Confluent Medical this week announced a strategic investment in the U.K.-based Electrospinning Co.

Electrospinning Co. has developed an electrospinning process that will help Confluent Medical expand design options for the structural heart market and fully automate the process of attaching biomedical textiles to heart valve frames.

“The investment in Electrospinning reinforces Confluent’s strategy of applying materials science to medtech innovation,” Confluent Medical president and CEO Dean Schauer said in a news release. “This partnership creates an opportunity for our two companies to facilitate further expansion of innovative structural heart products on behalf of our customers.”

Confluent uses nitinol and biomedical textiles to help OEM medical device companies design transcatheter structural heart devices. The investment in Electrospinning will fully automate the application of the textiles to the valve frame using the company’s electrospun nanofiber biomaterials.