Eduardo, is there an application that you personally find exceptionally interesting?

Is there an application that you personally find exceptionally interesting?

Answer: Well, there are many interesting things that our customers do with our products. But what truly gets me personally above all is medical applications. One of which literally touches my heart.?

A longstanding customer of ours is Berlin Heart. They invented a new mobile driving unit for their mechanical circulatory support system called EXCOR? Active. In that driving unit they use a miniature ball screw in order to supply a defined amount of air against a diaphragm, which then drives the blood pump itself. The Ball Screw in use has a shaft diameter of only 8 millimetres. It travels around 50 millimetres 60 to 130 times per minute, depending on the patients physis.

NSK was originally, back in 2000, selected as supplier, as our ball screw outperformed all competitors by far before failure, when different suppliers were tested in the construction phase. Talking about failure: That is just not an option, as the EXCOR? Active takes over a patient′s heart function either partly or even entirely. Therefore, the driving unit is checked every 34 million cycles, which is about every six to twelve months depending on the cycles per minute. That again depends on the patient′s requirements. It is replaced by Berlin Heart in collaboration with NSK when the continuous checks indicate that, at latest however it is replaced after 78 million cycles. In order to make that process less complicated, NSK adapted the design of the Ball Screw in use at a very early stage in the collaboration. Currently there is an impressive amount of driving units in the field, that are maintained regularly. Berlin Hearts mechanical circulatory support system and its driving unit EXCOR? Active can support patients of every age and size from newborns to adults. One of the youngest patients who was kept alive waiting for his successful heart transplant was only eight days old. If needed, the system can support a patient′s heart up to several years.

NSK has become a trusted, strategic partner for Berlin Heart, saving the lives of so many people together. Isn′t that a fantastic application? ?From a supplier′s point of view it has it all: Stable, mutual growth, pushing boundaries together, strive for better performance together for such literally heart-warming application. No wonder this fascinates me, don′t you agree?