Follow the journey of an at-home test kit
April 5, 2021
At-home test kits are more popular than ever and the automated machines that package them play an important role.
In the midst of a global health crisis, safe and efficient packaging of medical supplies, test kits, and pharmaceuticals is essential. Whether your product is related to COVID-19, influenza, antibody presence, or other diagnostics, a reliable, accurate custom pouch packaging system can be configured to meet your exact specifications.
From simple kits to more complex multi-component requirements, a pouch packing machine can efficiently and accurately fill and seal preformed pouches. We can help medical test kit manufacturers quickly scale up, automate production and reduce the human contact that increases the risk of package contamination.
Here’s an example of that journey. Follow the map to learn about the path an at-home medical test kit takes after it leaves the manufacturing stage.
Leg 1
Package the medical test kit into a premade pouch
Load pouches into machine and print lot/date code •
Inspect lot and date code on pouches with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) ••
Open premade pouches
Robot picks kit components from a conveyor or bulk holding area and places into pouch •••
Inspect package seal area for proper product placement
Seal the pouch
Send the finished pouch onto the takeaway conveyor
Complete packaging by adding an end-of-line solution such as case packing, carton packing, and palletizing.
Leg 2
Kits leave the manufacturer and land in your mailbox
Leg 3
Use the kit and return it to the lab
Read the directions get ready to collect your sample
Wash and dry your hands before opening the kit
Do the test, Send it back to the lab Await results
• The popular automatic premade pouch packaging machine is designed to house a printer, which allows the addition of a date or lot code onto the medical kit pouch. Depending on a manufacturer’s throughput needs, a pouch packing machine can be configured to package 1, 2, or 4 medical test kits at once.
•• Quality control is of utmost importance in the medical packaging industry. Many manufacturers of medical test kits and devices opt for vision inspection multiple times during the packaging process.
••• Using a robot to pick and place kit components into a pouch eliminates the need for manual picking and placing, as some of these packaging processes are rather labor-intensive, precise, and time-consuming. Differing robotic configurations depend on packaging needs. The choice is dependent on client specifications and budget.
