TE Connectivity has moved an automated 3D printing process into production for catheter shafts, replacing a higher-cost, predominantly manual assembly method common across the industry, giving device manufacturers a faster, more consistent route to complex catheter constructions impractical to build by hand.

The process was developed by the Advanced Technology Group within TE's Medical business at the PROPELUS Prototype Center in Galway, and applies polymer jacket sections with differing flexibility directly onto the catheter shaft during production, rather than building them up by hand.

TE said the resulting shafts retain the same mechanical properties, materials and aesthetics as conventionally manufactured versions, while the automated route is faster and more consistent; the company is positioning the technique as a way for manufacturers to move through design iterations more quickly.

TE Connectivity, an Irish public limited company registered in Dublin with its Medical Business Unit headquartered in Galway, designs and manufactures connectors and sensors across automotive, aerospace, medical and industrial markets; its Galway site fulfils close to the complete global demand for minimally invasive catheter metal shafts.

Pat Duane, senior vice president and general manager of the Medical Business at TE Connectivity, said the work reflects continued focus on advancing manufacturing innovation to help customers develop increasingly sophisticated devices. Bernard McDermott, medical engineering fellow at TE Connectivity, said the process, combined with other processes in development, would result in a paradigm shift in catheter manufacturing, with potential to reduce product costs and simplify supply chains.

The shift reflects a wider push among medical device manufacturers to automate previously hand-built catheter constructions, reducing cost variability and improving consistency as device complexity and volumes rise.

The development reinforces Galway's position within Ireland's medtech manufacturing base, a sector generating around €16bn in annual exports, where Irish sites already produce an estimated 80 per cent of the world's stents.

For the sector, moving jacketing from manual assembly to automated 3D printing removes a longstanding production bottleneck that has constrained capacity as minimally invasive device volumes grow faster than skilled manual labour supply.

The wider signal for the sector is that additive manufacturing is moving beyond prototyping and tooling into core, high-volume production steps for complex medical devices, rather than remaining a development-stage capability alone.

Source: VoxelMatters / TE Connectivity / Medtech Ireland