Med-Tech Innovation Products and Services
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Partnering for Your Product Upgrade How contracting with a
manufacturing partner can add to the success of a product upgrade
Trek Diagnostic Systems, which was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific in June 2011, required assistance in updating its established family of Sensititre instruments. It needed a manufacturing partner to introduce new concepts for improved laboratory workflows, superior technical and diagnostic performance and reduced costs of ownership. For this, the partner had to demonstrate a proven track record in delivering high quality medical products and be capable of supporting Trek through every stage of the new product development, FDA approval and manufacture. The company selected instrumentation design consultancy and manufacturer, Integrated Technologies Ltd (ITL).
Current products The Sensititre range already provides a customisable system for studying the growth of bacteria and yeasts and their susceptibility to different forms of antibiotic treatments. Samples under test are introduced in accurately controlled doses to 96 test wells in the microtitre plate. Plates are dosed to individual customers’ required mix, spread and strength of different antibiotics. These are then pre-injected and dried onto the surface of the individual plate wells, together with fixed quantities of a fluorescent substrate. Doses are administered in 50 µL or 100 µL suspensions and injected into each well by a dosing head. The head is designed to deliver a precisely controlled “slug” of liquid to minimise aerosol generation and ensure a safe and accurate quantity is delivered. As the cultures grow in the wells, the added fluorescence reacts to the growing bacteria. This is exploited to automatically identify their presence and accurately monitor and measure their growth and the associated minimum inhibitory concentration across multiple, controlled anti-bacterial test conditions.
The challenge With newer techniques, ergonomics, lightweight materials and improved optical sources available, the two teams got together to look at all the concepts available to improve the Sensititre products. Allin Winter, International Technical Services Manager at Trek said, “We quickly identified many ways to help increase laboratory efficiency and reduce the cost of manufacturing. The challenge was to deliver all of these benefits in our new Aim and OptiRead products.”
The results ITL was instrumental in identifying important design improvements, Flexible laser workstation
JK Lasers has introduced the JK System 5000 flexible workstation that can be integrated with lasers from the JK Fiber and Nd:YAG ranges. The System 5000 has a variety of customisable options, making it a versatile solution for many cutting, welding and drilling applications.
40 ¦ November/December 2011
which resulted in immediate measurable benefits. A smaller, lighter, low power LED source was identified for the OptiRead, which delivered much improved optical performance over the existing Xenon solution. Winter commented, ”The LED source was a great step forward, but we knew that to maintain our FDA approval, the new Optiread would have to match the optical profile of the existing system. ITL came up with a great solution, doing a lot of work to map the LED optical profile onto the Xenon lamp in software.” Combining the optics with improved mechanics, ITL also completely
re-designed the scan head positioning, moving the panel instead of the optics and reducing scanning time from 30 seconds to 12 seconds. Other ergonomic and user interface improvements have also been made such as language-free icon driven displays for ease of operation and reduced risk of user error. Winter added, “The key advantage for us was that the team at ITL took care of everything from development to production with no transition to a different manufacturer. Thanks largely to ITL’s skills and regulatory knowledge, we have already achieved FDA approval for Aim and are just about to for OptiRead; this is a great achievement in the timeframe.” Integrated Technologies Ltd Tel. +44 (0)1233 638 383,
www.itl.co.uk
These options include linear and rotary axes, process tools and scan heads, and proprietary software that closely couples motion and laser control. System 5000 has an integrated Class I safety enclosure with viewing panel and can be safely installed into most industrial premises. JK Lasers
+44 (0)1788 570 321,
www.gsig.com www.med-techinnovation.com
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