Polyurethane is used for short-term implantation devices such as feeding tubes, dialysis devices, intra-aortic balloon pumps, and surgical drainage tubes.

Make a slight change in this weekend’s blog because I received a guest post from Will Bennett from TPU. He is discussing the use of polyurethane in medical equipment and the use of this material. I wish you a happy reading and a happy weekend!

Polyurethane is a versatile material used in general materials in the medical industry, such as catheters, medical gloves, and wound dressings. It is also commonly found in larger equipment such as medical beds and operating tables.

Polyurethane is also compatible with the human body. It is flexible, strong, and resistant to abrasion and chemicals. This is why polyurethane is used for short-term implantation of devices, such as feeding tubes, dialysis devices, intra-aortic balloon pumps, and surgical drainage tubes. The durability of polyurethane allows it to be used in equipment that rubs against other materials.

Since polyurethane does not cause allergies, it is a safe alternative for people who are allergic to latex. Polyurethane can do little to improve most medical devices. 

The molecular structure that is beneficial to the human body Polyurethane is made of elastomers whose molecules are similar to human proteins. These elastomers are called thermoplastic polyurethanes or TPUs, and their unique molecular structure makes them less likely to be absorbed by the body. This makes polyurethane devices very suitable for use in and around the human body.

Researchers have found that polyurethane elastomers have bionic and anti-thrombotic properties, so they are very useful for the human body.

So what are the benefits to the human body?

When the pacemaker and artificial heart are made of polyurethane, the body is unlikely to reject the implant. The latest artificial heart is composed of animal tissues coated with a special polyurethane called Angioflex, making the device smaller and less likely to be rejected.

Help the medical industry polyurethane equipment to make the medical industry more reliable. This material is easy to use and very strong.

Compare this to silicone or PVC, the latter has proven to be less reliable and difficult to manage. Silicone does not adhere to non-silicone materials. And PVC will leach toxic plastics over time, and it will become brittle when the temperature drops.

Polyurethane can be used in soft form, foam form, as well as semi-rigid and rigid forms. It retains its shape and will not lose its durability in any state. However, only devices approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can be used in the medical industry.

Polyurethane itself has not been approved by the FDA, but articles made from it have already been approved. To help polyurethane equipment obtain FDA approval, polyurethane suppliers must understand the toxicology of their polyurethane formulations. Equipment in contact with tissues must have a lot of toxicological information.

Polyurethane may be more expensive than other polymers. However, the way this material works is not available in other polymers. Because they have so much versatility and compatibility with the human body, it is worth the higher price per pound for manufacturers. 

Polyurethane medical tube A commonly used polyurethane medical device is a tube. Medical grade polyurethane tubes are used in everything from catheters and balloon pumps to surgical drainage tubes and feeding tubes. Polyurethane tubing is similar to plastic and rubber, but does not have the toxicity and fragility that both of them have.

Many versions of polyurethane medical grade tubing have a hydrophilic coating, which allows the tubing to function in wet areas of the body. This coating also makes it easier for medical professionals to insert the tube and move it once in the body.

Polyurethane tubes are commonly used in the medical profession because of the way they react with the body. Because polyurethane softens at body temperature, medical professionals can easily insert catheters and feeding tubes.

The biocompatibility of polyurethane allows patients to stay comfortable even when inserting the product into the body.

Manufacturing considerations For mass production of medical tubes, manufacturers are looking for the cheapest and most effective method. Most commonly, manufacturers use extrusion methods to obtain a consistent diameter inside and outside the tube.

Some manufacturers co-extrude mixed materials, usually combining pressure-resistant materials with puncture-resistant materials. Some materials are only 1/1000 inch thick. 

Polyurethane balloon pump Another commonly used polyurethane medical device is the intra-aortic balloon pump. The biological characteristics of polyurethane make this material useful for devices inserted into the aorta. The pump is a long catheter with a balloon at one end.

The surgeon inserts the device into the femoral artery of one leg in order to push it to the center of the aorta. The doctor uses X-rays to observe the movement of the device in the body.

Once the device reaches its destination, the balloon at the end will begin to expand and contract with the rhythm of the heart. The balloon helps the heart pump blood more effectively by reducing some of the workload of the heart.

There are risks associated with the use of intra-aortic balloon pumps. One is infection, which occurs in less than one percent of patients. Most infections are due to problems with the incision site, not the pump itself.

