Case Studies

Medical In-Line Barcode Printing and Grading

Medical barcode printing and grading
Posted in Allen Bradley PLC, Application Development, HMI and SCADA, Manufacturing Automation and Intelligence, Medical and Pharmaceutical

Summary

DMC helped a leading manufacturer in the healthcare industry integrate a new Point-of-Care diagnostic product into an existing assembly line by providing Rockwell, Wonderware InTouch and custom .NET solutions.

Solution

DMC helped launch and integrate an in-line barcode printing and in-line barcode grading system to create medical quality 2D barcodes for application on the client's blood test kits used to diagnose a specific medical condition.

The client needed a barcode with calibration curve parameters created and printed to adhere with ISO 15415 medical standard for quality. DMC was tasked with integrating an in-line printing system into the client's existing line that made PoC cartages for measuring levels of certain biomarkers in blood. 

Each printed label needed to have a unique serialized barcode with calibration parameters and checksum. DMC made a custom .Net application using BarTender API to create a unique 2D label for every unit with the ability to show a print preview on the HMI. With the units going through the printer at a rate of two units per second, there needed to be constant communication with the printer to create a different barcode each time it printed.

Omron HAWK MV4000 Zebra ZE500 Print Engines
Omron HAWK MV4000 and Zebra ZE500 Print Engine

Bar codes in the medical industry have a different quality standard that must be met when printing labels. Different inline label printers were researched and tested for quality, speed and performance. There were performance issues with laser and VideoJet printers and in the end, Zebra ZE500 Print Engines printers were used for printing barcodes on cartridge labels. To ensure the quality of the labels, DMC used an inline MV4000 OMRON Vision system to decode each barcode printed on the cartridges, verify data and perform grading checks for ISO 15415 quality standard

Learn more about DMC's PLC, HMI, and Application Development solutions. 

Customer Benefits

  • Cost effective retrofit on client’s existing line
  • Created a new line
  • High-speed printing

Technologies