Finest Tubes for Medical Devices

Vascotube, a Cirtec company, based in Birkenfeld, Germany, processes Nitinol tubing used in implantable medical devices including:

  • Heart Valves
  • TAVR and TMVR Stents
  • Peripheral Vascular Stents
  • Neurovascular Stents

Medical device use requires high quality surfaces on Nitinol tubing. The technology and tube making processes developed by Vascotube have been perfected over many years of practice. Using their experience, combined with new technologies and custom made machinery, they have been able to develop a drawing process that avoids the need for slurry cleaning, chemical cleaning or mechanical removal operations on the inner surface of the drawn tube. The company is ISO 13485 and 9001 certified.

In addition to Nitinol, Vascotube works with other tubing materials including:

  • L-605
  • MP35N
  • Tantalum
  • Titanium
  • Magnesium

View the recently published whitepaper: Effects of Tube Processing on the Fatigue Life of Nitinol
(Adler, P., Frei, R., Kimiecik, M. et al. Shap. Mem. Superelasticity (2018)

 

The study compares two tube manufacturing techniques of superelastic Nitinol used in  manufacturing Class III devices. The results of the study suggest that tube manufacturing technique may have a significant effect on fatigue life of a finished superelastic Nitinol component.  Vascotube participated in this study.

For additional information on Vascotube: