Advances in medical tubing were in the spotlight at a symposium organized by Davis-Standard, a supplier of extrusion and converting technology. More than 30 customers and 15 vendors attended the two-day event in late October at the company's headquarters in Pawcatuck, CT, taking part in a number of technical discussions and witnessing extrusion demos in the cleanroom.
"This was our first medical tubing symposium in a number of years, and it was a great success," said Kevin Dipollino, Davis-Standard's Product Manager of Pipe, Profile & Tubing Systems. "We presented a variety of technical talks covering advances in medical tubing, including alternate polymer, micro bore bump tubing and FEP technology. Our vendors shared information on die designs, vacuum sizing and gauge control." Each afternoon concluded with line demonstrations in the onsite cleanroom.
FEP tubing with barium sulfite stripes ran on the medical tubing lab line, followed by alternate polymer tubing. The line with two MEDD (Medical Extruder Direct Drive) extruders and associated downstream equipment is located in a climate-controlled cleanroom environment. Customers are able to test new resins, make parts for proof-of-concept and conduct downstream R&D prior to making large capital equipment investments. The line is extremely versatile, adds Davis-Standard, and is set up to run multiple resins. It also incorporates Davis-Standard's patented alternate polymer technology with all components monitored and controlled by the EPIC III control system.
"This symposium was very informative and well worth the time to attend," said Loren Bridges, Manufacturing Engineer for Extrusion at Lake Region Medical. Bridges added that he would recommend the event to colleagues, music to the ears of Davis-Standard, which hopes to host more meetings of this kind in the future.
