Intravascular
Today's vascular catheter devices, such as neurovascular catheters,rely on small diameter, thin walled extrusions. Custom formulations of polymers and enhancing additives, known as compounds, are required to achieve the balance of performance properties otherwise unachievable by any single polymer. Increasingly complex devices utilize coextruded, multilumen and braid reinforced small diameter extrusions to deliver maximum therapeutic effect with a minimum cross section. In small diameter vascular devices that require ultimate tensile strength, thermoplastic polymers may not be sufficient. In these applications the high tensile strength and precision tolerances of thermoset polyimide may be the best solution. Highly resistant to thermal, chemical, and radiation degradation, thermoset polyimide is the gold standard for demanding medical vascular catheter devices.
Precision cut lengths, thermal formed tips, skived lumens and insert molded connectors finish the medical polymer extrusion into a component ready for assembly into your vascular catheter device. Miniature and intricate features found on vascular catheter devices present a unique challenge to component finishing. Delicate tooling must be carefully designed and maintained to provide consistent results in production. Strict process controls ensure tight tolerances on small dimensions like tip radii and lumen wall thicknesses. Skiving and hole cutting processes must be carefully designed to eliminate debris that could obscure small lumens or contaminate the finished device.