Double wrapping improves Cardinal's health

Healthcare provider Cardinal Health upgrades its surgical kit operations with new shrink-wrapping equipment.

A 'double-wrapping' system overwraps each surgical kit case in 1.5-mil pe film. First, the case is wrapped as it moves end-first
A "double-wrapping" system overwraps each surgical kit case in 1.5-mil pe film. First, the case is wrapped as it moves end-first

For years, workers at Cardinal Health’s manufacturing facility in Waukegan, IL, loaded sealed boxes of packaged surgical procedure kits into 3-mil low- or linear-low-density polyethylene bags, then taped the bags shut. Because the bags would snag up or tear on the existing conveyor system, they were palletized and taken manually to the company’s stretch wrapping, storage, and shipping functions. Labor costs were considered unsatisfactory. The company also believed the bagged, labeled boxes were unattractive for its hospital customers, who had to identify the kits and store them in central supply areas.

“These kits are used in the operating room,” explains Jeff Cavil, senior principal engineer at the McGaw Park facility. “We can’t have a dirty box that’s gone through the shipping environment going into the operating room. So that’s the purpose of having an outer film wrap, which is removed by hospital staff, in receiving, before they send it to a central supply area, which is usually in a clean room at a hospital.”

To treat its packaging ailments, Cardinal Health early last year “implanted” a system from EDL Packaging Engineers. Cardinal Health and EDL created the system so that it would integrate into the company’s conveyor and manufacturing system.

The key to the system is EDL’s Double Wrapper that wraps each box twice with 1.5-mil low-density polyethylene film, once end forward and a second time side forward. The double wrapping results in two layers of film at the corners and beneath the box. “These are the typical wear points on the box where there’s often incidental contact,” says Cavil.

After the second wrap, boxes are conveyed through a heat tunnel that shrinks the film tightly onto the corrugated.

The film-overwrapped boxes of kits, each of which is known as a Procedure-Based Delivery System (PBDS), are now conveyed downstream without incident. The clear film also makes the pack more attractive to hospitals. Film is removed by a hospital staffer before the clean, white-lined boxes are delivered to the Operating Room, where the components are separated.

The EDL equipment was added in early 2003 not only at Waukegan, but also at Cardinal’s facilities in California and New York. Each facility ships kits to hospitals and freestanding surgery centers within its geographic market.

Cavil explains that each PBDS includes products required for a specific surgery, such as a hip or knee replacement, cesarean section, or heart-bypass operation (though the last would require two boxes).

“The same surgical procedure may require custom items for different surgeons or different hospitals,” adds Catherine Heft, project engineer. During a recent Packaging World visit to the Waukegan site, Cavil and Heft explained that a kit may contain anywhere from 15 to 150 items. A kit’s total weight can range from 5 to 65 lb. Kits can include IV bottles, anesthesia subassemblies, surgical drapes and gowns, sutures, needles, pumps, mop heads, even personal goods such as shampoo and deodorant. Cardinal Health makes many of these products; others come from dozens of other leading manufacturers. Some products come prepackaged, some sterilized prior to their repacking by Cardinal Health.

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