Concordia has various knitting technologies available for medical implant manufacturing, including flat warp knitting and circular weft knitting. (Note: Warp knits are made from multiple yarn ends fed simultaneously, while weft knits are made from a single end of yarn). Meshes are based on uniform patterns of loop formation where each consecutive loop is a “wale” and each row of loops is a “course.” Knit patterns can be designed to optimize different performance criteria and physical characteristics, including average pore size, areal density, thickness, tensile strength, elongation, suture pull out strength, ball burst strength, and stiffness or drapability.

Knit meshes typically have more elasticity, extendibility and recovery and higher tensile strength than non-woven felts, and are therefore good candidates for tissue support and reinforcement. However, due to meshes’ non-random patterned structure and more 2-dimensional nature, they are typically not as effective as a host for in-vitro cell seeding and tissue regeneration as Concordia’s BIOFELT scaffolds.

Tubes made on a circular knitter are versatile structures with a great range of dimensional versatility to either expand or contract in diameter during use and delivery of medical therapies. Tubes can be delivered as continuous lengths or cut to discrete lengths and sealed at one or both ends.

Concordia technical representatives will work with the customer to specify the most appropriate materials and knit type and pattern to achieve the desired performance characteristics for each specific medical device application.

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