MEDICAL PRODUCT OUTSOURCING – April, 03 2017 – Today’s medical device companies want custom tubing that stretches manufacturing’s capabilities.
Mark Crawford, Contributing Writer | EXCERPT - Everybody wants tubing—it’s a strong and steady business, thanks to increased demand for minimally invasive surgery procedures and the use of catheters as delivery systems (for example, ablation and micro implants). Medical device manufacturers (MDMs) and their tubing partners continue to advance tubing functionality, such as the number of lumens, deflection capability, and steerability.
Hundreds of uses exist for medical tubing, each one calling for highly specific physical characteristics. As devices get smaller and more complex, MDMs rely on a greater variety of shapes and sizes of tubing. Device designers especially focus on increased functional capability, such as lumens with non-symmetric cross sections, surface modifications, and the integration of active additives, including antimicrobial agents or drugs. Raw materials are constantly being engineered in new ways to enhance mechanical and biologic characteristics. Popular requests for tubing are custom bump tubing, co-extrusions, micro-extrusions, multi-lumen tubing, profile extrusions, braid-reinforced extrusions, and coated wires.
