• Login
    • Join
  • FOLLOW:
  • Subscribe Free
    • Magazine
    • eNewsletter
    Checkout
    • Magazine
    • News
    • Opinions
    • Top 30
    • Research
    • Supply Chain
    • Device Sectors
    • Directory
    • Events
    • Resources
    • Microsites
    • More
  • Magazine
  • News
  • Opinions
  • Top 30
  • Research
  • Supply Chain
  • Device Sectors
  • Directory
  • Events
  • Resources
  • Microsites
  • Current / Back Issues
    Features
    Editorial
    Digital Edition
    eNewsletter Archive
    Our Team
    Editorial Guidelines
    Reprints
    Subscribe Now
    Advertise Now
    Top Features
    OEMs Seek Molders Offering Timely Techniques

    Robotic Surgery: Cutting Through to the Latest

    Packaging, Sterilization Considerations Go Part and Parcel with Product Development

    Cybersecurity Challenges Leave Medical Device Makers Insecure

    OEMs Are Demanding Designs that Challenge Suppliers
    OEM News
    Supplier News
    Service / Press Releases
    Online Exclusives
    Press Releases
    People in the News
    Product & Service Releases
    Supplier News
    Medtech Makers
    Technical Features
    International News
    Videos
    Product & Service Releases
    Live From Shows
    Regulatory
    Financial/Business
    Top News
    ENDRA Life Sciences Issued 27th Patent

    AI-Enabled SKOUT Device Improves Colorectal Cancer Screening

    Simon Johnson Appointed as Senior Business Development VP at MedAcuity

    Foster Corporation Named Marketing Partner for AdvanSource Biomaterials

    Researchers Develop New Apparatus for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
    From the Editor
    Blogs
    Guest Opinions
    Top Opinions
    OEMs Seek Molders Offering Timely Techniques

    Robotic Surgery: Cutting Through to the Latest

    Packaging, Sterilization Considerations Go Part and Parcel with Product Development

    Cybersecurity Challenges Leave Medical Device Makers Insecure

    OEMs Are Demanding Designs that Challenge Suppliers
    Top 30 Medical Device Companies
    Market Data
    White Papers
    Top Research
    Theranos Fraud Trial, Part II: The Blame Game Continues

    An Update on Surgical Robotics

    Letting the Light In: How Failure Analysis is the Cornerstone of Success

    Three Talent Strategies to Attract High-Demand Skills

    The Advantages of Bioburden Screening for Sterilization Validation
    3D/Additive Manufacturing
    Contract Manufacturing
    Electronics
    Machining & Laser Processing
    Materials
    Molding
    Packaging & Sterilization
    R&D & Design
    Software & IT
    Testing
    Tubing & Extrusion
    Cardiovascular
    Diagnostics
    Digital Health
    Neurological
    Patient Monitoring
    Surgical
    Orthopedics
    All Companies
    Categories
    Company Capabilities
    Add New Company
    Outsourcing Directory
    Concise Engineering

    JBC Technologies

    BMP Medical

    Trademark Plastics Inc.

    Cirtec Medical
    MPO Summit
    Industry Events
    Webinars
    Live From Show Event
    Industry Associations
    Videos
    Career Central
    eBook
    Slideshows
    Top Resources
    ‘Right to Repair’: Separating Fact from Fiction

    Taking a Holistic Approach to Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs)

    Investment in Health Startups Drops

    The Power of Leveraging Customer Relationships

    Cost Effective & Efficient Wire EDM Techniques
    Companies
    News Releases
    Product Releases
    Press Releases
    Product Spec Sheets
    Service Releases
    Case Studies
    White Papers
    Brochures
    Videos
    Outsourcing Directory
    Concise Engineering

    JBC Technologies

    BMP Medical

    Trademark Plastics Inc.

