Chromatography is often the most critical step in biopharmaceutical downstream processing because of its role as the engine for separating impurities from target biologics. The most demanding operation in production scale chromatography is typically packing the column in a way that ensures first time success and a validation result which meets the batch record standards. Traditionally column packing has been the responsibility of a few specialist operators and has been regarded almost as an art by most observers. When the…