Company insight
A one-stop shop for precision medical products
Custom Wire Technologies is a leading medical component manufacturer, with more than 50 years of industry experience. It now provides coiling, grinding and wire forming services in-house, acting as a one-stop shop for OEMs looking for wire products. Technical sales rep John Corsten explains how Custom Wire Technologies is able to differentiate itself from other contract manufacturers.
Why do your customers rely on CWT as their go-to contract manufacturer for the medical device industry? John Corsten: In an industry challenged by growing backlogs and increasing lead times, the need for speed and flexibility has never been greater. Enter Custom Wire Technologies (CWT). Located in Wisconsin, we are a one-stop shop for OEMs seeking precision medical wire products. We carry out coiling, grinding and wire forming, along with a myriad of value-add services, such as laser marking, media blasting, PTFE coating and precision removal. With the addition of our new ISO Class 7 cleanroom, we are also focused on assembly, incorporating plasma/laser welding, soldering and bonding with adhesives. Last year, we introduced our Qwikcoil programme, enabling customers to receive up to 20 custom coils in one week. This programme was designed for engineers looking to make quick prototypes.
In the future, we hope to launch Qwikgrind, which would offer fast turnaround grinding services in two weeks or less. What separates CWT from a lot of companies, in particular the bigger OEMs, is that we’re very nimble and quick to respond. As a smaller company, we have the ability to shift on the fly to help solve a customer’s problem if they need to get out of a pinch. No project is too small. Every project is important to the customer, and we like to treat each project as if it were our own. Ultimately, a customer’s success hinges on that project succeeding. CWT has strategic alliances with our raw material suppliers. These relationships are vital since our suppliers are the foundation of our business. We also pride ourselves on our veteran sales
team as they have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to high-performance alloys, including new alloy development.
You offer precision grinding services to medical OEMs globally. What makes CWT’s precision grinding service stand out from the crowd? Wire grinding requires a combination of meticulous attention to detail and an efficient process. CWT has years of experience producing standard and complex geometries using both centreless and OD (outside diameter) grinding with our state-of-the- art CNC grinders.
CWT has made increasing use of nitinol. What are the properties that make nitinol such a valuable material – and how is CWT using it? Nitinol has unique superelastic properties, biocompatibility and corrosion resistance, making it an essential material for the medical device industry, where it is used in guidewires, core wires, orthopaedic wires and a variety of other specialty devices. Nitinol can take up to 8% strain without plastic deformation, meaning the wire will go back straight. In comparison, stainless steel can only take 0.5% strain. The other unique property of nitinol is its ability to “remember” the shape it was set in
“No project is too small. Every project is important to the customer, and we like to treat each project as if it were our own. Ultimately, a customer’s success hinges on that project succeeding.”
Our capabilities range from a minimum starting size of .005” (0.13mm) OD to a maximum starting size of 0.188” (4.78mm) OD with a length of 10ft (304.8cm) and beyond.
Specifications for tolerances continue to get tighter as engineers try to make their devices as compact as possible. CWT’s evolution has depended on continuous investment in experimentation and understanding the limits of our machines. We will continue to push the envelope in terms of how small our machines can become while remaining accurate. Keeping pace with the unprecedented demand for our grinding services and consistently impressing customers with high-quality ground material is our continued focus.
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
at a certain temperature range, known as transformation temperature. Transformation temperatures for superelastic grades of nitinol are between -20°C and 22°C. In 2010, CWT had a customer request a nitinol suture threader. The threader device required the use of nitinol so it could return to the original shape after passing through the small hole in the instrument. From that point onward, CWT has grown to offer solutions to a broad range of medical device developers looking to make the most of the material. Today CWT is a premier contract manufacturer processing nitinol. Our two main growth areas are nitinol grinding and coiling (shape setting). ●
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