Laboratory sample marking
Thirty-six tubes.
One pass.
No handwriting.
TubePrinter Compact marks sample tubes with a laser — on the top and the side, permanently, barcode and all. It sits on the bench beside the microcentrifuge and takes jobs from a PC or a phone app.
Why it matters
Tube labels are where sample identification breaks.
Handwritten labels fade in ethanol and DMSO. Adhesive labels lift off in the freezer. Dedicated tube labellers exist — but they are large, costly machines built for high-throughput central labs, not for the local research group or biobank.
How it works
Three steps, no consumables.
Paste the sample list
From the sheet you already keep, on a PC or a phone app. No proprietary terminal on the bench.
The laser marks the tubes
An X–Y gantry walks the rack in a serpentine path and burns each code into the tube itself.
Take the rack out
Every tube traceable, with nothing to peel off and nothing to reorder.
The product
A laser marker sized for the benchtop, not the basement.
Up to 36 tubes per run
Load a rack, send the job, walk away. No feeding tubes one at a time.
Top and side
Essentials on the top, details on the side.
Barcode-ready
Barcode integration for easier traceability.
PC or phone app
Jobs go straight to the printer over the network.
Fits an A4 footprint
Small enough to keep where tubes are actually filled, not in a separate room.
−196 °C to 134 °C
Engraved into the plastic, so it survives liquid nitrogen, autoclave cycles and solvent exposure.
Where we are
From working prototype to first sale.
Building the MVP
Laser engraving already tested on standard 1.5 ml microcentrifuge tubes, with promising results.
Testing
Validation runs with pilot labs, on the tube types they already use.
Development
Design freeze, safety enclosure, certification testing.
First sale
First units delivered to the labs that helped test them.
Grant awarded — Hungarian Startup University Program (HSUP), coordinated by the National Innovation Agency
Certification route — none held yet, testing scheduled into the development phase
Team
Three students, three universities.
Medicine, engineering and business — assembled in Budapest around one problem each of us had run into from a different side of the bench.
Julianna Pollok
Project lead
MD–PhD student, Semmelweis UniversityLab workflow domain expert · market validation
Marcell Slyuch
Lead electrical engineer
Electrical engineering, BME BudapestLaser-marking research · prototyping
Tuấn Thành Ta
Business & market strategy
MSc Business Administration, BGE BudapestMarket analysis · go-to-market · financial modelling
Working with
Contact
Test it on your tubes.
We are looking for laboratories, biobanks and IVF or clinical facilities willing to run the prototype on their own sample types — and for partners interested in the first production batch. We are also expanding the team: software, mechanical and chemical engineers are welcome to get in touch.
Or write to us directly:
tubeprintercompact@gmail.com