Medical Device Link.

INDUSTRY NEWS

A company’s testing applications lab will assess whether the use of helium leak testing in an application can be replaced by less-costly mass-flow leak test methods. The service is offered free of charge.

With helium prices rising as much as 30% over the past year, leak testing is becoming onerous for medical device manufacturers. Companies may not realize that they have options, however. Depending on the application, alternative leak-testing methods may be a perfectly acceptable substitute to helium-based systems. To help companies make that determination, InterTech Development (Skokie, IL, USA) is offering complimentary assessments to manufacturers that currently use helium leak detection.

Many users of helium leak test methods mistakenly think it is the only way to achieve the accuracy they require, says InterTech president Jacques Hoffmann. “That is not the case,” he says, “but it takes leak test experts familiar with InterTech’s patented technology and temperature compensation methods to sort out which applications can be handled by mass-flow leak tests and which are restricted to the more costly helium test methods.” The firm provides both types of tests.

The free assessment is especially geared to help identify applications with leak test requirements in the 0.01 sccm range.

For more information, contact the company’s European headquarters at 19, rue Clement Michu, F-69100 Villeurbanne, France; phone: +33 437 434116; Internet: www.intertechdevelopment.com.