Surface Engineering In Medical Technology

From DLC to plasma and beyond

New materials and technological advances continue to proliferate in the medtech industry at a rapid rate, and suppliers strive to offer innovative solutions to meet the demands of increasingly complex components and devices. A wide range of specialized materials are used today, and many of those materials are suitable for the intended finished use only after the application of a customized surface treatment. These treatments can result in reduced friction, improvement of haptic properties, the introduction of chemical functionalities, and improved medium resistance of the materials. To meet this growing demand, Helix Medical utilizes traditional coating methods like wet chemicals and state-of-the-art methods such as plasma treatments in order to alter the surface properties of medical components.

Surface modifications allow a variety of unique customer needs to be addressed. For example, color coating is a surface modification that enables control of the base materials’ transparency and optical properties. A plasma treatment is another option that will reduce friction; silicone itself has a high friction coefficient, and a plasma treatment will modify its friction properties. This can improve silicone’s manufacturability (particularly in automated assembly lines) and its ability to be used in low-friction applications where gliding is necessary — such as with endoscopic catheters and the internal coating of flexible tubes used in cardiac pacemakers.