Microextrusion for Medical Catheter Packaging

Medical microcatheters require precise dimensional control and material properties to navigate vessels as small as 0.5mm while maintaining structural integrity under pressure. Manufacturing these devices demands extrusion tolerances within ±0.0127mm and careful management of material transitions, particularly in multi-layer designs where braided reinforcements must integrate seamlessly with inner liners and outer jackets.

The fundamental challenge lies in achieving the opposing requirements of flexibility for navigation and structural integrity for pressure resistance and torque transmission.

This page brings together solutions from recent research—including co-extrusion techniques for graduated hardness transitions, micro-cutting methods for flexibility control, heat-shrink processing for reinforcement integration, and real-time dimensional monitoring systems. These and other approaches focus on manufacturing processes that can consistently produce catheters meeting both mechanical and safety requirements.