Testing Industry Apr 9, 2026 12:20:21 PM Ben McCloskey 1 min read
Heart valve durability tests run for months during development and design verification. Engineers responsible for Accelerated Wear Testing (AWT), Dynamic Failure Mode Testing (DFM), and Real-Time Wear Testing (RWT) must analyze a valve’s evolving performance throughout the test to identify notable events as quickly as possible.
BDC Laboratories is releasing a major update for the Statys® VDT and Statys® RWT software packages that accompany our industry-leading VDT-3600i Heart Valve Durability System and RWT-4600i Heart Valve Real-Time Wear System. This evolution in software improves efficiency in test setup and initiation, as well as data processing, management, and presentation for analysis.
Beyond the software update, we’re offering an optional breakthrough upgrade that incorporates a high-speed camera, dedicated lighting and mounting, and image processing for real-time measurement of geometric orifice area (GOA). This upgrade uses both software and hardware to fully integrate comprehensive GOA analysis directly into the active heart valve durability test environment.
Instead of relying solely on offline review with separate image processing tools, engineers can capture leaflet kinematics, including fully open and closed states during durability testing, calculate GOA in real time, and automatically tune valve opening using the system’s Statys® software package. By analyzing GOA in real time, engineers can directly visualize leaflet response during initial setup and tune the test station for optimized loading. Moreover, with this add-on, the system integrates GOA measurements directly into reporting outputs, reducing manual data handling while maximizing study documentation.
Want to see these new capabilities in action? BDC Laboratories’ engineering team is hosting a technical webinar on April 30 at 11am MT in which we will walk through the key features of the software update and introduce the GOA feature capabilities.
Ben McCloskey
Ben McCloskey, Director of R&D at BDC Laboratories, leads the design and development of advanced cardiovascular device durability and performance testing systems. With a background in electromechanical engineering and nearly two decades with the organization, he has played a key role in advancing integrated imaging, software, and real time analysis solutions for heart valve testing.