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Company insight


The tubing experts that save time and money


High-specification tubing in its many different forms is a vital component in medical devices of all kinds, from anesthesiology and respiratory equipment to catheters and biopharmaceutical laboratory equipment. Patient outcomes can depend heavily on the quality of the tubing components, so Medical Device Developments speaks to Tim Steele, founder and CEO of MicroSpec, to learn more about the company’s range of top-end extrusion capabilities.


What are MicroSpec’s main areas of focus in the medical device sector? Tim Steele: That can be looked at from two different perspectives. The first is from the perspective of extrusion technology, in which case our focus has not changed much since the company was founded. We have focused on producing and innovating thin wall tubing, bump or taper tubing, multi-lumen tubing and profiles, co-extruded or tri-extruded tubing and micro-extrusions. In all of these areas, MicroSpec is known as a leader and industry innovator. Secondly, our focus is on the areas of the industry to which we supply parts, which covers most parts of the medical device industry, though with a strong emphasis on vascular access, paediatric applications and surgical devices.


How does MicroSpec differentiate itself from its competitors? We differentiate ourselves with our customer service, extrusion expertise, a state-of-the-art machine shop in which we design and build all our own extrusion tools and being the go-to company when others ‘no quote’. We also partner with our clients to develop new products from concept through validation and commercialisation.


How are clients’ needs changing over time and how has MicroSpec adapted to meet those needs? Clients’ needs have grown significantly in that the complexity of the extruded parts today far exceeds that of complex parts twenty years ago. With the greatly increased complexity of products and the ways in which the parts are produced, customer service is increasingly critical.


Innovative extrusion technology cannot stand alone.


What key factors should companies keep in mind when they engage a contract manufacturer? When an OEM engages a contract manufacturer for a technically advanced project or part, they first need to determine if it has the technical capacity and know-how to take the project forward successfully in a timely and economical way. This requires technical discussions, and both the OEM and the contract manufacturer must both be able to express their ideas concisely, as this illustrates an understanding of what is needed by the OEM and how the contract manufacturer plans to make the part. At MicroSpec, we invariably offer the client samples of similar parts that we have previously made to demonstrate our know-how, technical capacity and quality. We involve our technical team and our customer service team so that everyone understands the scope of the project from the start.


What are the benefits of involving the contract manufacturer early in the design phase? It is always a good idea to engage the contract manufacturer early in the design process. For an extruded part, the extrusion engineers can bring many decades of experience to the creation of specifications that will produce a functional part that will work the first time. This saves time and money and, ultimately, reduces time to market. If the OEM waits to involve the contract manufacturer, it may result


Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com


in the OEM specifying their part in such a way that it is unmanufacturable. At the very least, features that are difficult to produce will invariably lengthen development and increase costs. There is an opportunity cost to not involving the contract manufacturer early.


What examples can you give of this early involvement creating tangible advantages for a medical device company?


In one case, a client who was interested in developing an advanced paediatric catheter came to us with an idea that was barely more than a few engineering sketches. In our first discussion, we mentioned that we had been working on something similar and had prototype samples we could share.


The client examined the samples, came back with formal engineering drawings, and requested that we make recommended changes to the design. We red-lined their drawing according to what we felt would work. They accepted the changes as proposed and placed a purchase order for a first prototype lot. MicroSpec produced the first lot successfully to the specification, largely due to the fact that we had revised the first specification to what we felt would work in extrusion. After just three prototype lots, the client felt they had it right, went forward with validations and soon after launched the new product. The whole process from the first discussions to product launch took less than nine months. ●


www.microspecorporation.com 109


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