Increasingly, micro and medical technology are growing together and driving each other on to new developments. According to a survey by IVAM, the Professional Association for Microtechnology (Dortmund), medical technology is the principal target sector for European microtechnology companies, with a clear lead on the telecommunication and electronic industries. Over 43 percent of the companies asked regard medical applications as the primary focus of their marketing opportunities. It is therefore no wonder that the leading international trade fair for the suppliers market in medical manufacturing, COMPAMED in Düsseldorf, continues to boom in parallel with MEDICA, the world's largest medical trade fair, and that it has experienced powerful growth again this year. "Already three months before the start of the COMPAMED 2007 tradeshow, the number of exhibitor applications received was over 40% higher than in 2006, and there was an increase of 47% in regard to the surface area reserved," says Wilhelm Niedergöker, General Manager of Messe Düsseldorf, summing up the excellent application results. With more than 450 exhibitors from 30 countries and a surface area of more than 8,400 m² reserved, COMPAMED 2007 (14 to 16 November / MEDICA 2007: 14 to 17 November, 4,200 exhibitors from 65 countries) will occupy a second exhibition hall, Hall 8a and Hall 8b, at the Düsseldorf Trade Fair Center.
In view of the great general conditions, the exhibitors are looking forward to COMPAMED 2007 with eager anticipation. "With regard to our measuring technology, which ranges from the microscale to the nanoscale, we are expecting a surge in demand from the field of biomedical engineering. Accordingly, we are expecting great things from COMPAMED," confirms Heinz-Peter Hippler, Sales Manager at NanoFocus AG (Oberhausen), which will be represented in Düsseldorf with its non-destructive, automatable 3D measuring systems. These are designed among other things to enable surface inspection of implants or stents.
In the Innovation Report 2007, an annual publication by the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE, Frankfurt a.M.), medical technology remains the third most important driver of innovation. Europe and in particular Germany are leaders in this field, well in advance of the USA. With over 70% of the technical experts, Germany and Europe can claim to have the highest innovative capacity in medical technology; by comparison, the USA has 24%. They are followed at some distance by Japan and China. Also noteworthy is the forecast for 2015, according to which not only will the order of rank stay the same, even the percentage shares are to remain largely unmodified.
According to a study of "Optical technologies - Commercial Importance in Germany," commissioned by the BMBF, the global market for medical technology and life sciences has a volume of 18.6 billion. This amount is supposed to increase to 38.8 billion by 2015, which represents a growth rate of 7.6%. Germanys share of this amounts to almost 16%. It is worth mentioning the high percentage of graduates (13%) among the 17,400 employees of the medical engineering industry, which exports 70% of its products abroad. The trends toward intelligent and multifunctional high-tech products and toward continual internationalisation are also a characteristic of COMPAMED.
Top potential for optical inspection systems
Similar to NanoFocus AG, the Optical Solutions division of Siemens is also working in the area of quality inspection, where it offers ultra-fast optical inspection systems. These can detect, for example, fractures in stents and thereby prevent micro-wounds in arteries, which can occur when parts of damaged stents straighten up in the artery. Markus Lotz from Siemens Optical Solutions sees a bright future for measuring and image processing technology, "The development potential of optical inspection systems can be increased fivefold, because we have not yet availed of all the opportunities presented by image processing."
The measurement of surface textures and down to the nanoscale would be inconceivable without modern sensors. This topic therefore stands equally high on the priority lists of the exhibitors and the visitors to COMPAMED. The components, which are based, for example, on CMOS technologies (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) and therefore belong to the micro-technology sector, are also used to measure the flow rate of gases and liquids in anaesthesia systems and infusion technology among other things. However, Ulf Kanne can envisage numerous other application areas especially for disposable sensor solutions: "Humidity sensors integrated in plasters could make it easy to monitor the healing process, for instance, of burn injuries," explains the Product Manager at Sensirion AG in Stäfa in Switzerland.
