The project is being implemented as part of the Federal Priority Program 2030 on the basis of two universities participating in the Consortium of New Technologies for Magnesium Alloys – Togliatti State University (TSU) and Samara State Medical University (SamSMU). The new production may be the first step towards establishing the Magnesium Valley in the Samara region.
There are three scientific groups working on magnesium issues at TSU using one material and technical base of the Scientific Research Institute of Advanced Technologies (NIIPT) at TSU and the Institute of Mechanical Engineering at TSU. Materials scientists at the university, under the direction of the Director of NIIPT TSU, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Dmitry Merson and Professor Alexei Vinogradov, have developed a line of magnesium alloys and created a technology for increasing plasticity while improving strength and fatigue properties.
Magnesium alloy developed at Togliatti State University consists of only three components. They are all known and available, which greatly affects the cost: it is low.
In addition, these components are completely harmless to the human body. However, in the near future, the doctors of the Samara State Medical University will perform a comprehensive analysis of our alloys to confirm this again. The process must be completed by March 31, after which our roadmap will be approved. It will become a mandatory document for participants of the Consortium of New Technologies for Magnesium Alloys, and we will start work, said TSU Vice President for Research and Innovation Sergei Petrites.
Samara State Medical University has its own clinic and extensive experience in preparing permits for approval of products for use in medical purposes. In addition, the university plans to create a competence center for serial production of innovative products with the participation of investors and industrial partners.
Biomedical (preclinical) tests of alloy variants developed at TSU were carried out in the laboratories of Samara State Medical University in 2019. They showed that the alloy is completely biologically safe and dissolves in the body of animals without any consequences for them. The same results were shown by an independent test conducted at the National Center for Medical Research. that. Mechlin in Novosibirsk.
According to the director of NIIPT TSU Dmitry Merson, the university will organize a site for the production of semi-finished products from magnesium alloys with the required performance characteristics and a certain absorption rate, that is, dissolution in the body.
“With our semi-finished products, doctors will be able to make plates and screws for maxillofacial operations, wires for suturing internal organs, trauma profiles, etc. The biological absorbable properties of the magnesium alloy will save patients from repeated operations, because after the passage of Some time all the auxiliary operational elements decompose without leaving a trace or harming the human body.
“We are studying various options for financing the creation of a site for the production of semi-finished products from magnesium alloys: subsidizing the region, a grant under the Federal Priority Program 2030, attracting investors or lending – we have such a practice. Samara State Medical University will finance its part of the project – studies Preclinical and clinical, development of treatment methods, product registration, production of implants from semi-finished products, sterilization and packaging, training of surgeons to work with new products,” explained TSU President Michael Krechtal.
Two universities have already developed a draft roadmap for producing absorbable magnesium medical devices. Equipment for the production of semi-finished products from magnesium alloys will be located in the TSU Innovation and Technology Park, and its reconstruction is scheduled for completion in December of this year. Further modification of the equipment and development of the technological process will be required. Production of a trial batch of medical devices is tentatively scheduled for the second half of 2024.
“We have made a calendar plan for specific steps in order to understand who is doing what and who is responsible for what. The mission of Togliatti State University is to learn how to make semi-finished products, and Samara State Medical University will be involved in manufacturing medical devices from these semi-finished products. It also has to undergo trials Clinical, product registration and technology licensing “The ultimate goal of the joint work is to bring products to market,” concluded Serge Petrites.
Recall that the consortium “New Technologies for Magnesium Alloys” was created on December 28, 2020, and the creation was initiated by Togliatti State University. The new association included such scientific organizations as the Institute of Superelastic Problems of Metals of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ufa), the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Sciences of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tomsk), Mordovian State University. n. Ogaryov, Samara State Medical University, and also as an industrial partner of Solikamsk Experimental Metallurgical Plant LLC.
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