Laboratory equipment design
Tecnic, a manufacturer of laboratory machines, had to develop a desktop version of their automated pipetting robot. Targeting small laboratories, the design needed to be substantially reduced in size without the losing any functionalities. ManGo Product Design was contracted for the design, engineering of all mechatronics, machine building and project management.
Client
Tecnic, Netherlands
Services
Research, Design strategy, Concept development, Prototyping, Design for manufacturing
UN Goal
Mechatronics engineering
A pipetting robot is like a small factory which automates the labor-intensive process. The Tecnic InoBot S uses Petrifilm’s which are paper Petri dishes developed by 3M. The tasks which had to be executed by the machine:
- Automated dispensing of PetriFilms (paper Petri dish from 3M
- Picking up and dropping of pipetting tip
- Drawing, diluting and dispensing fluids
- Opening, closing and pressing the PetriFilm
- Dispensing a micro drop of fluid from the pipet on the Petrifilm
- Printing labels and applying to the Petrifilm
- Picking and moving of Petrifilms to correct trays
Quite a complex machine for which off-the-shelf mechanisms were either too large or expensive. For most mechatronics completely new systems were engineered by us from scratch: XYZ positioning mechanisms, moving platforms, label printer applicators, etc.
Cost engineering
Besides reducing the size, the manufacturing costs had to be lowered substantially as well and the working prototype finished in 6 months. To enable meeting the tight deadline and streamlining co-operation with the PLC programmers of Tecnic three mechanical engineers from ManGo worked on location for the project’s duration.
After six months of design, engineering and the assembly of over 3.500 components, the pipetting robot came together. And with some iterations during the process, it worked flawlessly. Adding to this success story our engineers were able to develop the pipetting robot with a bill of materials that was 50% lower as initially requested by Tecnic.
See more life science product design by ManGo:
Medical & Health, Electronics IoT
Home monitoring of health and disease with Higo
Medical & Health
Preventing child mortality in Africa with GOAL3
Medical & Health
Measuring brain activity with TMSI
Medical & Health
Getting in shape with Lifemaxx
Medical & Health
Vicair wheelchair positioning monitor
Medical & Health
Snorebreaker wearable device
Let’s work
Together
Inspired to dive into the lab with us for your product development? Contact us today.