Tubing is pervasive throughout healthcare and an essential component for medical devices across all care environments, from the doctor’s office to hospitals to assisted living facilities. As such, there are plenty of types, styles, and materials associated with it. This results in the need for very specific information when developing a device that requires it.

While tubing is often thought of as made of plastic, there are critical areas where metal tubing is required, offering benefits not realized otherwise. Among the material options is Nitinol, which may be provided as hypotubing or precision tubing. Depending on the application, the best option needs to be specified, and the variables for that choice need to be clarified.

Since Nitinol tubing can be challenging to work with, it’s important to collaborate with a supplier that understands how to best manipulate it to gain the greatest benefits from its properties. Fortunately, Chris Ford, VP of Operations, Materials, at Confluent Medical Technologies, answered a series of questions around the use of the material for medical device tubing in the following Q&A.

Sean Fenske: What is hypotubing? When developed in Nitinol, what are the medical device/healthcare applications for it?

Chris Ford: Hypotubing, short for hypodermic tubing, is a thin-walled, precision metal tube originally developed for hypodermic needles. It’s widely used in medical devices and other commercial applications because of its…