Case Study – Technical 2

A company with a well-established reputation for laboratory equipment presented to ITL with a technical challenge for a new design of Thermal Cycler. Many aspects of the design had already been addressed; however the challenge was to take a high number of readings over a short time span and to address the thermal control.

The Challenge :

• To design an indexing system within the footprint allowed.
• To design the hardware and firmware for the read system.
• To design a read system capable of the sampling rate required.
• To provide a heated lid for the consumable whilst incorporating the read system.

The Commercial Constraints :

• The thermal block design was to be retained.
• The transfer cost of the instrument was to be very competitive.
• The casework design was developed by a third party and was to be integrated.

The Market Constraints :

• The read time sensitivity and thermal control should be competitive with the established market.

The Solution:

ITL worked closely with the Client to establish the specifications prior to design. The instrument design was then undertaken with close association with the Client to evaluate its performance during the process. ITL liaised with the casework designer to integrate this to the design. A new mechanism was developed to allow fast sampling over the entirety of a standard laboratory consumable. The thermal control aspects were addressed and a read head developed which generated stable readings.