Minimizing Leaks through Technical Partnership: Invio Automation and Uson

Everything leaks.

This is the unfortunate reality of any container carrying liquid or gas. The challenge is determining the acceptable leak rate of a given vessel and the magnitude of a leak that would fail the system.

“When we engage with customers, they often don’t know what’s good and what’s bad in terms of a leak rate,” says Keith Knight, Director of Business Development at Invio Automation. “It’s not uncommon to hear ‘this part can’t leak’. The reality is that everything leaks. Even a space shuttle in outer space leaks.”

Closer to home, leak testing is critical for manufacturing processes of all kinds. The key lies in designing an acceptable test method and leak rate during manufacturing to balance performance criteria with operational goals. Establishing the appropriate leak rate for a vessel or product is crucial to achieving intended efficiency and meeting manufacturing objectives. Uson is the premiere global provider of leak testing equipment and solutions for the medical device, automotive, electric vehicle, industrial and packaging industries. And the partner they recommend for leak testing, particularly in automating portions of the process, is Invio Automation.

Uson is the premiere global provider of leak testing equipment and solutions for the medical device, automotive, electric vehicle, industrial and packaging industries. And the partner they recommend for leak testing, particularly in automating portions of the process, is Invio Automation.

Automated Leak Testing System (Image: Invio Automation.)

The partnership between Invio and Uson leak testing equipment

For 65 years, Invio Automation has designed, implemented, and sustained automation for the world’s largest operations. The company, with over 400 people across 6 production sites, is a full-service automation partner, helping manufacturers solve their most difficult challenges.

So it makes sense that for decades, Uson has turned to Invio.

The partnership is one of problem solving. Uson creates leak testing instruments, and Invio automates manufacturing processes. Knight calls the collaboration “very natural,” because when Invio works with customers around leak testing, burst testing or occlusion testing, customers often ask them about additional process support.

“What we realized was that there were efficiencies to be gained by having Uson focus on how the instrument measures a leak, which is their core IP and executional expertise, while Invio focuses on the integration and the automation to the instrument,” Knight says.

The importance of leak testing in medical devices

As Knight notes, everything leaks. That’s bad for a space shuttle, but it’s also problematic for people using medical devices. For a person with diabetes who uses a wearable device for insulin delivery, accurate delivery of their medication is critical.

“You can leak test the reservoir that holds the insulin, but you also need to ensure that the delivery path is not occluded, because then patients are not getting the treatment they’re expecting,” Knight says. “You might need to conduct both those tests on the same device, and they might be the same instrument depending on how the instrument is configured.”

One of the best examples of Invio integrating a critical leak test solution is a project related to leak testing a PCR point of care (POC) test during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 PCR testing had become a bottleneck to diagnosing

patients infected with COVID-19, and a major life science company engaged Invio to expedite their overall production equipment, including a 48-up leak test.

COVID-19 Disposable Test Assembly System (Image: Invio Automation.)

The system’s original specification utilized a water gravity test for leak testing, which could not be automated and did not have qualitative acceptance criteria. “Our product had to be 100% leak-free because there couldn’t be any failures out in the field during COVID testing,” Knight says. Invio worked with Uson to develop the test method and meet performance criteria and cycle time requirements.  This involved tightly integrating the Uson leak tester with the fixturing to minimize volume and improved sensitivity. The end result was a highly flexible solution which was scaled from manual stations to a fully automated solution.

“We ran the leak test process on the Uson instrument with our fixturing blind, the customer didn’t tell us which parts were good and which were bad.  We confirmed a 100% success rate,” he says. “We caught every single leak and passed every good part. We then conducted a technology validation to transfer that knowledge into a 48-up leak test solution that was in line with our assembly process. This allowed us to offer a single machine executing both assembly and test of the COVID-19 test consumable.”

Designing worry-free systems: The Invio impact

Where Uson really shines, Knight says, is catching failed parts and identifying good ones.

“They understand all levels of leak testing and have developed a full line of instruments — so that’s science for them, truly ironclad, locked down by their development team,” he says. “We can rely on them to solve that portion of the application.”

Leak testing is critical for manufacturing processes of all kinds (

Image: Invio Automation.)

Invio then helps customers with next steps, guiding them through questions like:

• What should the fixturing look like?

• In production, how are we going to test this?

• What level of automation is appropriate?

• What will the user experience be like?

• What are the ergonomics of the system?

“Those are all areas where Invio shines,” he says. “It’s not uncommon for a leak test to be 20 seconds or longer, so if you’re trying to do 400 parts a minute, 600 parts a minute, or even 100 parts a minute, you’re not going to get there with a single leak tester. We guide the discussion and dialogue as to what’s the right approach to make the application both a technical and commercial success.”

Yes, everything leaks. But in a partnership with Invio, leaks are worry-free.

This article appeared in Medical Design & Outsourcing, January 27, 2025