    Cirtec Medical
    • Magazine
      • Current/Back Issues
      • Features
      • Editorial
      • Columns
      • Digital Editions
      • Subscribe Now
      • Advertise Now
    • News
    • Directory
      • All Companies
      • ALL CATEGORIES
      • Industry Associations
      • Company Capabilities
      • Add Your Company
    • Supply Chain
      • 3D/Additive Manufacturing
      • Contract Manufacturing
      • Electronics
      • Machining & Laser Processing
      • Materials
      • Molding
      • Packaging & Sterilization
      • R&D & Design
      • Software & IT
      • Testing
      • Tubing & Extrusion
    • Device Sectors
      • Cardiovascular
      • Diagnostics
      • Digital Health
      • Neurological
      • Patient Monitoring
      • Surgical
      • Orthopedics
    • Top 30 Company Report
    • Expert Insights
    • Slideshows
    • Videos
    • eBook
    • Resources
    • Podcasts
    • Infographics
    • Whitepapers
    • Research
      • White Papers
      • Case Studies
      • Product Spec Sheets
      • Market Data
    • MPO Summit
    • Events
      • Industry Events
      • Live From Show Events
      • Webinars
    • Microsite
      • Companies
      • Product Releases
      • Product Spec Sheets
      • Services
      • White Papers / Tech Papers
      • Press Releases
      • Videos
      • Literature / Brochures
      • Case Studies
    • About Us
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise with Us
      • eNewsletter Archive
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Use
    Breaking News

    MIT Engineers Design Color-Changing Compression Bandage

    Bandage is threaded with photonic fibers that change color to signal pressure level.

    MIT Engineers Design Color-Changing Compression Bandage
    Engineers at MIT have developed pressure-sensing photonic fibers that they have woven into a typical compression bandage. Images courtesy of the researchers.
    Related CONTENT
    • Olympus Corporation Launches Powerseal Advanced Bipolar Surgical Energy Products
    • Freudenberg Medical Increases Capabilities for Sensor Integration
    • Greg Cebular Named as President of Mack Prototype
    • Receiving FDA Approval in Under One Month
    • LifeConnect Partners With Movement Interactive and AffirmXH
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology05.30.18
    Compression therapy is a standard form of treatment for patients who suffer from venous ulcers and other conditions in which veins struggle to return blood from the lower extremities. Compression stockings and bandages, wrapped tightly around the affected limb, can help to stimulate blood flow. But there is currently no clear way to gauge whether a bandage is applying an optimal pressure for a given condition.
     
    Now engineers at MIT have developed pressure-sensing photonic fibers that they have woven into a typical compression bandage. As the bandage is stretched, the fibers change color. Using a color chart, a caregiver can stretch a bandage until it matches the color for a desired pressure, before, say, wrapping it around a patient's leg.
     
    The photonic fibers can then serve as a continuous pressure sensor—if their color changes, caregivers or patients can use the color chart to determine whether and to what degree the bandage needs loosening or tightening.
     
    "Getting the pressure right is critical in treating many medical conditions including venous ulcers, which affect several hundred thousand patients in the U.S. each year," said Mathias Kolle, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "These fibers can provide information about the pressure that the bandage exerts. We can design them so that for a specific desired pressure, the fibers reflect an easily distinguished color."
     
    Kolle and his colleagues have published their results in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. Co-authors from MIT include first author Joseph Sandt, Marie Moudio, and Christian Argenti, along with J. Kenji Clark of the Univeristy of Tokyo, James Hardin of the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Matthew Carty of Brigham and Women's Hospital-Harvard Medical School, and Jennifer Lewis of Harvard University.
     
    Natural Inspiration
    The color of the photonic fibers arises not from any intrinsic pigmentation, but from their carefully designed structural configuration. Each fiber is about 10 times the diameter of a human hair. The researchers fabricated the fiber from ultrathin layers of transparent rubber materials, which they rolled up to create a jelly-roll-type structure. Each layer within the roll is only a few hundred nanometers thick.
     
    In this rolled-up configuration, light reflects off each interface between individual layers. With enough layers of consistent thickness, these reflections interact to strengthen some colors in the visible spectrum, for instance red, while diminishing the brightness of other colors. This makes the fiber appear a certain color, depending on the thickness of the layers within the fiber.
     
    "Structural color is really neat, because you can get brighter, stronger colors than with inks or dyes just by using particular arrangements of transparent materials," Sandt said. "These colors persist as long as the structure is maintained."
     
