Online Exclusive: Trelleborg pushes extrusion innovation further

What if?

What if medical silicone tubing not only got smaller, but more intricate in its design? What if it had better conductive properties, more complex shapes or better texture?

Dan Sanchez has built a career around the what ifs. As product manager for Trelleborg's health care and medical operations, his days are focused on expanding the possibilities of what the elastomeric material can do. Because the medical devices he helps bring to market have potential to improve lives, if not save them.

"Patients are the motivation for me," Sanchez said. "It is really rewarding to know we help patients have a better quality life."

Of course, he and Trelleborg don't accomplish this alone. It's the direct result of strong partnerships—with medical device manufacturers and silicone suppliers—who are like-minded in pushing technology and innovation to new limits.

Take, for example, the big strides Trelleborg has made with the extrusion of tiny tubing for medical applications.

"We are continuously pushing the limits of tubing size on the small end," Sanchez said, "both with regard to features like individual lumen and the entire cross section diameter and wall thickness."

So far, Sanchez said, Trelleborg has been successful extruding tubing with walls .002 inches thick. And the company isn't stopping there, pushing the limits of diameter sizing as well.

Extruding tiny tubing is one thing. Doing it routinely and accurately—and measuring it accurately—is something else. So Trelleborg is backing every one of its advancements in extrusion with advancements in measurement capabilities.

Doing that requires answering some of those ever-present questions.

"It's one thing to produce a wall down to two thousandth (0.002) of an inch," Sanchez said, "but we have to prove it. We have to show we can control and measure it with minimal errors."

Trelleborg's ability to accurately measure on smaller scales becomes more and more important as the tubing continues to become more complex. Take, for instance, the strides made with regard to extruding multi-lumen tubing. The tubing, used often in areas such as cardiac rhythm management, could have as many as three of four lumens of varying size spaced equally around a larger, center lumen.

Moreover, Trelleborg has continued to improve and refine its processes and technologies around the extrusion of twisted, multi-lumen tubing.

While continually working to improve the possibilities for extruded tubing, Trelleborg has not lost its focus on durability. The company is exploring the use of filaments and rigid monofilaments within the walls of its products to add additional reinforcement that provides the tubing with better kink- and crush-resistance.

The team also is learning to better control the surface texture of the extruded silicone. By nature, silicone can be sticky, and diversifying the texture of the extruded silicone can address the unwanted tackiness of the material.

"It helps to have a texture that reduces friction," Sanchez said. "Many customers seek coatings from secondary processes to reduce the tackiness and friction and facilitate device assembly and surgical procedures. If we can manufacture tubing with controlled texture, we can eliminate the risk and cost of additional coating processing in some cases."

Those successes Trelleborg celebrates are rooted in its ability to establish strong relationships with its suppliers who are as passionate and determined as Trelleborg is to expand silicone's capabilities. Whether it's enhancing the conductive properties of the silicone by incorporating conductive materials or working to ensure that it can survive harsh, corrosive conditions, Trelleborg and its partners continue to push the medical industry forward.

"We are challenging and testing silicones to do a variety of things they didn't do historically," Sanchez said. "Employing conductive silicone is one area we are exploring, bonding to other materials is another. Silicone historically did not bond well to other materials. We are partnering with our suppliers to find better formulations."

Those strides Trelleborg is making also are possible because of the relationships built with its customers. In many cases medical device manufacturers come to Trelleborg with complex, cutting-edge design ideas and a desire to build new solutions.

Trelleborg strives to ensure it can provide exactly what the customer needs. And that, Sanchez said, may require taking on bigger challenges by pushing to extrude more complex shapes, reducing the number of parts in a medical device.

Some of these innovations may face big challenges along the way, which leads to another of those inevitable questions: Is this even possible?

Trelleborg thinks so, and it's determined to rise to the challenge with support from both its customers and its suppliers.

"Like anything else, if you aren't pushing yourself, you stagnate. Our goal is to continually innovate and make life better for patients and medical professionals," Sanchez said.