OPT industries is a leading manufacturing company that has adopted the computational technique for the manufacture of medical swabs to offer improved clinical testing during the covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
However, the InstaSwab is engineered with precisely made polymer fibers. Each fiber is thinner than a human hair. Also, InstaSwab further facilitates the efficient absorption of fluids. Its fibers are aligned into patterns that enable the swap to expand, twist, and morph more than regular or traditional cotton and nylon swabs.
Such a feature will help swabs to absorb more liquid than the regular ones and also expel the absorbed fluid instantly when squeezed into the vials, thereby facilitating a higher sample concentration for improved and advanced diagnostics.
Jifei Ou, the designer and researcher, after such innovation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, founded OPT industries to manufacture and produce insta swabs on a massive scale.
Furthermore, he was able to manufacture the swap throughout the pandemic, even when the conventional and traditional swaps were short in supply. The company believes that the product is perfect for rapid diagnostic kits that need high sample concentration and sensitivity like those used during the pandemic.
However, there are different kinds of swabs available, including the ones for saliva, anterior, mid-turbinate, and nasopharyngeal-based sampling swaps for the covid-19 testing.
As an advanced manufacturing company, it sees the value in creating microscale technology that resolves the macro challenges in the environment.
Further, he also mentioned that the company takes inspiration from a system built by nature. These fibers can twist and transform into any pattern to capture more fluids precisely than ever before, thereby releasing samples effortlessly for testing.
The swabs come in a wide range of shapes and sizes for different kinds of testing. However, it can further be customized on the basis of requirements.
As per the diagnostic benefits, these swabs are more comfortable to be used for patients due to the fact it possesses a soft compressive tip and a flexible shaft that is more gentle on the nasal cavity. Furthermore, to make its use more convenient, the swap is given a textured handle to avoid slipping and also possesses a customizable depth indicator.
The handle is better equipped at the midpoint to permit easy disposal by breaking the swap and depositing it into the test vials.
The company produces swabs by using its own proprietary advanced digital manufacturing process and design software.
The process further involves optical lithography that includes creating patterns in material with the help of light as well as using functional polymer processing and computational optimization. The company is now producing swaps to innovate sampling solutions for environmental testing, which includes the ones for testing agriculture infestations and water pollution.
Also, InstaSwab is shortlisted in the product design category of the Dezeen Awards 2021.
