Medical Device Injection Molding Case Study
A Medical Device company that designs, manufactures and markets instruments for spine surgery, neurosurgery and other surgical specialties required a high performing Sheath Tip as part of an assembly to aid wound healing.
The Challenge & Specs of the Sheath Tip Project
The challenge for this medical device injection molding project was to design and build Tooling to injection mold the Sheath Tip to the customer’s specifications and budget.
Part Specifications
| Material & Artwork Spec | ISO 109993/UPS Class VI Compliant |
| Polymer Material | PPSU – Polyphenylsulfone |
| Tolerance | +/-.002 several dimensions |
| Finish | SPI B2 |
Tooling
The Tooling was sourced to J&L Plastic Molding’s Tooling Vendor in Shenzhen, China. Using the Tooling Vendor in China was friendly on the budget. Further, J&L Plastic Molding had years of experience and many successful medical device tooling projects with the Vendor. The Tooling Work and initial sampling were to be completed in China. The Tool was to be shipped to J&L’s Connecticut facility for production. J&L’s in-house Toolroom will handle all Tool Maintenance.
Tool Design: The Tool was designed by the Tooling Vendor. The Designed was submitted to J&L and approved prior to machining.
Tool Sampling: To prepare for the sampling of the tool J&L shipped the PPSU material to the China Tooling Vendor for the sampling process. After the toolmaking process was complete (8 Weeks) the Tooling Samples were submitted to J&L and approved.
Tool Shipment: J&L handled all the logistics of shipping the mold by AIR from Shenzhen to Wallingford, Connecticut for production.
Sampling at J&L & Pad Printing: The Tooling arrived at J&L’s facility and was sampled. J&L completed the Pad Printing to the Customer’s specification and the Sheath Tip was approved for Production.
