Medical and Laboratory Consumables
Overview
In medical and laboratory settings, as well as during various self-care situations, there are necessary consumables used to perform tasks and procedures efficiently and safely.
The most competitive and successful medical and laboratory consumable products for the world that we live in today, will only result from attention to detail for performance and usability, combined with a significant focus on design for high volume manufacture and value engineering, balanced with proper and appropriate consideration of sustainability and the overall impact on the world around us.
Our extensive experience in the design of high-volume medical devices and ultra-high volume structural packaging and many other types of consumables, has given us an exceptional understanding and expertise in the large number of design and industrialisation issues that need to be fully addressed to make these products successfully. Our knowledge of material options and their implications, moulding and forming manufacturing technologies, high-speed automated assembly processes, sterilisation techniques and related issues, amongst many other items in this area, is significant.
Consumables for safety and convienience
When you need simplicity, precision and safety
There are many situations where the need for sterility and simplicity to help ensure patient safety means that single-use consumables are a good option or even the only option.
We can support you in reviewing the options relative to the risks and impacts, including advice on sustainability and what the options may be to support reductions in eco-impact.
The operation of such a single-use consumable device intended for use in surgery may require fine control to achieve a precise action at the right moment, this inevitably adds great significance to the attention to design details to achieve the required performance.
The right materials need to be considered relative to the sterilisation techniques as part of design and development, and the device must be designed to work perfectly for its first and only use during its shelf life period.
The device shown is such a product. A surgeon can use the surgical adhesive applicator in two ways to accurately apply small or larger volumes of a surgical adhesive. As a medical consumable, it is quick and accurate to use, helping to speed up the surgical procedure and, by by being a sterilised, pre-filled device, it reduces the burden on the clinicians to ensure a number of aspects of patient safety and thereby helps ensure a more efficient and effective surgical intervention.
For many liquid medications and other healthcare products, a suitable delivery device or applicator is needed to ensure the correct dose is provided in the right way to achieve the appropriate treatment.
Typically, the device must be easy to use, exceptionally reliable, and robust. Adding functionality to remove and replace the drug, or other, contents may be impractical and add unnecessary handling complexities. Often the most appropriate solution is either a single-use device or one that can be used several times before the contents are used.
We have extensive expertise in the design and development of disposable drug delivery devices and other healthcare delivery applicators, ranging from single-use to multi-dose applications. DCA has designed some of the largest production volume and most successful delivery and dispensing products in the world, for its clients.
Learn more about some of our design and development expertise in drug delivery.
When is it right for the drug delivery application to be disposable?
Test and reagent cartridges
For most diagnostic and laboratory settings, consumables are an essential part of the system, whether as a test cartridge to contain and manage the test sample, or as replaceable containers for reagents or other test consumable mediums.
Our extensive experience in the design of high-volume products has given us an exceptional understanding of moulding technologies and high-speed automated assembly. We understand these technologies in-depth, so our designs are initially created and then engineered with detailed consideration for the requirements of high-volume manufacture right from the outset.
We also understand the critical balance that must be struck between cost, performance and environmental impact. In a marketplace that is becoming ever more competitive, the most successful disposable products are those that provide improved functionality as well as system cost efficiency.
Read more about our expertise in the fields of diagnostics and also in scientific and laboratory settings.
Convenient by design
Our extensive experience in design research and our expertise in human factors and usability are often key to successful consumer healthcare and medical consumable devices.
As an example, this highly successful foot care corn treatment applicator, as shown in the accompanying image, was designed and developed to meet the needs of users with a wide range of dexterity limitations.
Read more about our extensive experience with design and development in the area of consumer healthcare.
Sustainability and waste in mind
We also understand the critical balance that must be struck between seemingly conflicting or opposite requirements for functional performance, quality, shelf-life, cost of goods and environmental impact. In a world that is becoming ever more competitive and conscious of waste and our impact on our environment, the most successful disposable products are developed with product lifecycle, material selection and value engineering being key factors.
In this unassuming example, unused latex surgical gloves still in their packaging can be returned to the cardboard dispensing carton, rather than being discarded. A very simple feature yet, following evidence based research findings, highly impactful in reducing waste in its actual use environment.
Designing consumables for the right cost value position
With ever-increasing financial pressures in the healthcare market, focusing on understanding clearly which product features deliver real value is critical. For our expert design research and human factors teams, this is a key focus of our work in order to ensure we help our clients identify and then design the right product solution.
Consumables are often a significant part of the value and cost-benefit consideration. Delivering commercially successful products, especially consumables, always requires detailed attention to all aspects of design for manufacture.
At DCA, our engineers and designers have extensive experience in developing solutions that are produced in all ranges of production volumes. For consumables, this typically means high to ultra high volumes, using fully-automated production lines. We have significant expertise in designing components for low cost, designing for assembly with minimal, or typically, no manual intervention, as well as consideration for quality controls, efficient packing, sterilisation and the needs of the wider supply chain.
Deliver exactly the right solution - nothing less, nothing more - at the best possible low cost
Featured
Helping our clients achieve success through great product design
