DIAGNOSTICS
↖ The PSC layers are placed in the workpiece carrier of the XTS mover using vacuum grippers and dynamically transported to the production and testing stations. Credit: Beckhoff Automation.
Flexible Production Makes Roche’s HIV Test Innovation a Success AARON HAND, EDITOR AT LARGE TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS 1. Roche designed a plasma separation card that greatly simplifies blood sampling and transport.
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2. Production was cost-effective due to Beckhoff Automation’s flexible, compact eXtended Transport System.
lose to 38 million people in the world were living with HIV— the virus that causes AIDS—by the end of 2018, and some 8 million of those people did not know they were living with the virus, according to UNAIDS. Roche, a leader in personalized medicine, aims to help curb the public health threat through improved examination and monitoring of HIV patients. The company has developed a novel test device to make this possible. In turn, that breakthrough was made possible through advances in production technologies from Beckhoff Automation. At its site in Mannheim, Germany, Roche developed a new plasma separation card (PSC) that not only requires just a small amount of blood from a patient’s fingertip, but it also greatly simplifies sample transport. For the first time, blood plasma samples no longer need to be cooled during transport to the laboratory. This is particularly important given that more than two-thirds of the people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. The cobas PSC significantly changes the way plasma samples are taken and prepared and facilitates reliable quantitative testing even
3. The card features a carrier layer with a bonded nonwoven fabric and an upper layer for protection and labeling.
in environments with extreme heat and humidity. Roughly a credit card in size, the stable and easy-to-use blood plasma sampling card was achievable through Beckhoff ’s eXtended Transport System (XTS), a flexible, compact and dynamic production technology that allows it to be made cost-effectively. The Beckhoff XTS is central to the compact (3.5 x 3 m) machine that makes the cobas PSC. The mechanical engineering specialists in Roche’s Manufacturing Service & Technology department had just two years to get the project ready for production. As a highly flexible transport system, the XTS helped the production unit adapt to changing requirements during the development process. Its software-based functionality, which is easy to modify, means that process optimizations can be implemented quickly. The complex structure of the PSC makes this particularly important. “A carrier layer is used for mechanical fixation,” describes Lukas Nagel, specialist engineer at Roche’s Mannheim site. “Next, a thin adhesive layer attaches to the plasma-separating membrane. Underneath is a non-woven material separated with a chemical stabilizer
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