Medtech innovators take gold at the Edison Awards

April 21, 2023 By Jim Hammerand

Nano and Advanced Materials Institute; Young King Hi-Tech Co. Rate-Responsive Smart Bandage [Photo courtesy of Nano and Advanced Materials Institute and Young King Hi-Tech Co.]

Award: SilverCategory: Personal Technology (& Gadgets)Subcategory: Smart Wearable

From the winners: "NAMI's R2 smart bandage intelligently switches between elastic and non-elastic modes to ensure action dexterity in normal activities and prevent injuries in high-speed joints twisting. It also has great protection on blunt force trauma."

"R2 smart bandage is developed by mimicking sea cucumber. It consists of stimuli-responsive polymer and hair-like microfilaments, which displays similar mechanic adaptability to a sea cucumber. At low stretch rate, it is elastic and easy to elongate like the conventional elastic bandage. Upon fast stretching, the rate-dependent friction between microfilaments and stimuli-responsive polymer enables the bandage to be non-elastic immediately and generate at least three folds higher resistive force than that at low stretch rate, sufficient to prevent sports injuries in high-speed joints twisting. The bandage can dissipate the impact energy significantly, offering excellent protection on blunt impact trauma."

"NAMI's R2 smart bandage is the world's first and only product in the market with excellent sport injury prevention performance while maintaining flexibility of joints, offering great user experience and safety of athletes. The rate-responsive smart bandage has at least three folds of rate responsive sensitivity and can also absorb at least 70% more impact force as compared with the conventional bandages."