Medical tubing supplier Natvar (City of Industry, CA), a Tekni-Plex company, has introduced a new tight-tolerance micro-extrusion product line made from thermoplastics and other engineered materials. Micro-extruded tubing is in demand for a variety of neurovascular and surgical applications.
More expensive materials such as glass and fluoropolymers historically have been used to produce micro-extrusion tubing because of their ability to consistently hold tolerances, a key requirement for downsizing medical devices. “Natvar’s considerable investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing enables us to micro-extrude monolayer, co-extruded, multi-lumen tubing or profiles in a variety of thermoplastic materials at CPK 1 values above 2.0,” said Bob Donohue, General Manager. The CPK value indicates how close a process is running to its specification limits, relative to the natural variability of the process, explained Natvar. As a frame of reference, a CPK of 1.33 or better is what medical device companies typically require. “The ability to run thermoplastics means that medical device companies can realize desired performance attributes at a fraction of the cost associated with fluoropolymers and glass,” added Donohue.