ABSTRACT

A German university developed a novel production process of extracorporeal oxygenators. It enables the production of oxygenators with different volumes with the same housing, the same core and the same fiber mats. The university offers a cooperation under license agreement and a technical cooperation to industrial partners from the medical sector.

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FULL DESCRIPTION

With extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (intensive care techniques in which a machine takes over part or all of the respiratory function of patients), the physician only has oxygenators in a few different sizes. A suitable volume would be particularly important for infants and small children in order to relieve the blood circulation.

The economic use of traditional manufacturing processes for different volume sizes of the manufactured oxygenators is severely limited due to the high tool costs and is linked to critical quantities of each volume size.

A German university developed a novel manufacturing process for wound oxygenators. It enables the production of oxygenators with different volumes with the same housing, the same core and the same fiber mats. The volume of the oxygenator and the size of the membrane surface are set by the position of the displaceable core in relation to the housing and by an adapted adhesive. The established production processes can be used with specific mastery of specific supplementary parameters such as core position and amount of joining substance.

The current state of development is a prototype. Interested medical technology companies can acquire the new production process under license agreement. However, the university is happy to assist with know-how for further development and therefore also offers to combine it with a technological cooperation.