OMRON Smart robotics enables flexible production of rapid coronavirus antibody tests at Senova User Manual

Smart robotics enables flexible
production of rapid coronavirus
antibody tests at Senova

German medical technology expert Senova cooperated
with OMRON and Kraus Maschinenbau GmbH to pioneer
the factory of the future.

The coronavirus crisis has caused untold damage to
the personal health and  nances of people throughout
the world, as well as damaging national economies.
However, industry has been able to play a key role in
developing solutions that can mitigate the crisis.

Senova brought the  rst coronavirus antibody rapid test to the market in
record time.

For instance, the retail, manufacturing and public sectors are
increasingly turning to innovative robotics, sensors and AI
(artifi cial intelligence) technologies to ease the pressure on
employees, accelerate processes and improve compliance
with hygiene requirements. The Technical University of
Darmstadt reports that the acceptance of robots has
increased signifi cantly in recent months.

Companies wanting to benefi t from this trend need to
act quickly and to form partnerships with organisations
that have expertise in these areas. The power of such
co-operation has been illustrated recently by the work
carried out by German medical technology company,
Senova, in conjunction with robotics experts from OMRON
and mechanical engineering specialists from Kraus
Maschinenbau GmbH. Senova is a leading developer and
manufacturer of rapid test systems for marking biomarkers,
viruses and microorganisms.

Working closely together over the past six months, the three
companies have developed and built production machines
that include smart robotics. These have automated,
accelerated and improved the very time-consuming manual

Components of the exible COVID-19 test kit production include the Quattro 650 H four-axis parallel robots.

production of coronavirus antibody rapid tests. This met a
vital need, as the increased testing of more and more people
for the virus meant that the production of kits had to be
hugely ramped up. At the same time, there needed to be
more interlinked production and packaging.

The new, rapid antibody test

Senova specialises in lateral flow assay (LFA) technology.
Some 30 employees are involved in the research,
development, production, sales, logistics, quality
management and assurance. Senova’s most recent - and
most popular - product is a rapid COVID-19 antibody test.
This shows within ten minutes whether someone has already
been infected with the virus.

An international research team, including the Jena Leibniz
Institute for Photonic Technologies (Leibniz-IPHT), developed
the test. It has been available since spring 2020. A blood
sample shows whether someone is currently infected
with the virus or is already immune. There are two types
of antibodies. The IgM antibodies are found in the blood
a few days after infection, whilst IgG antibodies are only
formed during the course of the infection. They often remain
detectable for months and indicate an existing immunity.

This enables people including caregivers, nurses or doctors to
find out whether they are immune to the virus. The research

team completed the tests together with Chinese partners
and a medical device distributor, Servoprax, and confirmed
their effectiveness. As a result, Senova brought the first
coronavirus antibody rapid test to the market in record time.

The need to boost production

Due to the worldwide demand for the new tests, Senova
needs to produce them in ever-increasing quantities. The
previous manual production and packaging of the test kits
was unable to keep up with the thousands of order requests.
The company therefore needed a more flexible, faster and
more reliable way of manufacturing and packaging the test
kits – all within a very tight timescale. A machine would ease
the pressure on employees by streamlining and combining
the various work steps (such as cutting the test strips
and packaging) much more efficiently. The concept and
implementation needed to be carried out particularly quickly
to meet the demand - and to help contain the spread of the
virus.

Joachim Kraus, Managing Director of Kraus Maschinenbau
GmbH, comments on the start of the project: “Senova
asked how the feeding of the packaging pouches could
be automated in the best possible way. In the following
discussions, we worked with the customer to develop an
overall concept for feeding and packaging the test cassettes
for the rapid antibody test.”