Medical tubing and
catheters play a critical role in a huge variety of healthcare applications, and
demand is growing thanks to factors such as an aging population and moves
towards less invasive medical procedures.
This new conference addressed the latest tubing and catheter developments for a wide range of
medical requirements including intravenous, infusion, dialysis, respiratory,
feeding, and drainage applications. It also examined the latest standards
and certification requirements in this heavily regulated sector.
There are a huge
variety of polymer options available for medical tubing production including
flexible vinyl compounds, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoplastic urethanes, polyolefins,
fluoropolymers, polyamides, polyimides, silicones, PEEK and PEBA.
Inter-material competition is strong and selecting the optimum polymer grade to
meet requirements such as flexibility, clarity, kink-resistance, dimensional
stability, biocompatibility and cost-reduction can present a considerable
challenge.
In addition, exciting new
developments in additives and the latest compound formulations are bringing
added functionality, increased performance and improved biocompatibility to medical
tubing products. Examples include antimicrobial, radiopaque, nanocomposite,
lubricious and color-coded compounds.
Presentations at Medical Tubing 2016 addressed the latest advances in polymers,
additives and compounds to meet the growing and evolving demands of this
dynamic and highly competitive market.
On the design and
production front, tubing configurations are becoming more complex, including increasingly
sophisticated multi-layer, multi-lumen and micro-bore designs. These have to be
produced to extremely tight tolerances and at higher throughputs to deliver
cost efficiencies. At Medical Tubing 2016, leading experts discussed how extrusion technologies are being developed and refined to meet
these considerable challenges.
In addition to two
days of high-level presentations, the conference provided excellent
networking opportunities with key players from throughout the medical tubing
supply chain.