WINSTON-SALEM, NC—Cook Medical has announced plans to acquire an old cigarette factory here and convert it into a new medical device manufacturing plant.
Designing a medical device or consumer product can take a long time. Designing an automated assembly system for those products shouldn’t add any more. Starting with a standardized assembly platform can reduce engineering time and get the product to market faster.
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—A group of healthcare providers has filed a lawsuit against medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson (BD), accusing the company of monopolizing the U.S. safety syringe market and abusing its “extraordinary market power to require the use of oppressive, anti-competitive contracts that effectively force above-competitive prices on the market.”
Medical devices pose a special challenge to designers of parts feeding equipment. Parts for such devices can be tiny, sharp, clingy, floppy, tangly; or some combination of those properties.
Disposable devices are essential components of every medical, dental and veterinary practice. Using disposables lowers costs, increases efficiency, and reduces the spread of infection. According to market research firm The Freedonia Group, sales of medical disposables in just the U.S. are expected to top $49.3 billion this year.
Catheters, pacemakers, ventilators and dialysis filters are vastly different products. But, they all have one thing in common: they must be checked for leaks, whether into, or out of, an assembly.
Additive manufacturing is the hottest thing to hit the medical device industry since the first pacemaker was implanted in a patient 60 years ago. The technology has transformed the way that engineers design numerous products. Now, it’s starting to move beyond prototyping into production.
Bringing a medical device to market is a daunting prospect for even the largest manufacturers. There's nurturing a concept from prototype to finished product; determining how and where to manufacture it; conducting trials for safety and efficacy; and getting FDA approval.