Company insight
Precision at the surface: Introducing the DC-300
As drug-coated balloons become increasingly important in interventional medicine, manufacturers face growing pressure to deliver precise, uniform and reproducible coatings. UMAC explores how pipette-based coating technology can help overcome complex balloon geometries, reduce process variability and improve control over drug deposition.
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rug-coated balloons (DCBs) have emerged as an important technology for delivering antiproliferative drugs directly to the target site in an ever increasing number of procedures. For manufacturers, however, achieving reliable and repeatable drug delivery begins before the device reaches the end user. It starts with the coating process. Pipette-based coating offers a precise and adaptable approach to applying drug formulations to balloon surfaces. By controlling the volume and location of deposited material, manufacturers can improve coating consistency while supporting the development of increasingly sophisticated DCB designs.
Precise control of drug formulation
The DC-300 is ready for what comes next in DCB development.
One of the principal advantages of pipette coating is accurate control over the quantity of coating solution deposited. Drug loading is critical.
A controlled dispensing system can deliver defined volumes of formulation to specific areas of the balloon, helping manufacturers establish repeatable results. Parameters such as dispense volume, flow rate, application pattern and relationship between pipette and balloon surface can be monitored and adjusted as part of process development and validation.
The DC-300 offers this level of control and more.
Supporting coating uniformity Balloon catheters present challenging geometries for coating, and new shapes are evolving. The working surface may include folds, transitions and other features that influence how a liquid formulation spreads and dries.
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Pipette dispensing can provide a highly targeted application method, allowing manufacturers to build coating patterns systematically rather than relying solely on wasteful spreading or spraying. UMAC’s DC-300 system incorporates scanning and servo control to offer an automatic coating path based on real-time information for optimal coverage.
Device designers can now visualise a 3D print pattern of drug solution onto any balloon shape. Uniformity is important not only for drug loading but also for the physical characteristics of the finished coating. A well-controlled process can help reduce unwanted variation in coating thickness, aggregation and localised concentrations of drug.
Flexibility during development DCB development frequently involves optimisation of the drug coating architecture. A pipette-based approach offers useful flexibility because dispensing
parameters can be adjusted easily as formulations and device designs evolve. Not only index and spiral patterns, but control over the position of the pipette in relation to the balloon surface ensures tighter control over drug deposition, with confidence what you dispense ends up on the balloon.
This makes the technology suitable for development environments in which manufacturers need to compare different coating strategies, balloon sizes or drug-load targets without immediately committing to a specialised production system.
Reducing process variability Reproducibility is fundamental to medical-device manufacturing. The DC-300 offers single scan per lot to set a coating path or scan every balloon to ensure a unique path per device confirming a repeatable coating finish. The system generates the required coating path based on the scanned information coupled with the recipe parameters you determine. Optimum results every cycle. Data capture through inter-process communication is intrinsic to the process offering valuable information on every cycle from input to output.
From coating to finished- device performance
For medical device manufacturers, the key benefit is precision: greater control over what is deposited, where it is deposited and how consistently the process can be repeated. In a technology where the coating is central to therapeutic performance, precision can be a significant advantage. ●
www.umacprecision.com
www.medicaldevice-developments.com
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