Medical Devices

Animated Demo

IDAC are specialists in the medical device field. IDAC design, analysis and consultancy is carried out across a variety of software packages and is focused on three main areas. Firstly, the design of new products. Secondly , the analysis of existing designs to improve performance or reduce costs. And finally, assisting new users of design and analysis software with technology implementation.

Applications where IDAC Ireland have had a major influence in the past include:

Stents
We simulate both stainless steel and nitinol (shape memory alloy) stents. ANSYS now has Shape Memory Alloy material model.

We simulate the crimp, expansion and fatigue of the stent

Typically a stent designer wants to know max stress or strain, how much the stent shortens, how much it recoils, what its radial stiffness is, what the bending stiffness is. Fatigue is predicted using a Goodman Diagram. We can do these simulations in a matter of hours. We have also developed a vertical application to run these simulations automatically. Click the Goodman diagram to show the demo.

(Click on the images for further info)

When stents are deployed they cause damage to the vessel which triggers cancerous cells to grow. This can cause the vessel to occlude. Drugs can be used to inhibit the cell growth. These are best delivered from the stent so that they can be used in small concentrations and get exactly where they are needed. The drug delivery process can be modelled in ANSYS. The above plot shows concentrations at a time point at various distances from the stent. Stents are delived by inflating balloons. These ballons are folded initially. The folding pattern can introduce assymmetry in the stent deployment. The interaction between the stent and balloon can be modelled in ANSYS to assess this effect.

Other areas of expertise include:

Artery Plaque	Orthopaedic Implants

Customers
IDAC Ireland's customers in the medical arena include:

• Abbott Vascular
• Aerogen
• Biocompatibles
• Biotronic
• Boston Scientific
• Jomed
• Mednova
• Medtronic
• Moximed
• Novate Medical
• Raymedica
• Stryker Howmedica
• Xtent