Articles

Advancements in Photochemical Etching Technology Provide Benefits to Medical Device Manufacturers

Many medical devices and applications require small metal components that demand very specific characteristics. These can include:

Piezo Mechanisms Improve Refractive Eye Surgery

Piezo motion-based precision mechanisms provide a number of features that are highly sought after in medical applications, such as lubricant-free design and sterile, ceramic actuation. Ceramics...

Medical Device Manufacturers Are Relying More on Innovation Brought to Their Doors

Budget cutbacks due to healthcare reform, hospital pricing pressures, and changes to reimbursement are limiting money funneling into the medical device R&D...

Silicone’s History—and Future—in Medical Manufacturing

Silicone, a highly versatile synthetic polymer, seems to show up everywhere from cooking utensils and adhesives to sealants and cosmetics. Its unique properties have contributed to...

New Trends in Orthopedic Implant Coatings

Most orthopedic implant manufacturers still rely heavily on traditional coatings for their implants, such as sintered bead and plasma-sprayed metallic and hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings. These...

Safer Surgery Using Intelligent Tools

Pro-Dex Inc., Irvine, CA, is a developer and manufacturer of powered rotary drive surgical and dental instruments. The company’s newest design is a cutting-edge, powered screwdriver that features sensors...

Under Pressure: Designing Safety and Ease-of-Use into Closed System Transfer Devices

Oncology nurses, compounding pharmacists, and others who handle hazardous drugs, such as chemotherapy drugs, are put at risk of exposure. This is due to the...

Mold Design and Cavitation Strategy: Best Practices in Aligning Tooling with Requirements

Medical manufacturers of single-use products have a dual challenge: achieving high levels of quality while maintaining competitive cost. From an injection...

Toward a Standards-based Framework for E-Health Interoperability

Varied stakeholders in healthcare around the world increasingly share and recognize a requirement for standards-based interoperability.

How High-Performance Polymers Help Medical Device Designers Work Smarter and Sleep Better

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) represent one of the key challenges facing today’s healthcare industry. According to a recent study published by the...

Pre-Treatment Process Solves Adhesion Issue

Prior to 2006, commercially available aqueous-based polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coatings utilized perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as a principal surfactant. PFOA was a highly efficient additive and...

Considering Manufacturability in Early Phase Product Development: Successful Scalability for Medical Device Innovation

An experienced, recommended, custom furniture professional came over to my house to bid on building a low-profile cabinet for...

Silicone: Expanding the Horizon for Today’s Medical Devices

Silicone materials have been around for more than 70 years and since the 1960s have played an important and evolving part in products designed for the medical field. Since that time,...

Incorporating Aesthetic Design into Medical Products

In medical product design, proper, robust functionality is paramount. The product simply has to work. In this market, is aesthetic design of any importance? And if so, how can designers...

Thermal Management Solutions for Medical Electronics

Electronic devices used in the medical industry have thermal management needs similar to those in other fields. Their electronics must stay cool enough to run continuously and correctly...

A “Particle” of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure: The Significant Benefits of Premarket and Postmarket Particulate Testing of Cardiovascular Devices

Particulate testing of cardiovascular medical devices is an important and valuable step...

Everything’s Connected: Strategies for Testing New Medical Devices

Imagine you are recovering from an operation and are fitted with wireless body sensors that allow you to move in the hospital bed or around the room in comfort. Once past the...

A Recipe for Electroforming Success: Making Ultra-Precise, Ultra-Small 3D Structures

Precision electroforming is an additive process in which two and three-dimensional (3D) microstructures are formed by electrochemically depositing metal into a...

DOEs Rescue Questionable Medical Electronics PCBs

Board cleaning is perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. But savvy medical electronics original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have a keen sense of...

Using Surge Testers for Design Verification and Production Testing

Not only are medical devices expected to function as intended, they must meet ergonomic, safety, FDA and functional requirements. They must be designed to function in adverse...

How to Simplify Medical Device Software Integration and Certification

Medical device manufacturers operate in a challenging environment filled with stringent regulatory requirements and industry pressures. With a rise in mainstream competitors...

Laser Material Removal Drives Wire Stripping Production

Many medical device applications require stripping outer layers of polymers from small diameter wire, and a laser is well suited for this material removal task. Offering a non-contact...

Design Criteria of Power Supplies for Use in Medical Devices

The third edition of IEC 60601-1 has been in effect since June 2012. It replaces the previous version as a basic standard for medical electrical equipment and describes the general...

Why Choose an Ultrasonic Flow Meter?

One of the more common purposes of an ultrasonic flow meter is to measure the velocity of a fluid in order to calculate the volumetric flow rate of a medium through a tube. This can be done through the use...

Do or Demise: Why It’s Crucial for Medical Device Manufacturers to Adhere to the FDA’s ABCs

Medical device manufacturers frequently face unique industry challenges, including the need to manage quality processes across disparate sites or...

Domestic Manufacturing & Thermoforming Popular with Medical Device Manufacturers

Late last year, Ray Products, Inc., conducted a second annual thermoforming industry survey. More than half of the survey respondents represented medical device...

Transforming Healthcare with M2M and mHealth Technology

Modern mobile networks are ubiquitous and accessible virtually everywhere, from remote villages in Africa to deep inside warehouses and hospitals. This universal wireless coverage,...

Secure, Cost-Effective, and Remotely Connected Medical Devices Are Revolutionizing Home Patient Care

Remote medical care is undergoing a revolution and the future is bright. Thanks to wireless networks and cloud connectivity across a growing...