From mandrels to liners to heat shrink manufacturing aids, Zeus has almost all the components you’ll require for end-to-end catheter construction – offering you an intelligent and innovative solution for each layer of your catheter design.
From mandrels to liners to heat shrink manufacturing aids, Zeus has almost all the components you’ll require for end-to-end catheter construction – offering you an intelligent and innovative solution for each layer of your catheter design.
Zeus offers medical device OEMs and contract manufacturers a single source for high-performance, high-quality extrusions for the construction of vascular and non-vascular catheters. These Class VI-approved components are highly customizable and can be tailored to just about any catheter build.
With products such as StreamLiner™, our family of ultra-thin PTFE catheter liners; FluoroPEELZ™, our innovative peelable heat shrink; and Tie Layer, a bonding and adhesion solution, you can count on Zeus components to enable innovative designs, enhance performance, and reduce manufacturing costs.
Our end-to-end range includes:
Extruded PTFE monofilament is a primary foundational component used for mandrels in catheter construction. PTFE’s naturally smooth non-stick surface helps facilitate mandrel removal after construction of the finished catheter. PTFE glass-filled monofilament mandrels stand up to the high temperatures needed for catheter construction and the jacket reflow process yet are easily removed after this final step.
With industry-leading sizing, tight tolerances, and high-performance properties, Zeus PTFE Sub-Lite-Wall™ liners are an ideal choice for a wide variety of advanced vascular catheter designs. If you’re looking for even thinner walls, our StreamLiner™ Series offers the thinnest extruded catheter liners in the market. Polyimide and PI Glide™ liners are also available. Zeus PI products help you adhere to REACH and EU MDR guidelines regarding SVHC/CMR restricted substances.* When enhanced lubricity is needed, PI Glide™, a PI/PTFE composite, is available.
For improved bonding between catheter layers, Tie Layer is an ultra-thin thermoplastic coating applied over a catheter liner during catheter construction which improves jacket-to-liner bond strength. This helps to improve patient safety, enhance catheter performance, and reduce manufacturing costs.
Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) has significant advantages for catheter construction and as a monofilament, outperforms almost all other plastic or polymer braiding media. LCP is strong and rivals even stainless steel in some areas. Catheters made with LCP braiding are also MRI-compatible.
The key feature of a catheter jacket is that it must be bondable to the underlying liner. The customizable nature of the Pebax® family surpasses nearly all other thermoplastic elastomers allowing properties such as hardness, chemical resistance, and even processing to be fine-tuned. When more lubricity is needed, PEBX Glide™, our high lubricity PEBA blend, offers up to a 60 per cent decrease in coefficient of friction, resulting in reduced drag and enhanced performance. Nylon and Nylon Glide™ can also offer unique performance attributes.
Catheter construction is a delicate and laborious process that leaves no room for error, especially in the final step of removing the recovered heat shrink from over the outer catheter shaft. Zeus FluoroPEELZ™ brings simplicity to this critical step. With a simple linear tear, FluoroPEELZ™ peelable heat shrink helps increase yields, improve safety, and simplify catheter construction. For other recovery options, FEP heat shrink is also available.
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*Our thorough analytical test results indicate that no SVHC/CMR restricted substances are intentionally included in Zeus-supplied polyimide products at levels above the 0.1% threshold outlined by REACH and EU MDR.