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Chroma Flow

Conceptual Product Solutions (APD2) 2023

Chroma Flow provides a new chromatography workflow enabling the sustainable production of precision medicine, a medical model where medicine is tailored to specific groups, improving the effectiveness of treatments. To achieve this, Chroma Flow is designed as a compact and agile machine, increasing efficiency in small to medium-sized batch manufacturing. It effectively utilizes precious clean-room space through its tall and slim design. The single-use flow kit is consolidated into a single optimized flow block, taking just a few seconds to install. All single-use components designed for Chroma Flow can be fully disassembled, allowing them to be recycled into pure, high-grade materials.

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Background

Within Life Science and the development and production of pharmaceuticals, disposable flow path systems, which are single-use parts predominately made from plastic, is a major challenge for both the end-to-end user experience and for sustainability overall and when looking a needs for flexible production cycles. Cytiva, the collaboration partner in this project, is a leading supplier of products and technology within the Life Sciences space and are trusted for its excellence in the domain and its rich history of delivering reliable and high-quality solutions.
The purpose with this study was to look thought the lens of product design and focus on improving both the hands-on usability and sustainability with new aspirational value propositions.

Process

The project started off with introductions to the world of Cytiva with visits to both the local production facilities in Umeå and the design headquarter in Uppsala. Throughout the project the students worked, both as a class and later in smaller project teams, with physical mock-ups and 1:1 representation of both existing product solutions and their new design concepts and the context these would operate in. The hands-on ideation was instrumental for finding the perfect balance between the conceptual design thinking and the complex real-world restraints and new relevant design opportunities that was identified.