In medical settings, tubing reinforcement is essential for providing the flexibility that solid tubes cannot achieve. By exerting external pressure on the tube walls, coils significantly enhance crush resistance and durability. Known as “helical coils,” these medical-grade reinforcement wire coils are integral to tubing extrusion processes for manufacturers. Furthermore, guidewire tip coils contribute critical flexibility to the lead end of wires, ensuring precision and reliability during medical procedures. The demand for these advanced coils underscores their importance in maintaining the effectiveness and safety of medical equipment.
Reinforcement Coils: Enhancing Catheter Durability and Performance
In the manufacturing of catheters—thin, tubular medical devices essential to the healthcare industry—wire coiling is crucial. Catheters must navigate the body’s complexities, whether delivering fluids and medication intravenously or emptying the bladder via the urethra. These complex functions necessitate catheters to strike a balance between flexibility for maneuverability and firmness to prevent kinking or collapsing during use.
To achieve the ideal balance, manufacturers utilize a coil-reinforced design, incorporating a soft, medical-grade plastic tube with an internal helical coil spring for added strength. This unique design, as described by Bob Boldig, president of Custom Wire Technologies, delivers “flexible rigidity” to the catheter. Boldig explains, “It allows the catheter shaft to be flexible yet resist crushing.”
Guidewire Tip Coils: Perfecting Precision and Flexibility
Coils are equally vital in the production of guidewires, the smaller devices used to navigate catheters to precise lesion or vessel segments. As Bob Boldig explains, “Guidewire tip coils provide an atraumatic flexible tip to the wire.” Depending on the material, these coils can also offer radiopacity when needed for specific applications.
CWT specializes in manufacturing a diverse range of guidewire tips, including those with customizable shapes that medical professionals can adjust as needed during use. They offer production runs from prototypes to large contract orders, accommodating both bulk, non-sterile assemblies and specialized cleanroom assemblies.
Expertise in the Industry
Boldig emphasizes that CWT’s extensive technical experience distinguishes them in the medical coiling industry: “We have been making coils for over 25 years and have seen a multitude of applications using numerous sizes of materials, making thousands of sized and shaped coils. Our manufacturing experience gives us the upfront knowledge as to what works and what doesn’t regarding coil making.” Deep technical expertise ensures that CWT consistently delivers high-quality, reliable coils tailored to the specific needs of the medical field.
CWT’s expert team and state-of-the-art facility empower them to supply OEMs with top-tier medical-grade coils, producing up to 2,000 units daily. A key trend in the medical coiling industry is size reduction, and CWT is at the forefront. Utilizing advanced CNC point coilers and mandrel winding machines/lathes, they manufacture coils with wire as small as 0.001” to meet the demands of the most minimally invasive catheters and guidewire designs.
The choice of materials for medical coils varies based on their final application. While 300 series stainless steel (304V) is predominantly used, CWT also employs platinum-iridium, platinum tungsten, tungsten, and nickel-titanium, known as nitinol. Notably, nitinol has emerged as the company’s fastest-growing alloy. A diverse approach to material selection enables CWT to cater to a wide range of medical needs.
Solutions for Reliable Sourcing
Although there is a crucial demand for coils in medical devices, sourcing these components can be challenging. To address this issue, CWT offers the QwikCoil program, which provides the delivery of quality custom coils within just one week. The initiative ensures ongoing value for manufacturers who need rapid turnaround on their coiling orders. CWT’s QwikCoil solution is a game-changer, providing swift service in a demanding market.
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