Melbourne, Australia – 3 DECEMBER 2012 -- MiniFAB (AUST) Pty Ltd and Tearlab Corporation have celebrated the delivery of the 1,000,000th TearLab™ Osmolarity Test Card earlier this year.
TearLAB’s Vice-President of Manufacturing and Engineering, Steve Zmina, presented the MiniFAB Production team with a plaque of achievement while in Melbourne in November.
“Whether MiniFAB were making single cards by hand or manufacturing hundreds of thousands of cards, they never compromised on the quality,” said Steve.
Steve added that MiniFAB manufacture the TCI cards repeatedly to sub-micron tolerances, using a process that is scalable to meet TearLab’s exponential growth.
At the presentation Steve spoke about how MiniFAB and TearLab have grown the product together from a concept in 2006, to prototypes, through small volume production and manufacturing ramp-up, to today where an automated manufacturing process produces over a hundred-thousand cards per month.
Michael Wilkinson, MiniFAB’s Chairman, highlighted the importance of the strong relationship between the two companies and how that has been critical to the success of the product. “I remember back in 2006 leaving the office at 3am and receiving a phone call from our development team and TearLab’s CSO Ben Sullivan who were all still in the labs; ’It’s working!’ they said. It’s that sort of ongoing commitment and collaboration that sees this product and our companies continue to grow,” said Michael.
The TearLab™ Osmolarity Test Card collects 50 nanolitres of tear fluid to test for dry eye disease. At volumes of over 1M cards per annum, MiniFAB manufactures the test cards to a precision of better than 1.5%. This level of engineering precision is critical to the card’s performance and is achieved by MiniFAB’s ability to maintain nano-scale tolerances on complex microfluidic products.
About MiniFAB
MiniFAB is an ISO 13485 certified, privately-held contract engineering firm providing custom development and manufacture of disposable polymer microengineered products. Established in 2002, MiniFAB has completed over 900 projects with partners worldwide. With a flexible and open engagement model, MiniFAB’s product development process covers the entire spectrum, from converting early-stage product concepts into prototypes through to full-scale, high throughput OEM manufacturing. With a focus on lab-on-chip solutions for point-of-care, laboratory, and in-field applications, MiniFAB has delivered custom solutions into diverse markets including medical devices, diagnostics, food packaging and aerospace. For more information, visit www.minifab.com.au.
Media Contact
Laura Faulconer, Business and Marketing Officer
laurafaulconer@minifab.com.au
Tel: +61 3 9764 2241 Mob: +61 413 467 201
1 Dalmore Drive, Scoresby, VIC, 3179, Australia
