SUTURE PLUS - Development Project resulting in a pre-production prototype to produce very high strength absorbable yarns for use in advanced medical sutures, with potential for spin off uses in other medical and non-medical applications.

使用FET设备的国际医疗保健客户使我们意识到一个明确的商机，可以打开快速增长的可吸收手术缝合线的世界市场。他们告诉我们，市场希望产品能够提高老龄化人口的生活质量，并表示他们需要更高强度的纱线，以制造具有更高保持强度的缝合线，并且在使用中对身体的伤害更小，从而有机会取代其他传统的缝合材料和/或在新应用中使用性能更高的更细、更小直径的缝合线。最近一项可行性研究的结果表明，我们可以使物理性能比目前水平高30 - 50%的可吸收缝线材料，并使我们能够为进一步的商业化开发工作奠定基础。我们现在有必要的数据来设计一个进一步的工作计划，耗资44万英镑，目的是定义，指定和建立一个技术创新过程的预生产原型。我们内部有，或者可以获得，获得必要的专业知识，以成功完成这样一个项目，但需要财政援助，以避免现金流限制，并在2年内完成工作。开发的专有技术和原型将使我们能够向客户展示我们实现性能飞跃的能力，以帮助他们区分他们的产品范围，并通过提供技术和定制设备来实现FET的销售。成功的项目成果，通过进一步的开发工作来实现商业化的应用，可以在2015年至2018年期间以设备销售和工艺许可的形式为FET实现约510万英镑的新收入。我们看到了该技术在非医疗领域的衍生用途以及作为对难加工/昂贵原材料进行小规模评估的实验工具的额外潜在好处。

International Healthcare customers using FET equipment have made us aware of a clearbusiness opportunity to open up the fast growing world market for absorbable surgicalsutures. They tell us that the market wants products that increase quality of life for an ageingpopulation and speak of their need for yarns with much higher tenacity, to make sutures whichoffer higher holding strength and are less invasive to the body in use, giving opportunities toreplace other conventional closure materials and / or use the higher performance in finer, lowdiameter sutures for new applications.The outcome of a recent Feasibility Study has shown that we can make absorbable suturematerials with physical properties 30 - 50 % over present levels and allows us to establish abasis for further development work towards commercialisation We now have the necessarydata to design a further programme of work at a cost of £440,000 with the aim of defining,specifying and building a pre-production prototype of a technologically innovative process.We have in-house, or can obtain, access to the necessary expertise to succeed in such aproject, but need financial assistance to avoid cash flow limitations and complete the workwithin a 2 year timeframe.The developed know-how and the prototype will allow us to demonstrate our capability toachieve performance leaps to our customers to help them to differentiate their product rangesand for FET to achieve sales by providing technology and custom built equipment. Asuccessful project outcome, pursued by further development work to commercialise for sutureapplications, could realise some £5.1mn new income to FET in the period 2015 to 2018 in theform of equipment sales and process licensing. We see additional potential benefits from spinoff uses for the technology in non - medical areas and as an experimental tool for small scaleevaluation of difficult-to-process / expensive raw materials.