Tooling Design for Tubing

Tubing is used in many industries for the transport of fluids. One of the more interesting applications is heat shrinkable tubing, which is made by extrusion, followed by crosslinking and expansion. Another important use is in the medical industry as catheter tubing. One of the more sophisticated medical devices based on polymeric tubing is the balloon catheter used for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. 

The requirements for medical tubing with respect to dimensional tolerances and overall quality are stricter than almost any other application. This, coupled with the small tubing sizes typically produced, presents major challenges to the producers of medical tubing. The requirements are often so severe that off-the-shelf extrusion equipment may not do the job well enough. As a result, a number of producers of medical tubing have developed some of their own machinery. 

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