Nitinol for Medical Devices

Nitinol in action: illustration of MicroVention Woven EndoBridge placed in an aneurysm using a catheter (image credit: MicroVention)

As medtech companies around the world compete to create devices which help to transform the lives of patients living with disease, injury and other medical conditions, so too comes the rise of novel manufacturing materials – including the “shape memory” alloy known as nitinol.

That same shape memory and super-elasticity that makes nitinol so attractive to medical device manufacturers can also be the source of great challenge.

This article from Medical Design & Outsourcing breaks down the various ways nitinol forms are made for use in medical devices, such as:

• Wires: a lubricated nitinol rod is pulled through diamond-coated drawing dies with a processor, to stretch and shape the material according to design dimensions – thinner than a human hair, if desired! One use is to help reinforce catheters, using dozens of nitinol wires braided together.
• Coils: similarly to wires, a nitinol rod is spooled using a processor to form one long continuous wire.
• Tubes: a cavity down the centre of a rod is drilled to produce a thick-walled tube, which can then be stretched and shaped. Tubing has a range of applications including for use with stents and catheters.
• Sheeting: Used in devices such as orthodontic brackets or bone staples, nitinol sheets are made by compressing plates through rolling mills to the preferred thickness, and then shaped or cut as desired.

Check out the full article via Medical Design & Outsourcing, together with a series of articles about the manufacturing journey of nitinol.