Originally Published EMDM November/December
2004
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
K Stands for Katheter
I just flew back from the K show in Düsseldorf, and boy are my arms tired. Not from flapping, as that hackneyed joke would have it, but from lugging reams of press kits all over the sprawling messe. As for my feet, don’t ask.
The Friday of the show was especially draining. The aisles were jammed solid with people, while pockets of congestion extruded from almost every corner booth. A good state of affairs for exhibitors, but wretched conditions for an editor chasing news. And just to make matters worse, one exhibitor had the bright idea of moulding and distributing full-size plastic trashcans to visitors. It’s hard enough weaving a path through the shuffling masses without having to dodge random receptacles. If anyone wants to start a petition banning exhibitors from handing out anything larger than a breadbox at future events, you can count on my signature.
None of these obstacles sapped my resolve, and I found a number of items of interest for the medical technology industry, which will be covered in the January/February issue of EMDM. In the meantime, I do want to mention an impressive in-line catheter-manufacturing system that caught my eye on
the show floor.
PLA Giken Company, Ltd. (Osaka, Japan) claims that the MD-XCT Medical Extruder Catheter System is the first machine of its kind on the market. In addition to an extruder and related peripherals, the system integrates coating and braiding modules, and a coating die with a switching device that allows it to process as many as three polymers of varying hardness. According to the firm, the development of a horizontally positioned braiding unit was a key design innovation that made it possible to build a system that would take the automation of catheter production to a new level. All of the system components, including the control and validation unit, are designed and manufactured in-house.
The firm will be exhibiting for the first time at MD&M West in Anaheim, CA, USA, from 10–12 January, 2005, but it is unable to bring the machine, says company president Yoshiharu Kikuzawa. The system can be viewed on the company’s Web site, www.plagiken.co.jp; the text, however, is in Japanese. If you like what you see and want to learn more about the MD-XCT, then I suggest that you follow the sun to Southern California come January.
Norbert Sparrow
Copyright ©2004 European Medical Device Manufacturer
