutions
• Sterile material handling

Headquarters

HQ city

Red Wing

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Hardware Product Sales: Sale of telemanipulators, transfer systems (Alpha/Beta ports), glove ports, single-use bags, and related accessories. Products available in standard configurations and custom designs based on customer application requirements.
2. Preventive Maintenance and Service Contracts: Annual or multi-year maintenance contracts covering inspection, adjustment, parts replacement, and repair services. Includes yearly preventative maintenance programs available in one, two, or three year increments. Emergency service also available.
3. Spare Parts: Sale of replacement parts for all CRL manipulator models and transfer system components including doors, seals, and accessories.
4. Customization and Engineering Services: Custom product development and engineering services for specific application needs. Applications support team designs optimal, cost-effective solutions for customer requirements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Central Research Laboratories (CRL) designs and manufactures customized remote handling, transfer, and containment solutions for hazardous and sterile material handling applications. The company's core product portfolio includes telemanipulators (one-piece and three-piece mechanical master/slave arm systems), Alpha/Beta Rapid Transfer Ports (ERTP) for contamination-free material transfer, glove ports and DURABLE glove sleeve systems for isolator access, and single-use beta bags for aseptic manufacturing. Products are sold in standard configurations or custom-engineered for nuclear, radiopharmaceutical, and life science/biopharmaceutical customers.

Product overview

Central Research Laboratories (CRL) offers a comprehensive portfolio of remote handling, transfer, and containment solutions organized into three core product categories: Telemanipulators, Transfer Systems, and Glove Ports. The Telemanipulators line includes one-piece models (Model G Series: G-LD, G-LDC, G-HD) for radiopharma applications and three-piece sealed models (L, R, VERSA) for heavy-duty nuclear work. Transfer Systems center on the Alpha/Beta Rapid Transfer Port (ERTP) architecture, complemented by Beta Assemblies including Standard Beta Containers, Single-Use Beta Bags, and Single-Use Double Bags with enhanced ring-of-concern protection. Glove Ports provide operator access interfaces in Fixed and Push-Through configurations, with the DURABLE™ Glove Sleeve System as an accessory. A Waste Drum Transfer System completes the containment workflow. Products are available in standard sizes with extensive customization options for specific application requirements.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CRL Solutions: The commercial brand name used on the company website (crlsolutions.com) for marketing remote handling, transfer, and containment solutions.
• CRL

Products and services

• Telemanipulators

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 8,000 telemanipulators in operation globally
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Canada Clean Room (CCR)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 31 October 2022Canada Clean Room (CCR), based in Ottawa, Ontario, is CRL's Canadian distributor partner. For more than 30 years CCR has supplied products for use in cleaning and disinfecting of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and microelectronic clean rooms. CCR distributes CRL's complete lines of Single-Use Beta Bags, Rapid Transfer Ports, and Telemanipulators in Canada.
• Benchmark ProductscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 11 June 2020Benchmark Products serves as the exclusive U.S. distributor of Suite® Single-Use Beta Bags. Through this collaboration, Benchmark Products incorporates the Single-Use Beta Bag product line into their Suite® product collection, providing customers access to additional services including inventory and custom kitting options.
• DestacoflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRL operates as part of DESTACO's Engineered Systems operating segment. Destaco is a global leader in high-performance automation, workholding, and remote-handling solutions. CRL's family of products is part of Destaco's portfolio including Destaco Manual Clamps, Power Clamps, CAMCO™ and Ferguson™ Indexers, Robohand™ Grippers, and CRL™ Remote Handling Solutions.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Inert Technology: Inert Technology supplies gloveboxes, isolators, and containment systems for pharmaceutical, nuclear, and research applications — overlapping with CRL's glove port and contained-handling portfolio but at smaller scale.

Direct peers

• Comecer (ATS Group): Comecer manufactures hot cells, isolators, and shielded containment systems for radiopharma and nuclear medicine — directly overlapping with CRL's telemanipulator and transfer-port portfolio across CRL's primary customer segments.
• Extract Technology: Extract Technology designs and manufactures containment and isolation systems for pharmaceutical and chemical processing, including transfer ports and isolators that overlap with CRL's life science containment offering.
• Getinge: Getinge's DPTE® Alpha/Beta transfer port system is the industry-standard interface that CRL's Single-Use Bags and ERTP are explicitly designed to interoperate with, making Getinge the most direct competitor in aseptic transfer and containment for life science and nuclear applications.
• MBRAUN: MBRAUN produces gloveboxes, isolators, and inert-gas containment systems used in pharmaceutical, nuclear, and battery research — competing with CRL on glove ports and contained transfer equipment for life science and nuclear customers.
• Glovebox Technology: Glovebox Technology builds customized gloveboxes and containment systems for nuclear, pharmaceutical, and research facilities, directly competing with CRL's glove port and contained transfer product lines.
• Tema Systems: Tema Systems manufactures rapid transfer ports and contained transfer solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, offering a directly competing product line to CRL's ERTP and Alpha/Beta transfer systems.

Others

• Hosokawa Micron Group: Hosokawa Micron provides containment and isolation technology for pharmaceutical and chemical processing as part of its broader powder and particle processing portfolio — adjacent to CRL's containment focus but oriented to a different primary use case.

Broad incumbents

• Labconco: Labconco manufactures laboratory equipment including fume hoods, gloveboxes, and biosafety cabinets — competing at the lab-safety/containment intersection but as a broad laboratory equipment incumbent rather than a remote-handling specialist.
• Esco Pharma: Esco Pharma offers a broad portfolio of cleanroom, containment, and isolation equipment for the pharmaceutical industry, including isolators and transfer solutions that overlap with CRL's containment offering but as part of a much wider life-science equipment catalog.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCDfIa6pbZruSfqUGMLc-Dlg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/central-research-laboratories-crl

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Central Research Laboratories