Today, many development projects for life science and in-vitro diagnostic applications have a need for early prototyping and a requirement for high quality micro and/or nanostructures. Quality is of the utmost importance, but so is the choice of an appropriate design and materials to facilitate mass manufacturing at a later stage. In view of this, the early involvement of injection molding companies like STRATEC is becoming an ever more important
factor to ensure a smooth transition from early prototypes to mass manufacturing later on. Of course, the regulatory documentation requirements for in vitro diagnostic devices render time and cost-efficient early prototyping almost impossible. To broach this issue, STRATEC now offers high-quality early prototyping, which is unencumbered by the need for full regulatory oversight.
WHY PROTOWERK?
Reliable Prototyping
All processes used, including mastering, molding, coating, bonding and assembly, are well within our know-how
Smooth Transfer
Typical issues when transferring from other prototyping techniques such as PDMS and/or printing or hot embossing to development and serial production are avoided
Drives Innovation
Our Protowerk uses standard processes and is also able to innovate in areas such as testing new materials, bonding methods, or coatings
Example of Protowerk
In the large majority of cases, we suggest working with a disc format so that our mastering and injection molding techniques create parts with this initial format. To accommodate your required footprint for the microfluidic chip, milling is the prototyping method of choice, generating the outer contour and through holes for your fluid connectors. Depending on the requirements of your application, we use solvent bonding, laser welding or PSA to create your fluidic device.
Different types of connectors are available to interface with your test setup, ranging from standard luer locks to STRATEC specific inlets. Applying these processes has achieved high-quality flowcells containing microwells – in this case, our customers successfully implemented their cell-sorting platform!
Providing an early-stage prototype can mark the beginning of a fruitful long-term collaboration with STRATEC! Our customers then typically need time to test the application and raise funds for the next development steps. We would be very pleased to support this phase with our expertise. Here, we can provide you with the data and facts you need for your business case, such as part price calculations, investment costs including planned workflow, and development effort. We would also be glad to support you with our extensive network of connections, putting you in touch with large diagnostic companies or investors – should this be of interest to you.
Returning to our customer case example: Our customer is currently applying for funds using our microfluidic device as a prototype for investor demonstrations. We wish them every success for the funding round and hope to continue the development work soon in our Development group!
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Protowerk and how does it fit into the collaboration process?
Protowerk offers a unique and flexible entry point for initiating collaboration with STRATEC Consumables. It enables early-stage activities such as material evaluations, mastering, molding, bonding, coating tests, and content loading using existing STRATEC Consumables tooling and infrastructure.
The approach combines flexible prototyping methods — for example dicing to achieve the required footprint — with processes that are already comparable to later serial manufacturing. This allows rapid feasibility assessment and prototype development while minimizing the need for dedicated tooling and high upfront investments during the early research and development phase, yet still meeting the required application needs and specifications.
- What are the typical timelines involved when working with Protowerk?
Simple activities such as content loading tests or material evaluations — for example providing COP-based flow cells or slides — can typically be realized within a few working days. A more comprehensive dedicated prototyping run, including mastering, molding, bonding, coating, and assembly, is typically completed within approximately three months.
- What is the advantage of STRATEC’s prototyping approach?
The approach combines early feasibility testing with scalable manufacturing processes, enabling fast iteration while ensuring compatibility with later industrial production without requiring significant early tooling investments.
collaborate with us
Daniel Horner, Teamlead Project Evaluation
Iris Prinz, Head of Business Development & Sales
Matthias Mösl, Teamlead Protowerk
