Design and Performance of Innovative High-Speed Lancing Device

This study develops an innovative high-speed lancing device with excellent performance. The proposed design separates the spring from the lancet holder commonly used in a lancing device, and attaches a metallic block with a larger mass to the front end of the main carrying pillar. When the lancing device is loaded, the compression force of the spring, with the help of the metallic block, strikes the lancet holder with a smaller mass. This design makes the lancet produce high-speed motion. Unaffected by the vibration of its spring, the lancet does not pierce the skin repeatedly. This study uses a high-speed camera to photograph the motion tracks of the lancet. The dynamic features of the lancet are derived from these motion tracks. The experimental results show that when the proposed lancing device pricks a finger, the lancet pierces the skin only once. The maximum average speed of the lancet is 1.9 times that of a conventional lancet. When a conventional lancing device, pricks a finger, the lancet repeatedly pierces the skin two to three times, and stays in the skin 4.5 times longer than does the proposed lancing device. Face pain scale scores collected from 100 volunteers show that the proposed lancing device scores are 1.54 points lower than those of the traditional lancing device. The proposed lancing device is high-speed and only pierces the skin once, thus tremendously decreasing the pain caused to diabetes patients during blood sampling.