ALine Blog

New Address:

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:04:16 +0000

19500 S. Rancho Way, Ste 107, Rancho Dominguez, CA 90220

Our phone and email remain the same:

P: 877-707-8575

E: info@alineinc.com

ALine is Growing!!!

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:44:53 +0000

We just completed the move to our new facility. We have upgraded and enlarged our clean room, created an applications lab, and have room for automation development and implementation to support enhancements to our PLT process. Look for an invitation to an Open House in June 2012.

Plenty of Windows and Open Space

Thanks for the Compliments and Well Wishes!!!

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:14:32 +0000

We’ve been exhibiting for four years at MD&M West, and this year was by far the best turnout! It was great to reconnect with business colleagues who have become friends and all the clients who stopped by to wish us well and thank us for the great work we’ve done for them in the past. One client we support on the development of the disposable won the Prism award!

Reflecting on our success, it comes back to the basics of good business: offer the customer something they can’t get anywhere else. We offer an enabling microfabrication platform with high quality and on time delivery, within in a timeline no one in the industry can beat.

Thanks for a great week at MD&M West.

Demo the ADEPT at MD&M West, Feb. 14-16th Booth 1384

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:58:49 +0000

Microfluidic circuits are small and compact, making it difficult to see what’s going on in the card. Yet having a visual understanding of what’s going on helps in optimizing the design for optimal performance. We developed an instrument platform that is low cost, and easily customized, with a variety of controls and sensors. We need to see when the on-board valves actuate, and visualize where air bubbles get trapped by moving the device on the x/y stage and follow the fluid movement in the circuit. We want to record the performance of the device, and optimize the valve actuation routines using simple software routines. The ADEPT platform meets these development and quality control needs, and is a tool both we and customers use to develop robust microfluidic devices for Lab-on-a Chip applications. The video shows various aspects of the platform, including the toggle switches for the solenoid valves that toggle between pressure and vacuum. Programming the system is simple in a word document that is stored on an SD card and uploaded into the instrument. VIEW THE VIDEO HERE >>>> ALine ADEPT Development Platform

MEPTEC Presentation September 27th, 2011

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:39:47 +0000

What is MEPTEC? Its the Microelectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council that serves semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers. As manufacturing technologies continue to innovate to meet the demands for microfabrication, more integration is needed among the various components. ALine is presenting in the “MEMS Technologies for the Medical Industry” on our modular rapid prototyping and volume manufacturing platform for microfluidic circuits. Brad Fox, our sales director will talk about our latest work in demonstrating the reliability of on-board pumps made us using our polymer laminate platform. You can read more in our technical articles section.

ADEPT – ALine Development Platform

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:17:45 +0000

This is an excellent tool for developing fluid circuits with on-board pumps and valves. The ADEPT platform was also developed for optimizing assay protocols by programming the sequence of valves. Designed to permit real-time inspection and videography of your fluid circuit using a custom x-y stage and video camera. Eliminates the need for complex connections to the card. All air connections via o-ring. Fluid can be delivered through a number of options: on-board reservoir, peristaltic pump, or pneumatically.

Bridging the Divide between Rapid Prototyping and Volume Production

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:47:47 +0000

On August 31st, I will be presenting a talk at the COMS/MANCEF conference (http://www.mancef.org/coms2011). I will be discussing the transition from early prototyping with 10 to 50 parts in a batch, to low volumes with hundreds to thousands of parts in a batch. The key is for the client and the manufacturer to work together to develop appropriate in process quality control, 100% QC inspection by both parties to verify quality before using the part, and to expect some design changes to be required to reduce the scrap rate and improve device to device performance. Another critical consideration is to evaluate the robustness of the microfluidic cartridge and instrument interface to reduce device to device performance variability.

America’s Competitive Edge

admin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:25:46 +0000

The Future Manufacturing Conference, held August 8 -10th in Napa Valley (www.mfg2011.org) was sponsored by the Transducer Research Foundation, and organized by Prof. Marty Schmidt, from MIT and Prof. Tom Kenney, from Stanford University. A sobering presentation on America’s competitiveness was given by Dr. Greg Tassey, from the economic analysis office at NIST, which suggested that America’s long-standing lack of an economic policy to ensure new innovations mature to commercialization has lead to a decline in our competitiveness in manufacturing. The so-called ‘valley of death’, in which the new innovations die for lack of funding before becoming commercially viable, has exacerbated the decline in new US-based manufacturing infrastructure. Combine that with economic policies by foreign governments that encourage US companies to invest in overseas manufacturing, and we find a dearth of new jobs in the near term that will be generated by growth in manufacturing. The remedy? As you might guess, it is a complex and multifaceted issue that involves government investment to bridge the valley of death, as well as changes in our education system to train more workers for the manufacturing sector. Companies, too, need incentives to invest in America. I believe that companies like ALine represent the future of new manufacturing capability. By innovating the use of well-known tools for rapid prototyping and low volume manufacturing , we are pioneering new manufacturing infrastructure. Our emphasis on low to mid-volume manufacturing with a flexible, readily customized process, represents the kind of manufacturing infrastructure that will create new competitive capabilities in a market that has yet to mature. In keeping with a pioneering spirit, the ability to do more with less, and a can-do attitude, our emphasis has been to use easy-to-scale tools to create highly functional microfluidic devices.

Modularity for Customized Fluidics and Instrumentation

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:20:12 +0000

By using modular designs for complex microfluidic functions, we support rapid demonstration of proof of concept. Beyond proof of concept, we also design for volume production. By fall 2011 we’ll be ISO 9000:2008 certified.

Visit our poster on June 14th at NSTI in Boston, MA from 1-4PM. poster #507

Poster presentation, NSTI, Boston, June 14th, #507

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:12:28 +0000

Visit our poster to discuss how our process can support your immuno- or molecular diagnostic application. We’ll have prototypes on hand that demonstrate our modular and scalable fabrication process.