tesa Annual Press Conference: Innovation I

Diagnostic strips for precise, easy blood sugar testing.

The average age of the population in the major industrialized nations is rising steadily. At the same time, common diseases such as rheumatism, high blood pressure, and diabetes are becoming more widespread. In light of these developments, ongoing progress is being made in improving the health care of those affected. Medical technology and diagnostics are becoming increasingly important. tesa operates in the field of health care, a market of the future, with increasing success. Working together with the largest companies in the industry, tesa is developing innovative solutions for diagnostic strips to test blood sugar levels in diabetics. The new special adhesive tapes not only make the measuring process more precise while also ensuring greater ease of handling for patients, but also optimize the production process for the manufacturer of the strips at the same time.

Diagnostic strips

As many as five times a day, a diabetes patient has to check his or her blood sugar levels and take corrective steps such as injecting insulin where necessary. These days, most patients handle testing with digital meters that use disposable test strips. First, the patient pricks his or her fingertip with a tiny needle called a lancet, drawing a drop of blood. The drop is then put on the test strip, and in a few seconds the diagnostic device shows the blood glucose content.

The large number of diabetics – which experts forecast to double by 2030, to 360 million worldwide – makes the blood sugar test strip segment a particularly high-volume market. It plays the most important role in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) segment, which also includes pregnancy and blood coagulation test strips. The number of stakeholders on the IVD market, on the other hand, is rather small. tesa has been working closely together with the key companies in the industry for years.

As part of these cooperative arrangements, various special adhesive tapes that are essential to the production of test strips have been developed. These include spacer tapes, which form the channel for the fluid being tested and must be produced to extremely precise standards to provide exact measurement results. There are also hydrophilic film tapes, which ensure that the channel fills quickly and dependably. In addition, tesa has also developed new products that reliably conduct the liquid being tested to the sensor in the meter.

The test strips are multilaminates composed of various functional layers. The products used to make them must meet especially stringent requirements: They must be resistant to aging and suitable for die cutting and satisfy very narrow tolerances. The materials and substances used must not interact with the blood or affect the enzymatic detection reaction.

Through the development of new adhesive masses, tesa has succeeded not only in meeting these strict product requirements, but also in enhancing the efficiency of the production processes applied by the test strip manufacturers themselves: Conventional adhesive masses would leave considerable adhesive residue on cutting tools during the stamping and die cutting process, necessitating greater effort and expense for cleaning and resulting in costly machinery downtime. tesa solutions, by contrast, can be stamped and cut without leaving any residue.