Clamshell Lamination: For batch mode, a Clamshell or manual approach is designed for the accurate assembly of precut materials into a specific test strip product. Precut membrane, absorbent material, conjugate pads and plastic backing are brought together to form a laminated lateral flow test strip. The Clamshell laminator contains top and bottom vacuum nests to hold test strip materials in place for the lamination process. The nests are customized to the customer's design but are easily interchangeable so other designs can be laminated as well. When the nests are brought together accurate alignment of the laminate is achieved.

Automated Lamination: For a continuous lamination process, automated lamination is needed. BioDot has evolved a modular lamination system suitable for test formats comprised of multiple layers joined by adhesives.

The first module is typically the Reel Feed. The Reel Feed is used to feed the roll stock of bare plastic backing or plastic backing with kiss cut liners. This module also includes one liner take up reel. The second module is the Magazine Strip Feed. In many test designs the plastic backing is too thick to be supplied in a roll format due to curl problems with the plastic. In this case the plastic is supplied as bare, flat sheets in the range of 300-1500 mm long and up to 100 mm wide. This module consists of a magazine feed system for sheet feeding the plastics sheets to an adhesive application station. The adhesive station applies layers of adhesive with release liners and joins the plastic sheets into a continuous web format for feeding through the system. Following the Magazine Strip Feed is the Material Feed, Roll Feed module. This module is used to feed up to three rolls of materials in roll formats. A take up reel for release liners can also be configured.

Typical applications would include adhesives, conjugate pads, sample pads, absorbent pads, and cover layers. The individual pad positions are adjustable. In a dry chemistry application, up to 10 chemistry pads can be laminated, and the different reagent pad rolls can be placed on a single spindle with spacers if the pad thickness are similar. In some cases either materials or processes limit the materials used in sheet formats. In this scenario a Materials Feed: Strip Feed module is incorporated. This module consists of a sheet feed system with adjustable widths and position to provide for the feeding of individual sheets to an exposed adhesive layer. The strips are fed end-to-end to each other. This module also includes a pneumatically controlled lamination layer.

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