Festo, leading company in the pneumatic and automation sectors, published a paper focused on artificial heart VAD BestBeat, realized by Umbra Cuscinetti SpA, in its journal “Trends in Automation”, distributed to more than 9000 Italian companies. The special test bench, equipped with Festo products, was designed and realized by Excogita srl.
The most technological artificial heart ever built, its design, realization, testing and mechanical components are all made in Italy.
It is called BestBeat (NewCorTec S.p.A.), has the size of a fist, and an external titanium shell internal components and a ball screw coming from aerospace application, produced by Umbra Cuscinetti S.p.A.
Its main characteristic is to be synchronized with the patient heart beat.
It was implanted for the first time in a German patient, who had a cardiovascular surgery in the cardiology center of Bochum University in Bad Oeynhausen. The testing started in Germany thanks to the fast and positive response of the involved ethic committee and ministry authority.
Nonetheless its origin is Italian and it is invented by the physiology institute of the Pisa CNR and to the NewCorTec of Pomezia and to Umbra Cuscinetti of Foligno.
Excogita, system integrator for Festo, located in Bevagna (Perugia), was selected by Umbra Cuscinetti to realize the test bench for the most important components running-in, i.e. moving mechanical components or artificial ventricles VAD. They realize the loads distribution among the moving organs and therefore influence the system reliability.
Excogita is an engineering research company that offers services in the mechatronic field, in particular about automation and robotics applied to production processes.
Moreover Excogita is provided with a own manufacturing department and an electrical laboratory to realize prototypes, special machine for production and assembly, test bench, automations, acquisition and data processing, functional tests and much more.
The main Festo products used for the running-in test bench are the DSM oscillator, the flow regulator and the vacuum valve VADMI.
All the innovative components used to realize this artificial heart make it a precious device for cardiovascular pathology treatment in combination with the traditional therapy.