    The fibers' design relies upon an optical phenomenon known as "interference," in which light, reflected from a periodic stack of thin, transparent layers, can produce vibrant colors that depend on the stack's geometric parameters and material composition. Optical interference is what produces colorful swirls in oily puddles and soap bubbles. It's also what gives peacocks and butterflies their dazzling, shifting shades, as their feathers and wings are made from similarly periodic structures.
     
    "My interest has always been in taking interesting structural elements that lie at the origin of nature's most dazzling light manipulation strategies, to try recreating and employing them in useful applications," Kolle said.


    As the bandage is stretched, the fibers change color.
     
    A Multilayered Approach
    The team's approach combines known optical design concepts with soft materials, to create dynamic photonic materials.
     
    While a postdoc at Harvard in the group of Professor Joanna Aizenberg, Kolle was inspired by the work of Pete Vukusic, professor of biophotonics at the University of Exeter in the U.K., on Margaritaria nobilis, a tropical plant that produces extremely shiny blue berries. The fruits' skin is made up of cells with a periodic cellulose structure, through which light can reflect to give the fruit its signature metallic blue color.
     
    Together, Kolle and Vukusic sought ways to translate the fruit's photonic architecture into a useful synthetic material. Ultimately, they fashioned multilayered fibers from stretchable materials, and assumed that stretching the fibers would change the individual layers' thicknesses, enabling them to tune the fibers' color. The results of these first efforts were published in Advanced Materials in 2013.
     
    When Kolle joined the MIT faculty in the same year, he and his group, including Sandt, improved on the photonic fiber's design and fabrication. In their current form, the fibers are made from layers of commonly used and widely available transparent rubbers, wrapped around highly stretchable fiber cores. Sandt fabricated each layer using spin-coating, a technique in which a rubber, dissolved into solution, is poured onto a spinning wheel. Excess material is flung off the wheel, leaving a thin, uniform coating, the thickness of which can be determined by the wheel's speed.
     
    For fiber fabrication, Sandt formed these two layers on top of a water-soluble film on a silicon wafer. He then submerged the wafer, with all three layers, in water to dissolve the water-soluble layer, leaving the two rubbery layers floating on the water's surface. Finally, he carefully rolled the two transparent layers around a black rubber fiber, to produce the final colorful photonic fiber.
     
    Reflecting Pressure
    The team can tune the thickness of the fibers' layers to produce any desired color tuning, using standard optical modeling approaches customized for their fiber design.
     
    "If you want a fiber to go from yellow to green, or blue, we can say, 'This is how we have to lay out the fiber to give us this kind of [color] trajectory,'" Kolle said. "This is powerful because you might want to have something that reflects red to show a dangerously high strain, or green for 'ok.' We have that capacity."
     
    The team fabricated color-changing fibers with a tailored, strain-dependent color variation using the theoretical model, and then stitched them along the length of a conventional compression bandage, which they previously characterized to determine the pressure that the bandage generates when it's stretched by a certain amount.
     
    The team used the relationship between bandage stretch and pressure, and the correlation between fiber color and strain, to draw up a color chart, matching a fiber's color (produced by a certain amount of stretching) to the pressure that is generated by the bandage.
     
    To test the bandage's effectiveness, Sandt and Moudio enlisted over a dozen student volunteers, who worked in pairs to apply three different compression bandages to each other's legs: a plain bandage, a bandage threaded with photonic fibers, and a commercially-available bandage printed with rectangular patterns. This bandage is designed so that when it is applying an optimal pressure, users should see that the rectangles become squares.
     
    Overall, the bandage woven with photonic fibers gave the clearest pressure feedback. Students were able to interpret the color of the fibers, and based on the color chart, apply a corresponding optimal pressure more accurately than either of the other bandages.
     
    The researchers are now looking for ways to scale up the fiber fabrication process. Currently, they are able to make fibers that are several inches long. Ideally, they would like to produce meters or even kilometers of such fibers at a time.
     
    "Currently, the fibers are costly, mostly because of the labor that goes into making them," Kolle said. "The materials themselves are not worth much. If we could reel out kilometers of these fibers with relatively little work, then they would be dirt cheap."
     
