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.
Your Partner for Catheter Components
High-Performance Catheter Extrusions
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 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:
Forming & Support Mandrels:
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.
Catheter Liners:
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.
Bonding & Adhesion:
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.
Braiding, Coiling, & Reinforcement:
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.
Jacketing:
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 Reflow & Assembly Aids:
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.