The global pandemic has forced many to reassess – but it has also encouraged new ideas and innovations. One such innovation saw a switch from the development of a low-cost electronic reader to test for urinary tract infections, to a COVID-19 Lamp device.
Alex Blondek
Prior to the pandemic Welsh design engineering company GX was assisting researchers from University of South Wales (USW) to design a urinary analyser. When the pandemic struck the scientists enlisted GX’s design engineers to repurpose the designs to build a machine to detect COVID-19.
Turning an idea into commercial reality
A new spinout company, Llusern Scientific was founded by the USW scientists and funding secured from the Welsh Government. This allowed GX and other Welsh industry partners to start the project.
Online collaborative working
With experience of working on similar products, an assay reader and a PCR device, GX used this knowledge to accelerate the development of the design, meeting clinical and technical requirements identified by the USW team.
Mark Helmich, managing director of GX recalls: “Our biggest challenge was the remote working imposed on the entire country during lockdown one, plus ensuring continuity throughout the product development.
“Our team of eight engineers had to document every amendment in order to assess its effectiveness. Normally on a project of this scope regular client face-to-face meetings chart our progress. Instead, meetings were held each week via video conferencing, with initial concepts mapped out on kitchen tables!”
Value engineering expertise
From the outset final manufacturing costs needed to be at a retail price that would appeal to the target market. Rather than be used in a clinical setting the COVID-19 reader is destined to be commercially sold to schools, colleges, workplaces or even airports. It will allow them to test up to six people at once with reliable results in just 30 minutes. If the final design proved too expensive to manufacture it might be unaffordable to smaller companies or institutions.
Helmich said: “We always consider the function and form of any design. Drawing on our 35 years of knowledge and experience our design team made early decisions in the product development lifecycle that influenced the outcome - such as the prudent choice of material and use of local suppliers.
“We know from experience, if you ignore key criteria at the beginning it can derail a project.”
Bringing the design to life
GX’s team of eight included both industrial design and mechanical engineers, working alongside in house experts in electronics, optronics, software engineering and App design. Such joined up thinking meant they made quick decisions benefitting the design and function of the machine.
Knowing an internal heater block needed to power the machine, the design team chose to site this at the bottom, using aluminium for its thermal properties. To accommodate the extremes of temperatures they selected interior and exterior materials to cope with this.
To assess where the sensitive PCBA’s could be sited GX’s electronic engineers built prototypes of the printed circuit boards that were crucial to the machine’s performance.
Local supply network
By using their inhouse skills and not relying on subcontractors, GX’s design engineering team developed an initial device by May 2020. Calling upon local Welsh suppliers two working prototypes were built.
Helmich said: “Tapping into our local supply network was crucial since at the time materials and parts were in short supply. We have a great relationship with a local industrial modelmaker, Drumlord, they modelled the first and second versions so we could assess their feasibility. Whilst the pipettes come from another local Welsh supplier – Biomonde.”
The power of science
The scientists at Llusern provided the algorithms so GX’s software engineers could programme the firmware to detect COVID-19. Given its non-clinical setting the machine had to be simple to use whilst meeting stringent clinical requirements. GX included a simple detection process - a green light for a negative test, whilst a red signified a positive result.
For more in-depth analysis GX also developed an app allowing clinicians to remotely view more granular information. Adding this functionality meant post COVID-19 the machine could be reconfigured to detect other viruses or infections.
The prototype machines built have passed all the clinical trials and approvals processes, so now await manufacture.
Find out more from GX by visiting them at stand D44 at Med-Tech Innovation Expo. Register here.
