Openmind project

'OPENMIND - On-demand production of entirely customised minimally invasive medical devices' is a project that aims to develop a flexible technology for medical disposable manufacturing. The project will realize a new compatible minimally invasive medical devices (like guide wires, catheters, micro instruments) in the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) technology. The innovative demonstrator device will be manufactured without any macroscopic metallic components and based on fibre-reinforced plastics, offering multi-modal compatibility (X-Ray, CT and even MRI). The main goal of OPENMIND is to realize the first flexible process chain for customised medical disposable manufacturing. The advanced process chain will be enable to realize the on-demand customisation of minimally invasive devices in a continuous process. The implementation will be shown using a minimally invasive guide wire as demonstrator device and all relevant process parameters will be monitored and analysed. With the outcome of the OPENMIND project, transferred to other kinds of minimally invasive devices, physicians will be able to work with tailored tools every day. Furthermore, advanced quality control methods based on state-of-the-art SPC will be developed to ensure product quality even for small and single lot sizes. OPENMIND is an initiative lead at an international level in 6 European countries: Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland, France and Czech Republic. The 9 scientific and technical partners involved are: Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT (project coordinator), Diribet spol. s.r.o., IRIS (Innovació I Recerca Industrial I Sostenible), Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Nano4imaging GmbH, Blueacre Technology Ltd, Tamponcolor GmbH, Gimac International and ICS - In-Core Systèmes. The project is funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. Project reference: 680820 Instrument: Horizon 2020 Timeline: 01/09/2015 - 31/08/2018