Asynt and Grant partnership speeds up launch of novel continuous flow reactor

The alliance between Asynt, a specialist supplier of organic synthesis apparatus, and Grant Instruments, a world renowned manufacturer and supplier of scientific, life sciences and data acquisition products, has resulted in the rapid development, manufacture and launch of a novel continuous flow reactor, the Uniqsis FlowSyn™. The FlowSyn is designed to speed up the drug discovery process and offers an affordable solution for the chemical laboratory.

Asynt needed to find a local design and manufacturing partner that had the flexibility to take on a clean-sheet design project, develop a one-off prototype and then scale up to volume production. It was also vital that the chosen partner had in-depth knowledge of heating and cooling techniques as temperatures and pressures would have to be very accurately controlled in the proposed flow reactor.

Martyn Fordham, MD of Asynt, said: “We selected Grant due to its reputation for producing high quality, reliable scientific products, its extensive knowledge of heating and cooling systems, and its considerable manufacturing expertise. Grant has lived up to our high expectations by delivering a solution ­ from concept design and first prototype phases through to beta trial systems for pilot customers and now to the manufacture of fully standards-tested production models ­ all in less than 12 months.”

The FlowSyn - which has just started shipping to customers - is the first commercial system to fully integrate all the essential elements for continuous flow chemistry into a single, easy to use package. FlowSyn is simple to operate and offers safe, unattended operation for tasks such as synthesis, reaction optimisation and scale up experiments, in quantities from milligrams to hundreds of grams. Synthesis in micro-reactors has many advantages over batch processing - better reproducibility and scalability, improved yields and safe handling of unstable intermediates or highly exothermic reactions.

“Engaging with Grant at the very start of the design cycle has minimised the risk of costly mistakes, speeded up time to market and ensured that we ended up with a cost-effective and highly marketable solution,” added Martyn Fordham. “Moreover, we have a knowledgeable partner that has been designing and manufacturing scientific equipment for over 50 years and that can service and support our products on a global basis.”

Paul Pergande, head of Grant Technologies, the custom design/manufacturing division of Grant,
said: “We have utilised the considerable knowledge and expertise of our engineering team, as well as scientists and flow chemists from the pharmaceutical industry, to develop this novel flow chemistry platform. The success of the partnership has resulted in the formation of a new company called Uniqsis, an alliance between Asynt and Grant, to further develop innovative microreaction technology products for academic and industrial pharmaceutical research.”

Grant Technologies designs and manufactures custom scientific and industrial equipment to meet its customers’ application-specific requirements. The division specialises in the design and manufacture of equipment for accurately controlling temperature in industrial processes (-100 degrees C to +450 degrees C), sample handling and preparation, material testing and quality control in the production environment, medical analysis and diagnostic processes, chemical and pharmaceutical evaluation.

Leveraging its 57-year heritage in heating and cooling (thermodynamics), mixing and shaking, data logging and data acquisition, and extensive manufacturing expertise, Grant has delivered successful solutions to hundreds of companies across a diverse range of industry sectors. These include, among others, life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, automotive, industrial, oil and petrochemicals, scientific, military and environmental testing.