Among elastomers, silicone rubber is considered the gold standard in terms of biostability and biocompatibility. Silicone components are used widely in both long-term and short-term implantable applications in diverse medical fields including Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Urology, and Women’s Health to name a few.
Silicones are available in a wide range of hardnesses. Compared with most medical plastics, softer silicones offer medical device designers a material that mimics the body’s anatomy and minimizes trauma when in contact with human tissue.
Consider silicone tubing, a crucial component found on myriad medical devices. Silicone tubing is often used to introduce fluids into the body while silicone wound drains are used to remove fluids and other organic matter. Maintaining the integrity of the open lumen, often referred to as kink resistance, is crucial to the success of these components. In these cases the inherent softness of silicones becomes a design challenge.
To meet this challenge, SiMEDEx has developed proprietary equipment and processes to embed helically wound filament within the wall of the tube. SiMEDEx produces this type of tube, referred to as KRT (kink resistant tubing) in a range of sizes, hardnesses, and kink resistivity.
Please contact us to learn more about SiMEDEx’ KRT and other types of reinforced silicone tubing.