Meister & Cie AG is based in the heart of the tranquil, hilly Emmental, home of the cheese of the same name and a source of inspiration for the famous Swiss writer Jeremias Gotthelf. What is less well known is that the region in the canton of Bern is home to hundreds of commercial and industrial companies, some of which operate extremely successfully on the
international markets. One example is the Swiss family business Meister & Cie AG. It has been one of the leading manufacturers of high-quality textile mesh for almost 150 years. Its roots can be traced back to the founding of an artisan rope-making business in 1869. Until the 1960s, the company mainly produced ropes, twine and belts for agriculture and industry. It then succeeded in gaining a foothold with disaster and fire protection organizations with its quality products. At the beginning of the 1990s, Meister AG developed a high-quality paragliding line made of Kevlar for the increasingly popular sport of paragliding. The production of cable protection conduits for motor and rail vehicle construction marked the company’s entry into the industrial production of textile braids. Another milestone in the company’s history is the development of a precision braid for filter systems in water treatment plants. From 2006, more than 30 million meters of textile braiding were produced annually in a sophisticated series production process.
EXPANSION WITH A VIEW AHEAD
In 2009, Marcel Meister, sixth-generation Managing Director, ignited the next stage of innovation. Since then, the company has also been developing and producing biomedical textile braids for customers from all over the world. The precise fine meshes made from biocompatible materials open up many new possibilities for medical technology. They are mainly used in orthopaedics and gastroenterology. They are components of surgical instruments or are used as implants for connecting tendons, bones and muscles. Precise fine meshes from a diameter of 0.04 mm open up the possibility for minimally invasive surgery to access ever smaller and finer areas of the human body. “The beginning was quite difficult,” reports Meister. “When we started with medical technology, we naturally
made mistakes at first, but ones that helped us move forward,” says Marcel Meister. We also initially had to adjust to the high level of quality management
and regulatory issues in the new business field. Meister’s product expansion is well thought out and is aimed at a market with enormous potential and more than good forecasts. According to estimates, the global market for technical textiles is worth around 150 billion dollars. EU sales alone amount to 30 billion dollars. Including nonwovens and fiber composites, the global market volume even exceeds 250 billion dollars. It is impossible to imagine operating theaters and doctors’ surgeries without high-tech textiles. For example, the high biocompatibility of textile products makes them ideal for use as implants – they prevent rejection processes. The range of applications for technical
textiles extends from antimicrobial surgical textiles to wound dressings that no longer need to be changed and can speed up the healing process for certain injuries, absorbable yarns for suturing internal wounds, artificial implants based on textiles and clothing based on antimicrobial textiles.
CLEAN ROOM IN CLEAN ROOM
The biggest challenge for the new line of business was the necessary production conditions. “The production of textile braids is associated with dirt, which
is caused on the one hand by the mechanical manufacturing processes and on the other by abrasion from the materials and lubricants used,” says Meister. The solution
was obvious, a new Cleanroom had to be found. In 2013, the company’s main building, the 120-year-old former ropery, was professionally refurbished over several months. A
time-consuming and cost-intensive process, as Meister admits. The company went one step further and developed its unique concept ‘Cleanroom in Cleanroom’, which ultimately guarantees the greatest possible patient safety.
In technical terms, this means that the entire process of braiding textile components or entire implants (from opening the yarn to rewinding, braiding,
cutting to length, reinforcing the ends and packaging) takes place in an ISO 14644-1 certified Cleanroom class 8 facility. All machines in series production, such as the rewinding or braiding machines, are only used for one type of raw material in order to eliminate any risk of cross-contamination. As the fast-rotating rewinding and braiding machines generate turbulence, these machines are located in separate cleanroom tents within the cleanroom. This allows the air flows to be optimally adjusted to ensure a laminar flow in the critical area of the yarn. These cleanroom tents meet the requirements of ISO 14644-1, class 7 – one class lower in particles than the Cleanroom itself. In addition to the advantage of optimally adjusted air flows, double safety and redundancy are two key points that guarantee the production of low-particle, high-quality products. This innovative production concept also makes it easier for
to maintain the infrastructure, as individual parts of the production system can be shut down and serviced in a targeted manner.
The Managing Director believes that the potential in medical technology is far from exhausted with the current portfolio. In this context, he refers to current research in cardiac and neurosurgery or in the development of fibers that could deliver drugs. Here, too, he believes his company is well positioned: “Global medtech groups often suffer from their own size and are slower to react to new trends or innovations. This is where SMEs like Meister & Cie AG can play an important role in the future. R&D and series production under one roof, direct communication, fast decision-making and implementation of new trends and technologies and – last but not least – the ability to react quickly to new regulatory requirements and implement them are among our core competencies. All these qualities help to reduce the complexity of new projects and lead to a streamlined approval process, shorter time to market and greater cost efficiency.”
Meister & Cie AG
The Swiss company Meister & Cie AG has been developing and producing technical textile braids such as fiber ropes and cords for wholesalers and specialist retailers, DIY stores and commercial and service companies since 1869. In addition, the company supplements its own range with commercial products and, since 2009, has also taken on the contract development and series production of biomedical textile braids for customers in the medical technology sector. The company is managed by the sixth generation of the family, Marcel Meister, as CEO, and currently employs 25 people.
This article was published: Cleanroom Future Magazine 3/2018
