FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Geeplus Actuators Used in Machine That Saves World’s Smallest Baby Boy in Japan

Tokyo, Japan – When a Japanese baby was recently released from Keio University in Tokyo, he became the smallest baby boy in the world to ever be sent home healthy. Born by emergency c-section at only 24 weeks at just 268 grams (9.4 ounces), the child spent five months in intensive care, kept alive by highly advanced medical equipment.

One of these life-saving machines – a high-level ventilation machine that allowed the baby to breath and trained him to breath on his own – was controlled by advanced actuators from Geeplus.

Controlling motion in any kind of life-saving machine requires an extremely high level of precision; when it comes to controlling air intake for a premature baby, the precision required is extraordinary.

A number of Geeplus products – most commonly voice coil actuators and proportional solenoids – can be found in advanced medical equipment throughout the world. Voice coils supply exceptionally precise positioning combined with remarkably smooth movement, along with a very low level of hysteresis (an important factor in controlling motion in many advanced medical applications).

The world-renowned VM Series of Voice Coil Motors has helped to establish Geeplus as the worldwide leading supplier of actuators in medical ventilator applications.

According to Keio University Hospital, the survival rate of babies born weighing less than one kilogram is about 90% in Japan. For those born under 300 grams, that number falls to around 50%.

The baby weighed 3,238 grams (7.14 lbs) at the time of his release. “I am grateful that he has grown this big because, honestly, I wasn’t sure he could survive,” the boy’s mother told Reuters. So are we!

You can read more on the story from the Japan Times here.

Geeplus is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of precision electromechanical actuators. You can find Geeplus online at www.geeplus.com, as well as on social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

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