There have been cases of sepsis and bacterial infections caused by improper pump insertion. However, in general, this material makes the equipment safe. 

The artificial heart beats more than 2 billion times in the average life span. Therefore, it is the dream of many scientists to create an artificial heart that can last so long. Researchers have discovered that the only man-made material that can replace human heart tissue is called segmented polyurethane. This material has shape memory as well as strength and flexibility.

Since the first transplant in 1982, almost all implanted artificial hearts have used segmented polyurethane. The polyurethane used in artificial hearts rarely fails and eliminates the cause of heart failure when implanted.

What distinguishes segmented polyurethane from other forms of polyurethane is the ability of the material to restore its original shape. It achieves this by mixing hard and soft segment copolymers together.

The closest non-medical uses of segmented polyurethane are spandex and lycra, which retain their shape even though the person wearing it rubs, heats, and moves.

In fact, it was the shape memory of spandex that inspired researchers to use segmented polyurethane for artificial hearts.

This event features the debut of a number of machine tools in the Midwest, and will also highlight the first appearance of the Variaxis C-600 in North America.

Mazak Corp.'s Discover More With Mazak technology and education event will be held May 5-6, 2020 at the Midwest Technology Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. The exhibition will feature the debut of multiple machine tools in the Midwest, and will also highlight the North American debut Variaxis C-600 is a fully synchronized 5-axis multi-task machining center with flexible automation design and new Mazatrol SmoothAi CNC.

Event participants will have the opportunity to participate in an interactive demonstration to discuss how Mazak can help them achieve their goals, discuss specific processing challenges with Mazak application experts, and learn more about how Mazak works with customers.

Visitors will also learn how Mazak provides manufacturing solutions to meet the toughest machining challenges, and will experience the capabilities of 20 advanced Mazak turning, vertical, 5-axis and multi-tasking machines, including in Kentucky, North America The machine tool headquarters in Florence, Mazak, State, and the Midwest premiere of nine advanced machine tools.

First in the United States, Variaxis C-600 is an advanced 5-axis solution with a variety of optional features, automation-ready machine housing, operator-friendly ergonomic design and increased productivity, utilizing fast movements that are 40% faster Speed, 4.5 seconds chip automatic tool changer, double-ended inclined worktable and sturdy C-frame structure can shorten non-cutting time and shorten cycle time.

The Variaxis C-600 has a Mazatrol SmoothAi control device specifically configured for 5-axis machining, which provides access to a wide range of functions, from digital synchronization via Mazatrol Twins to artificial intelligence-driven machining modules such as Smooth Ai Spindle and Ai Thermal Shield.

You can register for the event here.

Rice engineers' magnetoelectric nerve implant (MagNI) can be wirelessly charged and programmed via a magnetic field.

Engineers at Rice University have introduced the first neural implant that can be remotely programmed and charged via a magnetic field, which may make it possible for embedded devices, such as spinal cord stimulation units, with battery-powered magnetic transmitters on wearable devices belt.

The integrated microsystem magnetoelectric nerve implant (MagNI) combines a magnetoelectric transducer, allowing the chip to obtain energy from an alternating magnetic field outside the body.

The system was developed by Yang Kaiyuan, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Jacob Robinson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and biological engineering; and co-lead author Zhanghao Yu, graduate student and graduate student Joshua Chen, all at Rice’s Brown School of Engineering.

MagNI is aimed at applications that require programmable electrical stimulation of neurons, such as helping patients with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease.

Rice University graduate students Joshua Chen (left) and Zhanghao Yu tested a prototype neural implant that can be remotely programmed and charged via a magnetic field. The chip may make embedded devices possible, such as spinal cord stimulation devices with battery-powered magnetic transmitters on wearable belts.

"This is the first time that you can use magnetic fields to power and program implants," Yang said. "By combining magnetoelectric transducers with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, we provide a bioelectronic platform for many applications. For sensing and signal processing tasks, CMOS is powerful, efficient, and inexpensive."

Yang pointed out that MagNI has obvious advantages over current stimulation methods (including ultrasound, electromagnetic radiation, inductive coupling, and optical techniques).

"People have been showing neurostimulators of this size, and even smaller," Yang said. "The magnetoelectric effect we use has many advantages over mainstream power and data transmission methods."

He said that tissue does not absorb magnetic fields like other types of signals, and does not heat tissues like electromagnetic radiation and optical radiation or inductive coupling.

