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The high-heat resins required to withstand autoclaving, such as polysulfone (PSU), have their own set of process considerations. These materials are more difficult — and therefore costlier — to work with, mainly due to their higher melting points, which complicates everything from safety compliance to the molding process.

As medical device design evolves to provide ever-improving healthcare outcomes, manufacturers are partnering with full-service, experienced complex injection molders to gain the increased design freedom and process efficiencies necessary to keep pace with medical device advances. This partnership is a consistent value-add, from part and tooling design through material selection and process control, empowering many medical OEMs to address issues before they hit production or the bottom line.

For instance, PSU has a melting point of 700°F, versus 500°F to 550°F for typical resins. These higher demands mean higher risks for both safety and deviation. Since the tooling itself can reach 325°F (as compared to 180°F for a water-heated tool) it is subject to higher levels of thermal expansion, which adds complexity to the overall tooling design process.

I didn’t know plastic injection molding has a huge part in the medical industry. I’ve always thought that molding companies only produce plastic products that we use daily. Got some new knowledge here. As a medical student, its important for us to know where our tools come from.

With careful planning, complex injection molding can reduce costs, optimize functionality and improve aesthetics in medical devices.

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Outwater Industries offers a wide variety of color plastic angle mouldings. These corner trim mouldings are manufactured from high quality Styrene and PVC that provide many benefits. Styrene is cost effective and great for color matching, while PVC has a high impact strength and features resistance to chemical abrasion. These multifunctional color plastic angle corner moldings will stand up to high levels of everyday wear and tear and come in 60 and 90 degree angles. These specialty right angle mouldings also have a few styles that are available in both flexible and rigid forms. The flexible mouldings allow for curved installations on walls and other areas. These colored plastic moldings have a wide range of applications, including:

Injection molding gives medical OEMs the latitude to integrate disparate materials — from dissimilar polymers to lenses, fastener threading, metal components and other non-plastics — to facilitate assembly, optimize functionality and increase durability.

Ideally, choosing materials for the injection-molded part is a collaboration between the plastics engineer and the OEM to clearly define the project’s requirements and reach a mutual understanding of five defining factors:

Complex injection molding can provide a medical device and equipment manufacturer with competitive differentiation in the progressive medical industry. Moreover, choosing to work with an experienced, full-service molder gives OEMs increased design freedom and process efficiencies that result in high-quality parts and devices that perform with optimum efficiency and at lower total production costs.

Many of the crucial decisions involved in complex injection molding should be made as early as possible in the design phase and with molder input. At this stage, adjustments have a reduced effect on the total cost and product timeline. When engineers are mindful of medical component design, tooling functionality and materials at the project outset, they can generally prevent missteps in three key areas:

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Outwater Industries offers a wide variety of color plastic angle mouldings. These corner trim mouldings are manufactured from high quality Styrene and PVC that provide many benefits. Styrene is cost effective and great for color matching, while PV...

Ken Glassen is VP of engineering at Kaysun Corp. (Manitowoc, Wis.) — a provider of custom injection molding and engineering services. Glassen shares and applies his technical plastics engineering expertise to help OEMs in a variety of industries including medical, automotive and defense develop complex injection molding solutions.

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Tooling development is at the heart of the injection molding process, the step from which everything else flows. The ultimate success of the part begins at the point when the engineering team selects the metal from which a tool is made, based on certain process criteria, including:

A robot picks up threaded metal inserts and metal spacers that will be placed in the injection mold tooling. Plastic will then be molded over the various inserts. [Image courtesy of Kaysun]

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

All plastic angle mouldings are stocked in Outwater's East and West Coast facilities, making delivery and shipping faster and more convenient for every customer. Our in-house engineering allows for the production of custom extrusions to meet our customer's needs. If you're having difficulty finding the plastic extrusion profile you need, please contact our sales department.

Due to the unique nature of medical environments, it’s not uncommon for medical applications to have additional considerations that factor into materials selection, such as: