The Goldilocks Problem - Cell Selection for Emerging Applications
When designing a battery pack for a new device, a common question that engineers may find themselves asking is "Which is the best cell to use for my application?" When choosing the cell for a battery, an engineer must decide what variables are most important to the final application of the battery and mu

Driving Market Advantage: Six Critical Contract Manufacturer Skillsets
Optimizing the outsourcing equation involves far more than simply finding a company to manufacture products in an area with low cost wages. A skilled contract manufacturer is expert at product commercialization: eliminating cost and inefficiency throughout design and development phase, offering innovative

Speed and Scalability: The Advantages of Outsourcing to a Vertically Integrated Contract Manufacturer
If there is one thing that is predictable in today’s medical device market, it is lack of predictability. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed demand for established products, created demand for new products and driven the need for re-evaluating optimum sourcing strategies. One thing that hasn’t changed are th

Navigating Materials Constraints: Burton Industries’ Formula for Minimizing Supply Chain-Related Disruptions
What is significant about the 2021 is the number of constraint drivers likely to be present during the year. Pent-up consumer demand is driving spikes in products across multiple sectors that were in short supply in 2020 due to the pandemic. The automotive sector is seeing both pent-up demand across all mo

Automation: The Future of Medical Device Manufacturing
In a perfect world, medical devices would be manufactured in a process with zero errors. Today, customers’ expectations for zero defects are higher than they have ever been and medical device manufacturers are looking for error-reducing solutions. Automation offers great promise. While automation is frequentl

Keys to Successful Design for Manufacturability
A product’s manufacturability is influenced by the materials used, requested tolerances, part geometry, process control limitations, and more. A successful DFM process considers each of these factors from the start.

Clearing the Hurdles of Medical Device Prototyping
Medical device engineers are tasked with finding straightforward solutions for complex problems that can bring medical devices to market and enrich patients’ lives. However, material costs, functionality, and turnaround times can present mid-design and prototyping impediments to final components and products.

The Criticality of Process Validation
Process validation is a critical part of medical device manufacturing, but it often doesn’t get the attention it requires. This article explains why validation is imperative in medical device manufacturing, illuminates some regulatory changes currently underway, outlines the steps of creating validation proce

Case Study: Tekni-Plex Flow Wrap Structure Eliminates $250K in Manufacturing Costs
Problematic film was leaving residue on cutting blades causing significant financial impact to the operation

Case Study: Tekni-Plex Helps Companies Commercialize Swab Sticks for COVID-19 Testing Needs
Quick turnaround for form-fill-seal material, coupled with technical support from Tekni-Plex enabled first-time swab stick manufacturers to quickly ramp up production

Precision Ball Screws for Efficient Linear Motion
For a vast array of industrial applications including milling-machine tables, robotics, medical equipment and semiconductor manufacture, ball screws deliver extremely accurate and durable linear motion solutions. They provide very high rigidity, smooth and near-silent operation, accuracy grades from C0 to C7,

Maximizing Machine Efficiency with Linear Guides
For designers and engineers of industrial machines that employ linear motion functions, achieving high load capacities, high speed positioning accuracy, and a compact form factor is the holy grail. NH/NS-series linear guides from NSK achieve these outcomes while substantially extending service intervals, espe

Compact, Accurate Motion For Medical Equipment
Nowhere is the need for smooth, precise, repeatable and reliable linear motion more critical than with medical devices and equipment. With friction-free motion, high-accuracy positioning and high operating efficiencies, the NSK Motorized Ball Screw Actuator offers considerable advantages versus conventional s

Second Evaluation of the Wear Duration of Acrylic Wearable Device Adhesives on Healthy Human Volunteers

Catalog: Adhesives for the Medical Industry
For an overview of Master Bond’s most popular medical grade epoxies, please browse this easy to read catalog organized by chemistry, key properties and curing schedules. From the prototype stage through the manufacturing process, each compound in this 20 page catalog is designed to meet specific applicatio

When To Use a Fast Cure Adhesive
To reduce assembly costs, why not consider a fast cure adhesive? But one caveat might be to question the need for speed when selecting the appropriate adhesive for an application. In this white paper, you’ll find an overview of the different types of fast cure adhesives, including one and two part epoxies,

Innovative Medical Adhesives Simplify and Improve Fastening in Medical Devices
Modern adhesives offer medical device engineers a leg up with new options to simplify fastening and improve performance as medical devices and materials continue to advance. When faced with often hostile environments of human bodies and hospitals, modern, well-designed structural medical adhesive compounds

Case Study - UV15: For Fabrication of Polymer Optical Waveguides
With its outstanding light transmission properties and optical clarity, Master Bond UV15 is widely used for a variety of bonding, coating and sealing applications in the optical, electronic and optoelectronic industries. In fact, it has been effectively used by RMIT University, the University of Texas at Aust

Epoxies Safeguard Medical Electronic Devices
The combination of increasingly complex assemblies and exacting quality requirements is compelling design engineers to be extremely diligent when selecting materials for the assembly of medical electronic devices. In this white paper, we explore various polymer chemistries and what the different families of c

DISINFECTION VALIDATION: How to Classify and Validate Your Medical Device Disinfection Process
Medical device reprocessing, and the scientific validation of reprocessing instructions, are critical steps to ensuring devices are safe and effective for patient use. The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19, as well as past infec

Learn How to Lower The Surface Friction of Medical Devices Using Biocompatible Surface Modifying Additives
You can optimize medical device performance, safety, and biocompatibility with surface modification. For many applications, surfaces are often modified to impart anti-thrombogenic, antimicrobial, anti-fouling or lubricious properties. However, Hydrophilic or Hydrophobic coatings can be associated with chal

Dark Marking with Picosecond Lasers
Ultrashort pulse lasers create high contrast dark or black marks that are resistant to passivation, corrosion, and autoclaving and that meet federally regulated UDI standards for medical devices. 

Aligning Product Development Teams and a Contract Manufacturer: Five Issues to Consider
While the production aspect of the electronics contract manufacturing model is fairly uniform across the industry, the engineering support aspect can vary widely. And while some assume contract manufacturer size influences its engineering resource strength, that isn’t always the case. At EDM, an electroni

The EMS Partnership: Four Areas to Audit
The term, “partnership” gets bandied about in electronics contract manufacturing relationships a lot. Both electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers and their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers have differing views. The complexity of the EMS relationship is what sets it apart in the

Laser Stripping for Medical and Electronics Industry
Automated laser processes increase production efficiency, process control, and product innovation

Reducing Airborne Particulate During Manufacture of Prefilled Syringes - Whitepaper
As demand for prefilled syringes in the pharmaceutical industry continues to increase, the packaging industry has recognized the need for a greater understanding of airborne particulate risks associated with coated drug delivery packaging systems. This study sought to test and demonstrate variances in particu

The New FDA Draft Guidance for Biocompatibility of Certain Devices in Contact with Intact Skin: The Naughty and Nice list
In October 2020 FDA released a new draft biocompatibility guidance document which focuses on the biological evaluation of devices in contact with intact skin. As a draft document, it is therefore open for comments and possible changes. Release of this guidance signifies another step from FDA toward their 3R a

Case Study: Tekni-Plex Medical solves quality issue for OR generator
A contract manufacturer for a generator that powers forceps used in neurocranial surgeries was having significant quality challenges with its prior tubing set. Sporadically it would find that the bonds between the tubing were either too strong or too weak; the OD was not being consistently held causing over-m

The Designer’s Guide to Preventing Overcurrent in Medical Devices: Ensuring Product Safety for Device and User
Circuit protection devices serve two main purposes that are essential to medical equipment, safety and reliability, by disconnecting power in a circuit during overcurrent.  Learn the ins and outs of circuit breakers, fuses, and how to best protect equipment from overcurrent in The Designer’s Guid

How to Select the Right Circuit Protection for Your Medical Device
With so many circuit protection device types, design choices, and configurations, making the appropriate selection for your specific medical equipment can feel daunting – especially with staff and patient safety on the line. How to Select the Right Circuit Protection for Your Medical Dev