Secant Medical Develops Biomedical 3D Textile Engineering Technology

Secant Medical has developed a new 3D textile engineering technology by integrating traditional textile engineering with advanced biomaterials. While 3D printing or additive manufacturing has gained considerable attention as a novel method to create 3D biomedical forms, 3D printing does not always offer the dimensional stability, material selection and engineering properties desired. The 3D textile technology leverages Secant Medical’s history in developing medical textiles for use in implantable medical applications. Once programmed the 3D textile set-up can produce high-quality, mass-engineered structures with a high degree of repeatability.

By combining the spatial resolution capability with advanced bioresorbable polymers, Secant Medical uses the company’s proprietary bioelastomer Regenerez to assist in enhancing the biomechanical properties of these 3D structures. This technology transforms a simple, synthetic textile into an elastomeric scaffold which allows the researcher a broad range of bioresorbable polymers for the structural design.

The company has begun development of an anatomical scaffold prototype based on the trachea. The patent pending technology can provide the researcher with off-the-shelf scaffolds for a range of structures in various sizes to meet demographic demands. For instance, the 3D textile engineered trachea scaffold demonstrates the precision of creating 20 C-shaped rings stacked along the length of the prototype with narrow, flexible regions spaced in between to mimic the natural bioarchitecture of the trachea.

“Our 3D biomedical textile engineering technology offers a potential solution to help our customers’ resolve the complex challenges of biocompatibility, design and construction, and material properties,” said Jeff Robertson, president of Secant Medical.

Secant Medical designs and manufactures biomedical textiles and advanced biomaterials for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Employing medical fabric engineering technologies, the company blend polymeric, metallic and resorbable biomaterials to create custom, high-performance structures that are used in the cardiovascular, general surgery, neurovascular, orthopedic and regenerative medicine fields. Secant Medical is a business unit of Fenner PLC, a worldwide leader in reinforced polymer engineering headquartered in Yorkshire, England.