Beckman ph Meter

Omnica had the honor of developing the last pH meter product family before Dr. Beckman passed away in 2004. We worked with the client’s Industrial Design to produce a family eighteen meter variations based on a single PCB.

The handheld versions passed the requirement of IPX7 (water ingress protection at a submersion level one meter, even though it floats).

Mallinckrodt HELIOS

HELiOS® Personal Oxygen System for Nellcore-Puritan-Bennett®– The portable oxygen conserver is designed for the ambulatory patient in a home care environment. It is the smallest and lightest portable liquid oxygen system on the market that lasts up to 10 hours. The result was an ultra-compact package that initiated industry-wide growth in the use of liquid oxygen-based delivery devices. The award winning device is now marketed by Caire® Inc. under the names HELiOS Plus & Marathon®. We were hired to perform competitive benchmarking studies, and develop a product that incorporated their best features. Our technical input consisted of industrial design, mechanical engineering, human factors, ergonomics, and design for manufacture.

Volcano Intravascular Thermography

Thermastar™ for Volcano Therapeutics – Intravascular thermography device for research. This system measures minute interior artery temperature changes and identifies areas where arterial plaque may form. We proved feasibility of the client’s proprietary arterial catheter, and based on that technology we developed a complete diagnostic system which could be used in a clinical setting. We designed a custom keyboard, the PC cart housing, a handheld controller, and the video-based GUI for the operating software. Our in-house team managed the manufacture of the rotomolded parts, controller and keyboards. We prototyped and assembled 10 fully operational units.

Inogen Oxygen Concentrator

When we first met the Inogen group, they were already familiar with our work on the HELiOs Personal Oxygen System the conserver we had developed for Nellcor Puritan-Bennett three years before. Inogen wanted us to duplicate this success for them in the oxygen concentrator market. An oxygen concentrator is a device that cleans nitrogen from ambient air and supplies a continuous flow of pure (about 95%) oxygen to the user by way of an air tube called a nasal cannula.

The conserver market has boomed, largely due to the success of the HELiOs™ system.

The main issue with these types of devices is that they require refilling from a large liquid oxygen tank every few hours. Concentrators don’t need refilling, but for other reasons, business has not fared so well. Inogen’s idea was to re-think the technology and re-define the category.

The concentrator market had been in decline for many years. For COPD patients on the go, concentrators added a degree of mobility, but the units were big and noisy, and needed to be connected to a wall socket. It was also difficult to sell a product that was industrial looking and heavy to lug about. Inogen planned to develop a lightweight, efficient, and quiet  portable oxygen concentrator that could run on batteries.

Start-up company needed help developing a funtional prototype.

The start-up company presented us with a very preliminary prototype that worked, but had only limited functionality. They had already completed a portion of the initial development and had identified some proprietary components they wanted to incorporate into the final design. Their plan was to use off-the-shelf parts, hire us for the I.D., and make a real product out of what they had. But like most of the devices we develop, almost all of the components eventually had to be custom designed.

Over the period of about a year, their group completed the electronics and software development. Concurrently, Omnica performed the industrial design, mechanical layout, the internal and external packaging, battery case, chargers, carts, the satellite conserver valve, the manifold design, and the extrusion and chassis assembly.  Omnica worked with other vendors to successfully miniaturize the pneumatics and valving for use in the lightweight design. We even built the production test equipment, the manifold leak testers, and later approved the first articles.

We fabricated 18 pre-production prototypes of the Inogen One OxygenConcentrator System™.

Our client used them to introduce the product in a trade show. Reaction to the new device was overwhelming, and on that basis, the company made projections of how many units to manufacture as a first run of the product. Six months later, when the concentrator actually became available to the market, they had to dramatically revamp production forecasts to keep up with rapidly rising demand.

The concentrator runs on batteries and is approved for use on most airlines.

The Inogen One Oxygen Concentrator System fulfilled the promise of independence for highly active home oxygen patients. It weighs 10 pounds, and runs for 2 to 3 hours on rechargeable batteries (indefinitely on A/C). It is very quiet and features a breath detection system four times as efficient as other concentrators. The Inogen One is the only oxygen concentrator which meets 100% of FAA requirements for use upon aircraft. It has won three awards including the prestigious MDEA design excellence award.

Trans Cranial Doppler

R&D requires low-volume, functional prototypes and fixtures. This project’s goal was to detect and quantify particulate passing through the carotid artery during coronary surgery. The results were rather stunning and enabled our client to better understand vital program issues.

Baby Movement Tracker

The innovative KickTrak by babykick is a non-invasive, handheld device that tracks a baby’s movement patterns, counts down pregnancy progress and reliably tracks the time between contractions to better estimate when labor will begin.  KickTrak provides peace of mind to expecting mothers as fetal movement is an important indicator of babies’ health.  Pregnant women use kickTrak beginning at 24-28 weeks to record their baby’s movements with the touch of a button.

Ellipse Technologies

A novel platform of magnetically adjustable implant systems based on its MAGnetic External Control technology.  Ellipse’s novel and proprietary implants are adjustable at the time of implantation and are distracted non−invasively over the course of treatment to accommodate the changing clinical needs of patients as they heal, grow or age.  Ellipse’s technology enables physicians to customize therapy for patients in a non-invasive manner, reducing the need for further repeat surgical procedures, and providing meaningful improvements in patient clinical outcomes and quality of life while generating cost savings to the healthcare system.

Sample Prep System

Custom Tablet

Before PC tablets were commonplace (c. 1999), a software company engaged Omnica to design and fabricate a prototype special-purpose tablet to demonstrate its product. Omnica’s Industrial Design, electronics team and rapid prototyping machine shop teamed up to produce a beautiful titanium limited production device to excellent reviews.