Balt Extrusion (Montmorency)

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BALT EXTRUSION

www.balt.fr/

Léopold Plowiecki, born in 1942 and engineer of the Polytechnic School of Warsaw, founded BALT Extrusion in January 1977. At first, with the help of his brother Richard, he manufactured tubes, as a subcontractor for the medical industry: tubes for catheters used in anaesthesiology, cardiology, gastrology, etc.
In 1978, Professor Jean-Jacques Merlan, a pioneer in the interventional radiology at Hôpital Lariboisiere in Paris, got in touch with Léopold Plowiecki for a very special request: he needed thin and supple tubes allowing delivery of detachable balloons in the cerebral arteries. Léopold Plowiecki was then conceiving an extrusion technique which enabled to get microcatheters with a suppleness until then unrivalled ; he started to supply the Hôpital Lariboisiere directly. This was thanks to this technology that BALT Extrusion entered the world of interventional neuroradiology.
The encounter between Léopold Plowiecki and Professor Feodor Serbinenko of the Burdenko Institute in Moscow marked a second important step in BALT history: Pr. Serbinenko was the inventor of the detachable balloon in latex (used in aneurysm treatment at that time). He asked Léopold Plowiecki to develop a technology allowing to mass-produce these balloons and catheter systems to position them. Léopold Plowiecki managed to make it in 1980 and a long friendship bound the two men until Pr. Serbinenko’s death in 2001.
Fortified by its successes, BALT developed from that moment its own range of products for interventional radiology: catheters for angiography, micro guidewires, valve introducers, stop-cocks, connectors and miscellaneous accessories.
In 1982, BALT invented PURSIL®, an alloy of polymers which is extremely supple and resistant to pressure. This material allowed to produce ultra-supple thin tubes, presented in the form of reels: the practitioner used to cut the necessary length and to use a propulsion chamber made of glass to “inject” the tube in the patient’s arteries.
In 1987, thanks to Professors Luc Picard and Jacques Moret’s advices, this alloy was used to create an intracerebral flow-dependant microcatheter, which brought a significant improvement in the treatment of the cerebral vascular diseases. The performances of this microcatheter were so amazing that it was immediately called “MAGIC” by the users ; this name became its commercial brand and it still goes on: the MAGIC1.2F is still the smallest existing catheter and the only one really flow-dependant.
To face a greater and greater international competition, BALT has chosen to concentrate its efforts in the development of new products and the investment in new technologies (micro mechanics, metallurgy and chemistry). This strategy enabled Balt to remain at the leading edge of the innovation during many years, keeping its financial as well as technical independence. The arrival in 2002 of Léopold Plowiecki’s son, Nicolas, is in line with this policy.

Main BALT technical innovations:


1982 - PURSIL Polymers alloy allowing the production of flow-dependant tubes.

Catheters for angioplasty and valvuloplasty. BALT is the only one to produce balloons with diameter up to 40mm.
1986 - CRISTAL BALLOON


First flow-dependant catheter.
1987 - MAGIC


1993 - MDS First mechanical detachment system of coils for aneurysms embolization.

1996 - HYDROSPEED Hydrophilic treatment improving significantly the catheters and microguidewires sliding.

Creation of the smallest intracerebral micro guidewire in the world, the SORCERER.007” (Ø 0,18mm). The core of this guidewire uses a new material with shape memory: Nitinol, alloy of Nickel and Titanium.
1997 - SORCERER


1998 - VASCO Multilayers braided catheter with an inner coating of low friction.

2000 - BOA Balloon-expandable intracranial stent. The BOA is the first and the single one solid platinum stent in the world.

2002 - CORAIL Balloon-tipped guiding catheter 6F or 8F.

2003 - LEO First self-expanding intracranial repositioning stent.

2004 - GOLDBALLOON Latex detachable balloons with quick mounting.

2005 - CATCH First efficient intracerebral thrombo-embolectomy system.

MDS modification: development of a hydrodynamic detachment system of MDS coils, creation of the longest coils in the world.
2005 - MDS Pression


First microcatheter with a safety system Fusecath allowing its distal part to come away.
2006 - SONIC


2006 - STEEL Range of guidewires with steel structure.

Nicolas PLOWIECKI
January 2006


10, rue de la Croix Vigneron - 95160 Montmorency France
Tel. + (33) 1 39 89 46 41 Fax + (33) 1 34 17 03 46
Limited company with a capital of 308 000 €
45 employees
Turn over 2007 : 12 200 000 €