Originally Published EMDM October 2009
Industry Intelligence: inner space
Thin-Walled Tubing Maximises Interior Working Space
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Putnam Plastics has developed an extrusion technology that improves process stability.
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New techniques in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) are placing ever-greater demands on medical tubing extruders. Putnam Plastics (Dayville, CT, USA) reports it has developed a technology for production of thin-walled, large-diameter, low-durometer urethane extrusions that support these procedures.
“As the [tubing] diameter increases and the wall thickness and durometer decrease, the extrusion process becomes increasingly unstable,” explains Product Manager Byron Flagg. “This instability, leads to larger tolerances and lower yield rates, and forces device engineers to compromise their designs accordingly.”
Putnam Plastics has implemented a proprietary combination of custom equipment and advanced processing conditions to address these challenges. Improved process stability results in a larger design envelope for device engineers, and better material handling techniques reduce costs by increasing yields and product quality.
Putnam Plastics cites the following example: Given an 80A durometer urethane extrusion with a diameter greater than 12.7 mm, the new technology enables wall thicknesses down to 0.08 mm and an OD tolerance of ±0.05 mm.
This new capability is applicable across a broad range of custom extrusion designs and can be applied cross functionally and integrated into designs that include features such as coextrusion, multilumen, wire reinforcement and so forth.
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