How it works

Knitting typically involves a higher number of individual fibers than most other biomedical textile engineering techniques, which allows for greater intricacy and performance capabilities in created structures. Implantable applications that undergo more severe instances of stress and stretch are often able to achieve the higher strength characteristic of ceramic or metal with the lifelike movement of fibrous composition.

Varied knitting techniques include warp knitting, weft knitting, and circular knitting, and allow for many different configurations, including extra strength without increasing thickness, a flexible mesh with high conformability, or even flat structures with designed apertures to allow for cutting or other alteration without sacrificing edge integrity.

Common knitted applications include:

• Surgical mesh
• Hernia repair
• Urogynecologic slings and prolapse devices
• Reconstructive and cosmetic surgery mesh
• Other containment devices

PPM Series: Built as a starting point for design customization, BMS’ popular and proven standard polypropylene monofilament knitted mesh (PPM series) comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes:

• PPM1 contains two monofilaments (both 0.15 mm diameter) knitting in unison to provide extra strength without adding thickness.
• PPM3 is constructed from a single monofilament (0.15 mm diameter)and yields a flexible mesh with high conformability.
• PPM5 is constructed from a single monofilament (0.10 mm diameter) and produces a flexible mesh with well-defined apertures that can be cut into virtually any shape without sacrificing edge integrity or fabric strength.

How it works

By intertwining three or more strands of biomaterial in highly complex and precise ways, BMS can create flat or hollow structures with a high degree of strength but without a large surface area. Manufactured with a combination of different absorbable and permanent fibers, braids can provide a material for partial degradation over time or maintain a precise geometry for implantable replacement. Engineering customized biomedical textiles to possess softness, fatigue resistance, abrasion resistance, expandability, compression, and more, braids can maintain a structural composition without sacrificing flexibility, and the result is a more natural, lifelike movement within the body than materials of metal, plastic or ceramic.

Common braided applications include:

• Device assembly and carriers
• Sutures and sewing threads
• Tethers and component attachment
• Retrieval / deployment systems
• Tubes and tubing reinforcement
• Ports
• Sheaths
• Reinforcement devices
  • Catheters
• Tendon / ligament fixation

How it works:

A variety of woven styles are possible, from single plain patterns to thicker, stronger or shaped multidimensional weaves. A high tenacity means they are dense without being heavy, and are able to hold shape for support or replacement functions that must maintain original form. This thickness and strength – without the stretch of knitted or braided fabrics – allows for a structure well-suited to precise specifications.

Tapes and webbings are designed to meet specific needs for strength, porosity, morphology and geometry, and can be woven for particular width requirements. BMS produces tapes and webbings at straight and varying widths and profiles (both across and within single biomedical textiles) depending on the design challenge.

Woven tubes can also be manufactured with additional customization to meet any combination of functional requirements, including tapering or bifurcation to accommodate anatomic dimensions. BMS’ ability to work with very fine fabrics to produce highly precise tubes enables sophisticated woven grafts for endovascular stent systems and other coronary intervention stent procedures.  

Common woven applications include:

• Cardiovascular grafts
• Heart valves
• Annuloplasty rings
• Orthopedic spacers
• Tethers
• Containments
• Ligament repair
• Tendon reinforcement
• Fixation devices

How it works:

Composed of felt created by a carding and needle-punch process, non-woven structures provide greater surface area than most other biomedical textiles to bring a different set of benefits to implantables. Most notably, the ability to encourage cellular in-growth through specific spacing, layer thickness, and material integrity allows for customized performance and controlled absorption profiles. Currently, most device OEMs require non-woven scaffolds composed of absorbable biomaterials, meant to facilitate re-growth before disintegration, but BMS continues to innovate on this model for new filler, gel, and other additive applications.

Common non-woven applications include:

• Scaffolds for tissue engineering
• Scaffolds for stem cell applications
• Dental and cosmetic applications
• Absorbable additives for cements and hydrogels
• High surface area material for trauma applications
• Markers
• Pledgets
• Washers
• Spacers
• Cuffs

BIOFELT

BMS offers a full line of its BIOFELT® tissue scaffolds manufactured from a variety of synthetic, absorbable polymer fibers, including PGA, PLLA, PLGA, and proprietary customer-supplied fibers, as well as other non-wovens using permanent materials such as PET, PTFE, and custom fibers.

Learn more about BIOFELT

If you’re working with a novel polymer application, please contact engineering@bmsri.com for more information about our development and manufacturing capabilities, or read about the many materials with which we work.