Guill Tool, a leading supplier of extrusion tooling to the global marketplace, has announced the introduction of the most advanced line of extrusion tooling available in the medical industry today.

The new MediFlow™ system is capable of producing tubing finer than a single human hair – the next generation of medical tubing extrusion technology — with minimum tolerances of just 0.002” (0.0508 mm). The new head and inline dies of the MediFlow system are specifically engineered for the tiniest applications required by today’s medical applications — including the latest minimally invasive arthroscopic surgical procedures.

The new system is the latest evolutionary development in Guill’s ongoing R&D for medical tooling. Over the past several years, Guill has also introduced the FlexiSpiral™ and the MicroMini™ series — both forerunners of the MediFlow™ series in meeting the ever-smaller requirements of advancing technology.

“Our new design combines the most advanced tight-tolerance tube extrusion technology, representing the culmination of years of intensive R&D at Guill, and includes some of the best features and benefits Guill has to offer,” said Bill Conley, Guill Tool’s Sales Manager. “It is the best choice to produce the most accurate medical tubing for the complex medical devices with ever-tighter tolerance requirements.”

As part of its ability to deliver these tiny tolerances with extreme consistency and accuracy, the new tooling provides a host of features and benefits that pull together in one product. These include:

Optimised deflectors. The head’s deflectors are optimised for minimum residence time and pressures. The compactness of the deflectors along with a short axial length, are the main contributors.

Patented spiral design for upstream thermal balancing. The patented face spiral design aids in thermally balancing the melt far upstream, so the velocities flow equally for the maximum possible length. This spiral design results in the extremely close tolerance, thin-wall, multi-layer products that the head can produce.

Split or patent-pending single flow. The passage flow in the body can be either a split flow or Guill’s new patent-pending single-flow feed.

Patented FeatherTouch design for easy concentricity adjustment. Guill’s patented FeatherTouch die adjustment without choking off the upstream flow as happens in conventional concentricity adjustments. Its adjustability is not compromised by the clamping forces necessary to create a proper seal as is often the case in other systems. Therefore, an increased safety factor can be achieved by adding more bolts.

Alignment on a common shaft. The new head’s alignment tool aligns all the deflectors and the FeatherTouch concentrically on a common shaft, eliminating tolerance stack-up, while reducing operator setup time. Tolerance stack-up occurs when tolerance inaccuracies on multiple components combine to yield much larger total tolerance errors.

Gumspace adjustment for optimum temperature control. A gumspace adjustment is also available — with or without the FeatherTouch capability. A recessed die nut enables a heater bank to heat the full length of the die for optimum temperature control.

Optional cartridge or band heaters. Cartridge or band heaters are available as an option for the main die body.

Saving costs and time in tip replacement. Two adjustable hypo-tube tip styles enable time and cost savings in replacing worn-out system parts. In the event that a tip is damaged or slightly bent, it is only necessary to replace an insert rather than the entire tip. In this case, replacement takes about a minute. A single component tip is also available.