Laser-modified surface properties
The on-going miniaturisation in many branches of the medical engineering sector also demands new manufacturing techniques. At COMPAMED 2007, the Hannover Laser Center (LZH) will be offering a whole batch of micro-technical manufacturing processes for medical product engineering. Along with conventional precision methods such as laser removal, cutting and joining, other product modifications and solutions will be presented, which specifically target medical applications. For example, laser processes can be used to make selective modifications to surface properties especially of polymer materials. In this way, through the use of micro-stereolithography, materials can be provided with particular liquid properties.
"Micro-fluid systems are coming increasingly to the fore in medical technology. Systems like these require new types of expertise, above all in manufacturing technology," emphasises Dr Roland Stangl, Director of Micro Technologies at PARI Pharma GmbH. PARItec GmbH will be presenting the current developments in this field. This system supplier will be demonstrating micro-technologies using the example of PARI eFlow the innovative medical nebuliser. The production of PARI eFlow incorporated medicine-compatible and autoclavable adhesive bonds with various materials such as steel, piezo-ceramics and plastics and involved high-speed laser drilling in steel, for holes with a diameter of two micrometers or more. The company also provides this technique as a service.
Two important elements in fluid systems of whatever size are pumps and valves. Bartels Mikrotechnik GmbH will be presenting the "mp6", the latest generation of their micro pump, for the first time during COMPAMED at the IVAM Joint Pavilion. Equipped with a double actuator (actuator = final controlling element in a control loop), the component doubles the back pressure range to 500 mbar, while a modified signal form provides for low-noise operation. A valve with positive opening pressure, for regulating flow when the pump is not in operation, is currently being developed to go with the pump. "The basic principle of the piezo membrane pump has been kept simple so that it can be adapted to various requirements the customer decides whether he needs, for example, a larger volume range, compatibility with a particular material or greater conveyor accuracy," explains Product Manager Severin Dahms. Bartels will be presenting some specimens of the implementation of such requirements at the trade fair. The prototypes of a high-pressure, a high-volume and a regulated micro-pump will illustrate the numerous possibilities. Complicated components like these can be applied, for example, in the area of laboratory technology in so-called bio-chips ("lab-on-chip" applications).
MEDICA exhibitors are also discovering COMPAMED
Thanks to its focus on high-tech solutions and the large number of international specialists who attend, the COMPAMED setting has been steadily gaining in appeal. This has also been recognised by "traditional" MEDICA exhibitors, who are exhibiting at COMPAMED this year for the first time. Along with companies like Buerkert, Binder, Degussa, Helbling and others, these include Bernd Richter GmbH (Wipperfürth) and Nicolay GmbH (Nagold), who both offer cable systems and accessories for medical technology.
Mechatronic AG (Darmstadt), which manufactures programmable electronic medical devices, together with the corresponding components, modules and software, is switching to COMPAMED for the first time this year. "MEDICA has played a decisive role in the success of our company up to now," explains Thomas Ullmann, Chief Executive Officer of Mechatronic AG. "Not least due to the valuable contacts that we establish every year at the trade fair, our turnover has increased almost fivefold in the last ten years. At the same time, almost 90% of the MEDICA visitors were outside our core target audience. As a result of switching to COMPAMED, we are anticipating a significantly sharper focus on our specialised audience from the decision making bodies for new developments in medical technology."
Quite apart from the ever growing number of exhibitors, who present innovations and products from the entire field of medical technology, the "Hightech for Medical Devices" forum provides a different information focus. It is organised by IVAM and shows the latest trends, especially in regard to micro and nanotechnology in the service of medicine. New materials and substances, a traditional mainstay at COMPAMED, will once again be at the centre of attention. In this regard too we can expect an exciting trade fair in 2007.
Of the 137,503 professionals who attended last year's overall event, i.e. MEDICA and COMPAMED, about 13,000 experts were interested in the technically specialist range of products offered at COMPAMED.
Further information on COMPAMED 2007 and MEDICA 2007 (4,200 exhibitors from 65 countries) and on the participating exhibitors and their products can be found on the Internet portal: http://www.compamed.de / http://www.medica.de