    Then, such fibers could be threaded into bandages, along with textiles such as athletic apparel and shoes as color indicators for, say, muscle strain during workouts. Kolle envisions that they may also be used as remotely readable strain gauges for infrastructure and machinery.
     
    "Of course, they could also be a scientific tool that could be used in a broader context, which we want to explore," Kolle said.
    Related Searches
    • design
    • standard
    • compression
    • signature
    Related Knowledge Center
    • Cardiovascular
    • Materials
    Suggested For You
    Olympus Corporation Launches Powerseal Advanced Bipolar Surgical Energy Products Olympus Corporation Launches Powerseal Advanced Bipolar Surgical Energy Products
    Freudenberg Medical Increases Capabilities for Sensor Integration Freudenberg Medical Increases Capabilities for Sensor Integration
    Greg Cebular Named as President of Mack Prototype Greg Cebular Named as President of Mack Prototype
    Receiving FDA Approval in Under One Month Receiving FDA Approval in Under One Month
    LifeConnect Partners With Movement Interactive and AffirmXH LifeConnect Partners With Movement Interactive and AffirmXH
    Hancock Jaffe Receives IDE Approval To Begin VenoValve U.S. Trial Hancock Jaffe Receives IDE Approval To Begin VenoValve U.S. Trial
    Alvalux Medical Awarded Patent for Wearable Dermal Repair System Alvalux Medical Awarded Patent for Wearable Dermal Repair System
    USPTO Issues Patent Covering Hancock Jaffe’s VenoValve USPTO Issues Patent Covering Hancock Jaffe’s VenoValve
    Ethicon Launches Echelon+ Stapler Ethicon Launches Echelon+ Stapler
    Quantitative Transmission Ultrasound Outperforms Mammography Quantitative Transmission Ultrasound Outperforms Mammography
    Vesper Medical Announces First Enrollment in the VIVID Trial Vesper Medical Announces First Enrollment in the VIVID Trial
    AOTI Expands Topical Wound Oxygen Product Portfolio AOTI Expands Topical Wound Oxygen Product Portfolio
    Stock vs. Custom Springs for Medtech Stock vs. Custom Springs for Medtech
    Device Success Contingent Upon Flexible Circuit Design Device Success Contingent Upon Flexible Circuit Design
    AIROS Medical Launches New Compression Therapy Device AIROS Medical Launches New Compression Therapy Device

    Related Breaking News

    • Surgical
      Olympus Corporation Launches Powerseal Advanced Bipolar Surgical Energy Products

      Olympus Corporation Launches Powerseal Advanced Bipolar Surgical Energy Products

      Deliver consistent sealing reliability in an ergonomic, multifunctional design that promotes procedural efficiency.
      Olympus Corporation 09.21.21

    • Electronics
      Freudenberg Medical Increases Capabilities for Sensor Integration

      Freudenberg Medical Increases Capabilities for Sensor Integration

      Positions the company to work with sensors such as temperature and pressure sensors, entire sensor arrays, and fiber optic sensors.
      Freudenberg Medical 08.18.21

    • Greg Cebular Named as President of Mack Prototype

      Greg Cebular Named as President of Mack Prototype

      Cebular brings 18 years of advanced manufacturing and leadership experience to the company.
      Mack Molding 08.02.21


    • Contract Manufacturing
      Receiving FDA Approval in Under One Month

      Receiving FDA Approval in Under One Month

      How the team working on an “Open-Source” COVID Ambu-bot Ventilator optimized its short timeline.
      Aaron Burlew, Senior Applications Engineer, Teknic Inc. 07.06.21

    • Digital Health
      LifeConnect Partners With Movement Interactive and AffirmXH

      LifeConnect Partners With Movement Interactive and AffirmXH

      The partnership will now expand the Hiji Band’s potential into healthcare, providing new data sources from patients in their real environments.
      LifeConnect 06.18.21

    Loading, Please Wait..

