Medical device manufacturer InnerPulse takes advantage of MCAD and FEA to bring to market a pioneering technology to treat Sudden Cardiac Arrest. The implantable defibulator is minimally invasive and lower in cost than other treatments.
Medical device manufacturer InnerPulse has pioneering a novel technology for patients with cardiac rhythm disorders. Their new device was designed in SolidWorks and simulated in SIMULIA Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) software.
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains a major threat despite advances in medication and other treatments. According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, approximately one American life is lost every two minutes. It has been estimated that SCD claims more than 7,000,000 lives per year worldwide; the overwhelming majority caused by ventricular fibrillation, or rapid, uncoordinated contractions.
InnerPulse has developed a percutaneous implantable defibrillator (PICD) which enables physicians to implant the life-saving defibrillators within a patient’s vasculature using a catheter procedure. This makes the procedure minimally invasive and less expensive.
Leveraging SolidWorks for design and the realistic simulation capabilities in Abaqus FEA software, the design engineers at InnerPulse are able to perform accurate analysis for concurrent device and tool design which is saving valuable development time and costs.
“It was important for us to be able to model the way Nitinol material in our PICD anchoring technology will behave throughout the complete manufacturing process. The powerful nonlinear material capabilities in Abaqus allowed us to meet those requirements,” says Cinnamon Larson, Ph.D., senior mechanical engineer, InnerPulse, Inc. “By using the Abaqus/CAE Associative Interface for SolidWorks, we were able to easily synchronize our SolidWorks design model and the Abaqus simulation model throughout the development process. This not only enhances collaboration between our designers and analysis experts, but it also improves our productivity and reduces design time significantly.”
The heavily regulated nature of the medical industry puts stringent demands on controlling the processes, quality, and reliability of the devices being manufactured. Physics-based computer modeling tools such as finite element analysis and fluid-structure interaction are playing an increasingly important role in the medical device development process. §
