MD&M West 2022: KYOCERA Unveils Low-Resistivity Zirconia Needle

Kyocera Corporation is unveiling its new low-resistivity zirconia needle this week at the MD&M West Medical Expo in Anaheim, Calif., an annual convention for medical product designers and manufacturers. Kyocera’s ceramics, developed over the last 60-plus years, provide a highly durable, long-lasting, non-reactive material to help improve everything from surgical tools and hip implants to kidney dialysis and CT Scan machines. 
 
Kyocera’s durable, 100 percent inert and reusable low-resistivity zirconia needles offer highly accurate liquid level sensing for the latest in-vitro diagnostics and flow cytometry, maximizing high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipment. The new low-resistivity zirconia needle offers excellent mechanical strength, chemical and wear resistance with low friction for a longer useful life compared to stainless steel. Its thinner wall thickness and small precise hole (0.1 to 2.5 (+/-0.002) mm) with precise ID, less carry over, and smaller inner surface roughness (Ra0.05μm~) help ensure dimensional accuracy for in-vitro procedures including hemostatis, urinalysis, immunoassay analyzers, clinical chemistry analysis, and molecular diagnostics. 
 
Kyocera continues its ceramic additive manufacturing customized 3D printing service for cost-effective prototypes of new medical device designs. The company’s engineers consult on each new project and devise the most cost-effective method for a 3D printed prototype of new medical device designs. With that consultation and 3D printing using zirconia and alumina, Kyocera can produce virtually any kind of customized prototype in one to two weeks. Kyocera’s ceramics offer scratch resistance, higher rigidity, temperature resistance, longer lifetime, high-voltage insulation, lighter weight, and superior thermal management, providing an overall lower cost of ownership. 3D capabilities include:
 

• Shapes: curved, square, angled, sharp edges, angled holes, negative draft, threads, textures, tiny holes
• Materials: Zirconia, Alumina
• Size: 200 x 105 x 40 mm
• Tolerance: +/-0.050 mm (as-fired)
• Wall Thickness: 0.25 – 10 mm
• Interlocking assembly
• Smooth surface

Kyocera’s Fine Ceramics can be found in solutions for kidney dialysis machines; radiation therapy machines for cancer treatment; genetic sequencing; blood separators; X-ray machines, PET, MRI and CT Scan machines; pacemakers and cardiac monitors; neuromodulation devices and RF surgical instruments; drug testing and orthopedic joint replacement systems. 
 
Kyocera Corporation, the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as advanced ceramics). In the year ended March 31, 2021, the company’s consolidated sales revenue totaled 1.5 trillion yen (approximately $13.8 billion). Kyocera is ranked No. 603 on Forbes magazine’s 2021 “Global 2000” list of the world’s largest publicly traded companies, and has appeared on The Wall Street Journal’s list of “The World’s 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies.”