About
Developing child safe button batteries
In 2015 we, Tjark Ebels and Frederik Dikkers, decided to investigate the mechanism of the damaging influence of button batteries upon oesophageal tissue. With the help of a student biomedical engineering – in the context of her bachelor’s thesis – we built a model employing piglet oesophageal polymer to elucidate the mechanism of the damage, and the speed of progression of the damage. The results led us to the insight that if the electrical current would stop, then the progression of the damage would also stop. We concluded that a fuse could solve the problem and filed this invention with our employer, University of Groningen (RUG), as patentable. Our initial efforts to produce a melting fuse, however, were not successful at that point in time.
In 2018, co-accidentally we both were employed at Amsterdam UMC. After we were again confronted with a button battery related fatality, we contacted the battery department of Delft University of Technology and had Marnix Wagemaker and Frans Ooms join us in this research, in order to develop a melting fuse. With succesful patents as a result.
“A child friendly button battery has to become the standard”
Tjark Ebels
Frederik Dikkers
Emeritus professor Otorhinolaryngology
Experienced Professor and Principal Investigator with a history of working in university hospitals, skilled in Clinical Research and Medical Education. Strong educational professional with a PhD focused in medical sciences acquired at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Retired in 2023.
Partners
University of Groningen
