New solution for transport and sorting of laboratory samples

Swisslog Healthcare announces the implementation of a custom-made integration of TranspoNet with laboratory equipment to fully automate the transport, sorting and processing of samples in the laboratory.

Skåne University Hospital has units in both Malmö and Lund and provides highly specialized care, thanks to a total of 12,000 employees belonging to more than 100 different professions and occupations.

In the 800-bed hospital in Lund, a pneumatic tube system by Swisslog Healthcare has already been in use since 2015. The system serves bed wards and special departments like pharmacy, blood test department, several laboratories and operation theaters with a network of tubes covering almost 10 km. The hospital’s laboratory is now being modernized and upgraded to automatic operation, to release bio engineers and bio technicians from the task of sorting and processing samples.

To support Lund Hospital goals, Swisslog Healthcare, together with our partner LT Automation in Denmark, developed a customized integration unit, which connects TranspoNet with the laboratory automation provided by Siemens Healthineers.

The project will be jointly developed by LT Automation, the Swisslog Healthcare Customer Care team in the Nordics, and our Technology Center in Westerstede, Germany. Further great contribution comes from our experts from R&D and Product Management.

The project consists in deploying a robot-controlled sorting system. The TranspoNet special station will receive, sort and process samples based on a very advanced vision system and software. The special station also contains a highly flexible KUKA robot which can be further customized in the future, in case the needs of the hospital change over time.

The system is able to handle up to 2,500 samples per hour. Carriers that bring samples to the laboratory are automatically returned to the sending destination after discarding to ensure permanent system availability .

With an order volume of just under one million euros, this is the largest order for the modernization of existing facilities in the Nordics up to now.

Swisslog Healthcare’s pneumatic tube transport is the globally leading technology for transport and tracking of light goods in healthcare institutions. The PTS business consists of two product lines TranspoNet and TransLogic, that address different needs of different markets – serving 3,000 customers around the globe.