This white paper was developed to help avoid the downtime, costs and frustration involved when the wrong plastic tubing or reinforced hose is ordered. Topics include pressure and vacuum requirements, taste and odor transfer, surface characteristics, flexibility, kink resistance, temperatures and more. The tips highlight details that can be overlooked, present questions to ask your supplier, and suggest research you can do to help avoid buying errors.

Engineers often want to know whether an adhesive is low outgassing or generic. And while there are cases when nothing but a low outgassing product will do, the truth is that many so-called generic adhesives inherently have low outgassing levels. What's more, most bonding, potting, encapsulation and sealing applications don't need to meet a defined outgassing specification. Here's a guide to understanding when low outgassing adhesives are the right choice.

Many available thermoplastics (substrates) create adhesion challenges when co-molded with silicone elastomers. This white paper will explore Momentive’s solution to this design challenge: the Silopren* LSR47x9 liquid silicone rubber series. A robust self-bonding product portfolio serving the market needs for a wide range of thermoplastics. Meeting USP Class VI & ISO10993 (parts 6,10,11), it's suitable for healthcare device applications such as: respiratory masks, gaskets & valves, soft touch grips & handles, sealing elements & membranes.

In the era of mass production and lean manufacturing, companies are looking for ways to help boost productivity and reduce unit costs while maintaining quality and repeatability. The focus is on continuously improving production techniques, accelerating the various phases within the Product Lifecycle while keeping costs at a minimum. Manufacturing aids such as jigs, fixtures, quality control aids, dies and punches and dummy parts play a critical role here.

While full-color 3D printing has been around for many years, it is now gaining meaningful traction. In part this is because next-generation technologies are entering the market, offering capabilities that improve quality and performance, while at the same time helping to reduce cost. Soon affordable, high-quality color 3D printing will benefit organizations in many different industries by allowing them to innovate more quickly, improve the performance of their current products, and generate new revenue while simultaneously decreasing their manufacturing and supply chain costs.

Combination products are thera¬peutic and diagnostic products comprising two or more regulated components (drug, device, or biologic) that are com¬bined or mixed and produced as a single entity. For medical device companies, combination products provide an attractive route to improving product performance or extending a product’s lifecycle. However, the inclusion of a drug also introduces new development and regulatory considerations. In this technical brief, we focus on how the addition of drugs to existing medical devices can enhance their performance. We will also explore the key considerations associated with combination product development and regulatory pathways.

Machinery and production line component production has typically been served with traditional processes such as CNC machining and injection molding. However, as industries strive to find greater efficiencies and add more value for their customers, machinery and production line manufacturers and runners are looking for ways to enhance and optimize how they produce components–in order to offer unique/customized solutions at low cost to their internal or external customers, drive greater production line efficiencies with lightweight, high performance parts, and maximize equipment uptime. 3D printing opens up a world of new opportunities for machinery and production line component production–both for original and spare parts.

Corporate procurement, or sourcing, is moving away from its traditional focus on transactional unit costs and towards the strategic goal of building strong, effective supply chains that deliver great overall value to an organization at the lowest total cost. This guide to strategic sourcing for the procurement professional in manufacturing will give insight into why this shift is occurring, discuss its potential benefits and the elements necessary for success, and describe what qualities to look for in strategic partners.

Manufacturers producing medical devices that involve patient contact are typically required to perform biological safety evaluations, including biocompatibility tests to ensure patient safety, as specified by ISO 10993. Chemical characterization can help support the biocompatibility testing process, reduce the use of animal testing, in some cases shrink turnaround time and cost, and perhaps eliminate the need to do some biocompatibility testing altogether.

3D printed multi-material models can replicate the complexity and wide range of patient pathology, making them superior tools for medical education. But how do 3D printed models compare to traditional training methods? In multiple peer reviews, users agree they can be an invaluable asset to training and better prepare practitioners for the clinical realm. The studies evaluated: