Case Study: Highland Biosciences achieves rapid, reliable diagnostics with Protolabs injection moulding

Highland Biosciences Ltd - Customer Case Study

Highland Biosciences Ltd, a Scottish medical technology company, aimed to overcome a critical bottleneck in diagnostic testing for bacterial endotoxins. Their challenge was to develop and rapidly bring to market a new, affordable, and reliable on-site test unit called PyroXpress™. This required producing a high-quality, disposable plastic cartridge component, but initial prototyping methods were unsatisfactory and traditional injection molding tooling was too expensive and slow for their urgent timeline.

The solution was provided by Protolabs and its rapid injection moulding service. This service delivered design analysis and fast-turnaround production of cartridge prototypes in 3-5 days, allowing for iterative design and material testing. Protolabs enabled Highland Biosciences to perfect the part and a "closely guarded" material, leading to a successful product that generated four patents. The speed and quality of the parts were critical to meeting demonstration deadlines and ensuring the PyroXpress™ unit could be scaled to full manufacture, eliminating the need for lengthy off-site testing quarantines.

Highland Biosciences Ltd

Emma Day

Technical Director