Freudenberg Medical employees, on the other hand, have recently been meeting a need of a completely different kind. In partnership with their customer, they succeeded in developing the first cable-free monitoring belt for premature babies. The Bambi Belt makes it easier for parents to remove their premature baby from an incubator and to provide optimal care. Until now, the numerous electrodes and cables used to monitor a baby have made it difficult for the parents to cuddle their newborn. Separating a premature baby from its mother in this way sometimes caused considerable discomfort and stress for the baby and could even increase the risk of cognitive developmental delays. “The major challenge was to find a silicone material that was soft and gentle on the skin, yet suitable for the attachment of monitoring sensors,” says Rüdiger Gall, General Manager and Director Corporate Marketing at Freudenberg Medical in Kaiserslautern.
“Thanks to our wealth of experience in materials processing, process and tooling technology, we managed to process a particularly soft elastomer that hardens at lower temperatures while leaving the sensitive electronics intact.” This represents a milestone in medical technology, where wearables i.e., portable computer systems, are increasingly making their way onto the market. Gall reports that, in an increasingly digital world, such technology opens the door to a wide range of other potential applications.