E!383 AMTAH, Scandinavian Real Heart AB (publ)

Important results from the project

The project goal was to evaluate if the manual production process can be replaced by a fully automated process to improve reproducibility, durability and cost effectiveness. We successfully showed that automation is indeed possible and improves reproducibility. The low investment needs enables very competitive production costs compared with the huge costs to maintain a manual production team. Evaluation of impact on membrane durability is ongoing.

Expected long term effects

The manufacturing process for membranes for artificial hearts is currently still a delicate manual process in the heart pump industry. In this funded project we could show that it is possible to transition to a fully automated production process. This increases reproducibility, increases quality, removes operator dependency, enables future scale-up and facilitates the addition of new suppliers. Compared to competitors we gain a competitive advantage and increases the company´s resilience.

Approach and implementation

The project allowed to jointly develop a completely new membrane production approach. The planned close cooperation between both partners was important to align on technical requirements, production approaches and test method development. Along the project the project schedule had to be adjusted due to different individual start dates and to adapt to findings within the execution of the project. The planned work packages have been followed and the project goal was achieved almost completely.