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Why a list of models hides the scale-up path
People developing a process think in stages. They start with a benchtop bioreactor, move to a pilot plant and end up in production. If your catalogue mixes internal codes, legacy names and unrelated acronyms, that path disappears, and the customer may end up buying lab equipment from one supplier and production equipment from another.
Names are only part of the problem. When the range has no clear structure, the website shows it badly as well. Every model sits on an isolated page, links between scales are missing and the sales team has to explain in every meeting how the pieces fit. All of this can be sorted out before the catalogue is designed.
A naming architecture that follows scale
The easiest architecture to read has three layers. First, the family, which tells you the technology. Then the scale level, which tells you where it fits in the process. Finally the variant, for example single-use or stainless steel. With those three pieces, any model can be read without opening the datasheet.
- One family name per technology, such as bioreactors or TFF systems.
- The same scale words across every family, for example lab, pilot and production.
- One suffix for the single-use variant across the whole range.
- The volume or membrane area range always shown next to the name.
- No numbers that mean nothing to the customer.
Should we rename equipment that already sells well?
Not necessarily. If a name is already known in the market, you can keep it and add the family or scale level next to it. The change can be gradual, first on the website and in new catalogues, then in the documentation. On the website, redirect old pages to the new ones so you do not lose visitors.
A real example, the TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions range
TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions, based in Riudarenes near Girona, currently organises its bioreactors and TFF systems on its website into three levels, eLab, ePilot and eProd, matching lab, pilot plant and production. For bioreactors, each level comes in single-use and multi-use versions, running from 0.5 to 2,000 litres. The name alone tells you where each unit fits.
David Monje, founder of crida studio, led marketing at TECNIC for four and a half years. There he took technical content into 3D, animation and interactive tools. The video on scaling single-use bioreactors shown here dates from that period. Every manufacturer has its own history and names, so the structure has to be worked out case by case.
Play the video. Scaling Single-Use Bioreactors from Lab to Production - TECNICShould the volume be part of the product name?
Better next to it than inside it. Volume ranges change as the range grows, and a name with numbers dates quickly. Put the scale level in the name and the volume or membrane area range right beside it, on the website, in the catalogue and on the equipment nameplate.
Want us to check whether your catalogue shows the scale-up path? Leave your details and we will tell you what we would change first.
Review my catalogueWhat the range must share for the name to be credible
A shared name promises continuity, and buyers will check it. Before presenting a range as a scale-up path, review what the units at each level genuinely have in common. If the software, recipes or design criteria change completely between scales, the name makes a promise the datasheet cannot keep.
- The same control software and the same way of working with recipes.
- The same types of sensors and connections.
- Design criteria that let you compare results across scales.
- Documentation with the same structure at every level.
Does the single-use line need a separate brand?
Usually a suffix or a word repeated across the range is enough. A new brand makes sense if the line sells to a very different audience or through another channel. Otherwise, splitting it off breaks the scale-up path you want to show and leaves you explaining two brands instead of one.
How to reflect the range on your website and in Google
On the website, each family needs a page that shows the full scale-up path, with links to every model and a comparison table. Each model gets its own page and links back to the family and to the neighbouring levels. That way customers and Google understand the same structure.
Google recommends marking up product variants with ProductGroup and the variesBy, hasVariant and productGroupID properties, and supports this on pages where people cannot buy directly. Schema.org defines a ProductGroup as products that vary only in well-described ways, such as size or material. Use it when models share one design in several volumes, not to bundle different machines together.
How do we show a range that goes up to 2,000 litres at a trade show?
Taking large units to a trade show is costly and complicated. What works is bringing the lab unit and showing the larger levels with 3D renders, animation or a wall graphic that lays out the whole range in order of scale. Visitors see the full path, touch what they can and leave with the idea that you can grow with their process.
Check and protect the names before printing the catalogue
A range name ends up in catalogues, on trade show stands, on equipment nameplates and in validation documents. Changing it later is expensive. So check that it is free in the trademark databases of the markets you sell to before you invest in it.
If you export, WIPO's Madrid System lets you file a single international application and pay one set of fees to seek protection in the 133 countries it covers. You first need a national or regional mark that is registered or applied for. A trademark attorney can tell you which classes and countries make sense.