"Ultrasound does not have a heating problem, but the waves reflect at the interface between different media, such as hair and skin or bones and other muscles."

Because the magnetic field also transmits control signals, Yang said MagNI "does not require calibration and is robust."

"It does not require any internal voltage or timing references," he said.

The components of the prototype device are located on a flexible polyimide substrate with only three components: a 2mm x 4mm magnetoelectric film that converts a magnetic field into an electric field, a CMOS chip, and a capacitor that temporarily stores energy.

The team successfully tested the long-term reliability of the chip by immersing it in a solution and testing it in air and jelly-like agar that simulates the tissue environment.

The researchers also validated this technology with the exciting Hydra vulgaris, a small octopus-like creature studied by Robinson's laboratory. By constraining Hydra with a microfluidic device in the laboratory, they were able to see fluorescent signals related to biological contractions triggered by chip contact. The team is currently conducting in vivo tests on different models of equipment.

In the current generation of chips, energy and information flow in only one way, but Yang said that the team is studying two-way communication strategies to facilitate the collection of data from implants and realize more applications.

The co-authors of the papers published at the conference are Rice graduate students Yan He and Amanda Singer and research expert Benjamin Avants.

As a weapon against the spread of the coronavirus, Chinese hospitals are deploying Danish disinfection robots from UVD robots.

Self-driving Danish disinfection robots have been shipped to many hospitals in China to help fight the coronavirus (COVID-19). Sunay Healthcare Supply signed an agreement with UVD Robots to ship the first batch of robots last week and will ship them in the next few weeks. With the help of ultraviolet (UV) light, Danish robots can disinfect and kill viruses and bacteria autonomously, effectively limiting the spread of coronavirus without putting hospital staff at risk of infection.

Through Sunay Healthcare Supply's partners in China, robots will be deployed in all provinces in China.

"Through this agreement, more than 2,000 hospitals will now have the opportunity to ensure effective disinfection and protect patients and employees," said Su Yan, CEO of Sunay Healthcare Supply, a medical equipment supplier in the Chinese market. UVD Robots is currently sold in more than 40 countries/regions. In addition to the healthcare markets in Europe and the United States, it also provides its self-driving disinfection robots to hospitals in other parts of Asia. The invention improves the safety of staff, patients and relatives of patients by reducing the risk of contact with bacteria, viruses and other harmful microorganisms. The concentrated UV-C light emitted by the robot while driving has a sterilization effect and can remove almost all airborne viruses and bacteria on the surface of the room.

"We found that UVD robots are superior to other technologies, and we are very pleased to sign a distributor agreement within a short period of time to have the exclusive right to supply UVD robots in China," Yan said, emphasizing how the two parties Work has been stepping up to transport robots to Chinese hospitals.

Per Juul Nielsen, CEO of UVD Robots, is very pleased to be able to help fight the spread of the virus in China through the company's solutions. He said: "In a serious crisis like this that threatens the world's health, our innovative technology has indeed proven its value."

The development of the UVD robot began in 2014, when a group of Danish hospitals needed a more effective way to reduce the infection rate in the hospital. The collaboration between bacteriologists, virologists and hospital staff from the hospital and the robot developers, designers, engineers, investors and business personnel of Blue Ocean Robotics led to the early market introduction in 2018.

Compared with previous months, the decline in orders in December was not significant, which was in line with industry forecasts.

According to data from the United States Cutting Tool Association (USCTI) and AMT-Association of Manufacturing Technology, the total consumption of cutting tools in the United States in December 2019 was US$187.2 million. Companies participating in the cutting tool market report report that compared with the $189.1 million reported in December 2018, the total is down 1% and 1% from the $189.1 million reported in November. The year-to-date value of 2019 was US$2.4 billion, a decrease of 1% compared to 2018.

USCTI President Bret Tayne said, “The cutting tool industry has declined slightly since 2018, which is consistent with our industry’s forecast. Although there are some signs of continued slowdown in the first quarter of this year, various reports There is a light of optimism, and as the cautious issues (coronavirus, commercial aviation issues, etc.) recede, there may be a chance for a rebound."

"Orders for cutting tools have declined at the end of 2019, which is consistent with the continued weakness in key manufacturing industries such as aerospace and automotive. However, compared with previous months, the decline in orders in December was not large, and was lower than in November. 1%, which makes orders for the whole year of 2019 drop by 1% compared to 2018," said Mark Killion, head of U.S. industry at Oxford Economics.