Industry competence
In many different industries, testing devices from FOERSTER ensure material meets the required quality standard, in order to achieve high quality end products. One of these industries is medical technology. Here, futuristic high tech meets careful and precise manual work. Precision, quality, and reliability play an especially large role.
To ensure this, FOERSTER has offered test sensors since 1948 that are used to check wires for cardiac pacemakers or implants such as stents for the smallest surface defects.
In addition, the MAGNETOMAT and MAGNETOSCOP can be used to specifically select materials and components for manufacturing medical equipment as well as to monitor the installation location of magnetically sensitive equipment.
Would you like to learn more about our involvement in medical technology? Then follow our application examples.
Application examples
Cardiac pacemakers
When a person's heart starts beating irregularly and needs help, then a cardiac pacemaker can be necessary. Used for the first time in 1958, cardiac pacemakers today are no bigger than a matchbox and are implanted in a routine operation. For a cardiac pacemaker to work reliably and faultlessly, the materials used must be of the highest quality.
An important component are the fine wire springs that sit at the distal end of the pacemaker electrodes. These electrodes transmit the electrical pulse to the heart muscle and ensure that the heart beats regularly again.
To ensure the quality of the installed wire, with a diameter of only 1-2 mm, FOERSTER has developed the special sensor system DEFECTOMINI, which ensures reliable error checking even with filigree wires. This sensor system can detect the finest surface defects, such as longitudinal and transverse cracks, so that only faultless material is used in pacemakers.
This is only one aspect of many which ensures that worldwide, around 4 million hearts with a pacemaker, continue to beat for a long time.
Magnetic resonance scanner
A game of soccer with friends on the weekend, a wrong move - and suddenly you have piercing pain in your knee. What usually follows is an MRI to detect or rule out damage to your ligaments or meniscus.
For an MRI to be able to create high-resolution images, certain measures must already be taken on the surrounding environment in the planning phase. To create images, MRIs work with a strong magnetic field that is generated around the patient. This magnetic field reacts very sensitively to power lines, moving metal objects, elevators, or traffic, which can affect the quality of the produced images.
For this reason, the intended area must be checked for suitability before installation. This can be evaluated with the MAGNETOMAT and the 3-AXIS MAGNETOMETER as part of initial and long-term measurements. These devices spatially detect the magnetic fields and provide information on interferences that have to be appropriately shielded.
In addition, the MAGNETOSCOP and MAGNETOMAT products can be used to precisely determine what components are suitable for integration in a magnetic resonance scanner. The required non-magnetic property is verified via the residual magnetic field or the relative permeability (magnetic permeability) of the material.
If all of this is taken into account, a fascinating image of our body is generated, that allows a differential diagnosis.
