High

Comez offers a variety of machines that are suitable for producing highly technical medical applications.

By Fulvio Festari

Italy-based Comez International S.r.l. — a member of the Jakob Müller Group, Switzerland — specializes in engineering and manufacturing crochet and warp knitting machines. Its products are used worldwide for narrow fabric production including lace and ribbons for outerwear and lingerie accessories. However, increasing demand for technical textiles prompted Comez to develop specific solutions for highly technical applications as well.

Knit fabrics are widely used in various surgical applications and textile implants including suture materials, hernia meshes, artificial ligaments and knitted grafts, for example. The versatility of Comez knitting machinery enables its customers to design a variety of textiles that meet required specifications in terms of strength, flexibility, durability and stability for medical textiles.

Many manufacturers choose Comez machines for hernia mesh production with customized knitted designs and a wide range of pore configurations. The mesh may be used to treat abdominal or inguinal hernias. Comez provides solutions for these knitted textile implants — such as the ACOTRONIC 8B/600 and the SNB/EL-800 machines — which are perfectly adapted to their area of use for permanent patient support. Both 2D and 3D meshes can be produced using monofilament or other materials.

Textile ligaments, used for the reconstruction of damaged ligaments, are another innovative application that can be designed using Comez advanced knitting technology such as the ACOTRONIC 8B/600. These articles require a special texture that can be created using crochet knitting machines. The layout of the finished product — as well as its dimension — can vary according to individual requirements and surgical treatments.

Artificial lungs, blood oxygenators and heat exchangers can be based on textile products. All these solutions contain membrane fabrics consisting of microcapillaries linked by crochet knitting technology. Comez designed a solution for the production of blood filtration fabrics, a special configuration of the CT-8B/829 model.

Specific warp and crochet knitted textile vascular grafts are also used during cardiovascular surgery to replace damaged or malfunctioning arteries and veins. These grafts are made using man-made materials and are produced in different designs and diameters featuring linear and bifurcated structures. The Comez DNB/EL-32 model permits the construction of such graft materials.

Comez provides a full scope of services including consultancy, joint developments with regards to new solutions, and customized machine configurations for surgical and technical applications.

Editor's Note: Fulvio Festari is product manager at Italy-based Comez International S.r.l.

November/December