Johnson Matthey Medical has announced today (8th December) that it will be expanding its precious metal tubing capacity as demand for its products continues to rise.

Platinum is playing an increasingly important role in medical implant devices, such as ring electrodes for electrophysiology catheters, shocking electrodes for defibrillator leads and radiopaque markers for catheters.

With that in mind, the medical device contract manufacturer is looking to ramp up production as it reacts to the expected ten per cent growth in the market to over $300 billion in 2008.

Dave Vincent, the firm's Director of Business Development, said: "In order to meet that demand, we have added new drawbenches to be used in the manufacture of small diameter medical tubing and increased our equipment capacity for tubing in the range of .020" to .100" OD, with wall thickness .001" to .010" by 50 per cent."

Mr Vincent added that the new lines - which occupy around 1,000 sq ft at the company's West Chester facility in Pennsylvania - reached full operation at the end of last month.

The increase in usage of platinum and its alloys for medical devices can be explained by their high melting points, fine electrical conductivity, biocompatibility and their ability to resist corrosion.

Source:

Johnson Matthey Medical Announces Expansion (08/12/08)
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1701924.htm