The artificial cornea is already a reality

Visible success –
the artificial cornea is already a reality

A clear cornea is essential to sharp vision, and any damage to it can lead to blindness. The reasons can include acid burns, chronic inflammation, infections, or a shortage of limbal stem cells. In many cases only a transplant can help, but donor corneas are rare. Seven thousand patients are waiting for treatment in Germany alone. By creating artificial corneas on the basis of fine-knit polymers, the Aachen Center for Technology Transfer ACTO e. V., working together with several partners, has greatly raised expectations. The research work has also been further developed as part of the "ArtCornea®" project of the Fraunhofer IAP.

High-tech meets high-tech – or how to manufacture a heart-lung system

Textiles save lives. They provide oxygen and keep the cardiovascular system running smoothly – as special membranes inside oxygenators used during heart-lung surgery. The Neckar-Alb region of Germany is where high-tech meets high-tech, with comprehensive medical technology expertise on the one hand and efficient, powerful knitting machine needles on the other. That's why Maquet Cardiopulmonary AG has relied for many years now on the quality and precision of products from Groz-Beckert.

Chargeable textiles

Schoeller Textil AG, the globally active fabric and technology specialist based in Sevelen, Switzerland, established its own medical division in 2011. The first important innovations followed immediately. That same year the company received the Swiss Technology Award for its reloadable drug delivery textile iLoad®. With iLoad®, textile carrier materials are individually loaded with beneficial and therapeutic substances or medicaments, and can also be regenerated. People wearing textiles based on iLoad® are automatically supplied with the active substances.

Textiles in medicine and your potential

One thousand years ago humanity realized that textiles can do far more than just clothe us and warm us – but it was a long way from the first textile bandage to today's textile implants. Today almost every requirement in medical technology has a special textile to suit it. Discover more about a textile success story involving the most important thing of all: our health.

100 applications in medicine and hygiene

The themes of medical technology and hygiene are many-faceted – just like the Groz-Beckert product portfolio, which also comprises over 3,000 sewing-machine needles. Read on to find out about the products created by them...