    Trending
    • Siemens Healthineers & The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Enter Strategic Partnership
    • 5 Ways Plastics Revolutionized The Healthcare Industry
    • How To Overcome The Top 6 Medical Device Manufacturing Challenges
    • ‘Right To Repair’: Separating Fact From Fiction
    • The Future Of Biomedical Engineering Advancements
    Breaking News
    • ENDRA Life Sciences Issued 27th Patent
    • AI-Enabled SKOUT Device Improves Colorectal Cancer Screening
    • Simon Johnson Appointed as Senior Business Development VP at MedAcuity
    • Foster Corporation Named Marketing Partner for AdvanSource Biomaterials
    • Researchers Develop New Apparatus for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
    View Breaking News >
    CURRENT ISSUE

    June 2022

    • OEMs Seek Molders Offering Timely Techniques
    • Robotic Surgery: Cutting Through to the Latest
    • Packaging, Sterilization Considerations Go Part and Parcel with Product Development
    • View More >

    Cookies help us to provide you with an excellent service. By using our website, you declare yourself in agreement with our use of cookies.
    You can obtain detailed information about the use of cookies on our website by clicking on "More information”.

    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms And Conditions
    • Contact Us

    follow us

    Subscribe
    Nutraceuticals World

    Latest Breaking News From Nutraceuticals World

    Pharmavite Expands in Ohio with $200 Million Investment
    Nestlé Health Science Expands in New Zealand with Deal to Buy The Better Health Company
    Younger Consumers Drive Growing Demand for Ingestible Beauty and Skin Care Products
    Coatings World

    Latest Breaking News From Coatings World

    Clariant’s Launches Dispersogen Flex 100
    Lincoln Tech Enters Partnership with AkzoNobel
    AkzoNobel Launches International Interzone 945GF
    Medical Product Outsourcing

    Latest Breaking News From Medical Product Outsourcing

    ENDRA Life Sciences Issued 27th Patent
    AI-Enabled SKOUT Device Improves Colorectal Cancer Screening
    Simon Johnson Appointed as Senior Business Development VP at MedAcuity
    Contract Pharma

    Latest Breaking News From Contract Pharma

    Takeda to Expand U.S. Footprint
    Croda Pharma's Lipid Systems Capability to Support mRNA Vaccines
    WuXi STA Opens High-Potency API Plant
    Beauty Packaging

    Latest Breaking News From Beauty Packaging

    Latest Updates About Cosmoprof North America
    Meet the Clean Beauty Brand for Dogs
    Paco Rabanne Introduces Elle Fanning as Ambassador for New ‘Fame’ Fragrance
    Happi

    Latest Breaking News From Happi

    Two-Part Skincare Product Patented by Estée Lauder Companies
    American Cleaning Institute Pens Letter to Congress Encouraging Examination of Recyclability Improvements
    The Expert Panel for Fragrance Safety Celebrates 55 Years
    Ink World

    Latest Breaking News From Ink World

    INX Launches INXFlex Contour for Shrink Sleeve Market
    Xerox Announces Unexpected Passing of Vice Chairman and CEO John Visentin
    MNYPIA Golf Outing Set to Tee Off on Aug. 17
    Label & Narrow Web

    Latest Breaking News From Label & Narrow Web

    Meyers purchased by third generation of Dillon family
    Epson now shipping ColorWorks C4000 inkjet label printer
    Nobelus launches new films for prime labels
    Nonwovens Industry

    Latest Breaking News From Nonwovens Industry

    What You’re Reading on Nonwovens-Industry.com
    Daio, Livedo Partner to Recycle Diapers
    Suominen Launches Hydraspun Reserve
    Orthopedic Design & Technology

    Latest Breaking News From Orthopedic Design & Technology

    3D Systems and EMS-GRILTECH Enter Strategic Partnership
    AIP Researchers Develop Microfluidic-Based Soft Robotic Prosthetic
    David Sharp Named Global Marketing VP at Catalyst OrthoScience
    Printed Electronics Now

    Latest Breaking News From Printed Electronics Now

    Impinj Launches E910 RFID Reader Chip for Next Generation Enterprise IoT
    onsemi Receives Recognition for Sustainability for Third Straight Year
    Xerox Announces the Unexpected Passing of Vice Chairman and CEO John Visentin

    Copyright © 2022 Rodman Media. All rights reserved. Use of this constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Rodman Media.

    AD BLOCKER DETECTED

    Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
    Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.


    FREE SUBSCRIPTION Already a subscriber? Login