Bioreactor manufacturer
Design and manufacturer of autoclavable bioreactors and cell culture systems.
Due to the nature of the design, our customer has always found it difficult and time-consuming to build the system, as there was limited access into the unit.
We were called in and they highlighted the difficulties they were experiencing, and hand-sketched some improvements they wanted to introduce. The main change was introducing a modular system to speed up the build, without altering the existing aesthetics of the unit.
“PEP provided a friendly, professional and quick design solution to our enclosure. This resulted in a design that allowed better access to components, simple assembly and a substantial reduction in manufacturing costs. We will continue to use them in the re-design and manufacture of further components.”
John Plint, Directorprocesses
Our customer has been supplying a fermenter system for a number of years, the main component being a computer control system in a sheet metal fabrication.
We had recently taken over the manufacture of the unit, as their previous fabricator had gone out of business.
They wanted to introduce these improvements within a very tight timeframe, as they had now used up their stock and didn’t want to commit to another batch of metal work without introducing a new design.
With this brief, we went on to 3D-model the electronics system, and then, through our design process, came up with a solution to their issues. We were able to email across 3D models supported by drawings with our proposed solution.
We then undertook a design review with further feedback from our customer to make adjustments and refine the design before we manufactured any costly prototypes.
With agreement reached on the latest design, we proceeded to manufacture the first prototype within the tight timescale required.
Our customer reviewed and test-built the module, and with some very minor alterations, they felt confident enough to commit to a production batch of units.
result
We met our customer’s brief within the timeframe, without affecting their ability to supply to their own customers.
The client now has a unit on which the build time of five working days is reduced to two working days, with the flexibility of pre-building and stocking the modules that make the final assembly.
conclusion
Our customer was very happy with our responsive, rapid re-design, which now makes the production of their system more cost-effective.
This in turn has strengthened our business relationship with our customer.
