News
Milestones, grants and events.
What we have built and where we have been, newest first.
2026
- Milestone
Insertion testing moves to an instrumented rig
We have commissioned a drop rig with speed gates and a force sensor, so penetration can be measured against controlled impact energy. In the first runs, all 32 microneedles punctured the simulant.
- Milestone
Flow observed through all 32 microneedles of a molded array
In bench testing, dye driven through a 32-microneedle array exits every microneedle over a range of applied flow conditions, including visible jets. Per-microneedle flow measurement is the next step.
- Milestone
Every microneedle penetrates in skin-simulant testing
Applied with a commercial inserter, all 32 microneedles of a molded array passed through two stacked layers of Parafilm, about 250 µm in total, in each of ten applications, with no visible damage to the microneedles.
- Funding
Second Innovate UK award, through ATLAS, led by SmartForge with Klona Biotech
A month after the Biomedical Catalyst award, we won a second Innovate UK-funded project, through ATLAS (Advanced Thermoplastic and Life Sciences Aligned Supply Chain), again with Klona Biotech as partner, developing manufacturing technology for medical implants.
- Milestone
High-speed imaging confirms open channels across molded arrays
Arrays molded in July were imaged with a high-speed camera. End-on views of individual microneedles show light passing through their channels, and top-down views show the open channels across the array.
- Milestone
Arrays scaled to 48 microneedles; 32-microneedle test arrays in characterization
We have molded hollow arrays of up to 48 microneedles. The current test articles are 32-microneedle arrays, a 6 × 6 layout with the four center positions open, now in insertion and flow characterization.
- Funding
Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst award, led by SmartForge with Klona Biotech
We lead a £700,000 collaborative R&D program with partner Klona Biotech, part-funded by Innovate UK through the Biomedical Catalyst, to develop a scalable manufacturing platform for multi-tissue organ-on-chip systems. The project runs to 2028.
- Milestone
Adhesive-free bonding qualified on COP
Replicate spread as low as 0.37 µm and under 1% dimensional change after bonding. No channel collapse or blockage, no leakage at maximum pump capacity, and no burst or delamination at pressures above 10 bar.
- Milestone
DM-K392 chip: features from 20 µm to 8 mm, molded in one shot
A COP demonstration chip combining a gradient generator, serpentine mixer, pillar filter, constrictions down to 20 µm and millimeter-scale ports. Depths within 1% and widths within 5% of design.
- Milestone
SmartForge files patent applications
The applications cover our microneedle arrays, hollow and solid, our precision-molded microfluidic devices, and the molding process.
- Milestone
Twelve-microneedle arrays molded over 55 cycles
Arrays of 12 hollow microneedles, most with two channels each, were molded over 55 cycles. Channels were confirmed in every array, with no deformation and no loss of quality from the first cycle to the last.
- Milestone
First hollow polymer microneedles molded in a single shot
A four-microneedle feasibility array produced the first hollow microneedles molded in one step, with open channels.
- Events
SmartForge at the Microfluidics Consortium meeting, UCSF
We joined the Microfluidics Consortium meeting hosted by the Centre for Business Innovation at UCSF, San Francisco, meeting device developers facing the move from lab prototype to molded part.
2025
- Events
Selected among the Top 60 startups at SLINGSHOT 2025
We were selected as one of the Top 60 global startups at SLINGSHOT 2025, Asia's deep-tech startup competition, held at SWITCH 2025 in Singapore.
- Milestone
Blood-separation spiral chip molded in one shot
A polycarbonate spiral chip with a 12 µm-wide, 60 µm-deep channel, molded in the same shot as its millimeter-scale fluidic ports. The finished chips are optically clear and flat.