The company is scaling its RAMP 3D printing system to deliver advanced micron-level precision products.
MIT spin-out OPT Industries announced that it will be building a new manufacturing facility to scale market access for its roll-to-roll digital photolithography RAMP 3D printing platform. The 14,000-square-foot site is located in Medford, Mass., and will be the startup’s first production facility. The company’s RAMP technology was recently used for the design and development of InstaSwab, a nasal swab product used by healthcare and at-home testing organizations in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to OPT, it is planning to establish a product line that will allow it to meet the rise in demand from the medical sector. It has supplied more than 800,000 InstaSwabs so far.
The RAMP 3D printing system was first conceptualized in MIT by OPT Founder Jifei Ou and was conceived through years of research and development in additive manufacturing and computational fabrication. The technology is capable of 3D printing extremely fine but dense microstructures that are around 25-50 microns. Instead of a traditional batch-to-batch approach, RAMP uses a patented roll-to-roll-based system similar to methods used in textile manufacturing. This enables the 24/7 fully automated production of continuous 3D-printed microstructures without needing to worry about limitations in length.
Besides the RAMP 3D printer, the all-in-one system includes generative software that uses custom algorithms for optimizing the design of dense micron-scale structures. This allows for the easy customization of products that require ultra-fine, freeform features. To achieve this, the printer uses engineered polymers with micron-scale precision that can be designed for advanced properties, such as mechanical, biological or thermal.
“Our proprietary additive manufacturing system specializes in making microstructures at a massive scale,” Ou said. “We’re unique in precision microfabrication that can create rolls of materials and designs with no limitation in length. Our technology stack currently provides material solutions for medical, cosmetic and consumer product applications.”
OPT got the opportunity to test the system’s capabilities during the pandemic after receiving a request from Beth Israel Hospital to design and manufacture the InstaSwab nasal swab for COVID-19 testing. According to Ou, it allowed the company to validate the adaptive capabilities of the technology from the prototype to the production process. The company shared that the use of RAMP has enabled a significantly more effective viral sample elution with 20 times more effectiveness in bacterial sample elution in comparison to conventional swabs.
The InstaSwab will be mass-manufactured at the new Medford facility. OPT has already secured ISO 13485:2016-certification for medical device manufacturing.
Ou has expressed the company’s commitment to providing advanced additive manufacturing services to various industries and customers. It is currently exploring opportunities in different applications, such as cosmetics, for the RAMP 3D printing system.
“OPT will be continuously enhancing new capabilities from our technologies to introduce new product lines for the industries we serve,” Ou said. “We work with our customers as a one-shop stop partner to design, develop and manufacture end products to meet their exact needs.”
For more information, visit OPT Industries’ website.
