The Importance of Quality

We are committed to providing the highest standards in our product and service delivery. Our ISO 13485 accreditation provides customers with the reassurance that we can bring safe and effective products to market consistently. We actively adopt continuous improvement methodology across all our business units, as evidenced by having repeatedly achieved a silver award for business and operational excellence with the SC21 supply chain programme.

View our Quality Management page.

Collaborative Working

Our strong scientific backgrounds and specialist life science industry knowledge enable us to understand the applications, methods and challenges our customers face within their laboratory environments. Working collaboratively, we aim to fully understand their requirements and the parameters of their projects in terms of resource, timescales and commercial constraints, so we can offer the most appropriate creative, technical and financially viable solution.

Applications

We offer bespoke, integrated solutions to suit a variety of applications including:

• Cell biology and bioprocessing
• Imaging and surface analysis
• Sample preparation, positioning and detection
• Microfluidics and liquid handling

Solutions

Our solutions can help to:

• Improve efficiency, precision and control
• Scale up, or improve quality
• Ensure accurate, reliable and repeatable results
• Provide cost and time savings
• Simplify a complex workflow

Planning and Design

All projects are scoped and delivered through a defined project team, who provide support at every stage of the process. We maintain regular contact with customers keeping them informed of progress, discussing and evaluating specification developments. A detailed plan is created for each project, identifying key dates and milestones, which is managed and tracked through a central project management software system. Evaluating how changes in requirement may impact the programme enables customers to decide how to implement new ideas as they evolve.

Projects generally start with either a conceptual idea or a more detailed, developed CAD concept, and we assign a Project Development Engineer as the key technical contact for the project. To enable us to design the optimum solution, we work closely with each customer to develop a technical specification. This means fully understanding user requirements, the target market and the commercial application. Our design team can then apply their mechanical and electronic engineering disciplines to develop an innovative, integrated solution.

Prototyping

To prove the proposed design meets the technical specification and is suitable for manufacture, we generally recommend constructing a complete prototype to undergo testing and validation relevant to the application. During prototyping, we begin to develop a supply chain for each part required for manufacture. We typically provide a mix of in-house, customised and supply chain components appropriate to the demands of the particular project or application.

Testing

Testing and the effective application of metrology is a core part of Reliance’s philosophy, with inspection and measurement disciplines an integral part of our production process. Our testing laboratories are equipped and staffed to conduct rigorous life testing of products, in order to meet industry standards. We are a leading independent manufacturer of PCR instrumentation and quadrupole analysers for mass spectrometers, and so have proven design validation capabilities for making highly complex systems.

Manufacture and Assembly

Reliance has over 60 years’ experience in manufacturing high precision engineered components and sub-assemblies. Our life science customers can therefore rely on us to consistently produce robust systems that meet their quality standards. Our bespoke Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is adaptable to complement our customers’ own ERP systems, enabling our team to effectively plan, manage and track projects throughout the production process. Products supplied to the life science industry require high levels of cleanliness in order to avoid contamination, so we undertake assembly in our cleanroom facilities. All assemblies are diligently tested and recorded in line with customers’ specifications. We tailor the functional test methods to each customer’s requirements to replicate how the equipment will work in service; helping resolve any performance issues and validating performance against key functional criteria. Once assembly is complete we undertake a tailored acceptance testing programme, before organising the safe and secure packaging of the item ready for global despatch.

Building On Our Heritage

Although Reliance’s name is relatively new to the life science industry, we are experienced in working with accurate laser-based and other optical applications such as microscopes, optical stages and photometers. It is this experience, combined with the knowledge gained from our involvement in the supply of components for robotic applications and tested sub-systems for mass spectrometry, that has helped us prepare to supply into the life science industry.

Our team are keen to build on Reliance’s medical and scientific heritage by further developing the well established engineering services already provided to our existing customers.

You can download a copy of our Life Sciences brochure here. If you would like to discuss a potential project with the team, or find out more about our work in life sciences, please contact us.