Once again, I find myself wandering the many halls of the Medica and CompaMed trade events. Between checking out the latest and greatest from the medtech elite, discovering new firms displaying their first products at the show, or catching up with those I’ve met before, I took a moment to reach out to representatives at several companies exhibiting at the medical device gathering this year. Hopefully, these questions provide useful information for anyone unable to meet with them at the event or those who are not headed to Germany this year. With that in mind, Andreas Schmiedel, technical manager healthcare and medical Europe at Trelleborg Healthcare & Medical, shared the following insights to help you determine if the firm is a potential services partner for you in 2020 or beyond.
 
Sean Fenske: What technology or service are you emphasizing at Medica/CompaMed this year?
Andreas Schmiedel: Trelleborg is highlighting its engineering and material expertise by showcasing a broad range of our advanced technologies. These include GeoTrans geometric transition extrusion technology. Manufactured in high consistency rubber (HCR) silicone, this process reduces total cost of ownership for the original equipment manufacturer, while improving part quality and greatly enhancing medical devices.
 
Alongside this technology will be our medical silicone tubes for long-term implants. Due to their biocompatibility and physical resistance, they play an important role in medical applications, both as conduits to transport liquid or as insulators for cables and sensors. The products must meet high precision, control and process stability demands, and also be implantable for up to several years. All long-term implantable silicone products are processed in cleanroom environments.
 
Also on display is sheeting that is combined with active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to demonstrate our drug-eluting capabilities. This is a very specialized area of polymer technology that requires an understanding of the interactions of materials, the manufacturing environment, and the customer’s application.
 
Global medical molding will be a focus as well. We’re a world leader in precision liquid silicone rubber (LSR) and two-component (2C) molding processes. Trelleborg supports its customers in the creation of complex geometries, including multi-component parts, and continually focuses on eliminating the need for secondary component assembly.
 
We partner with our customers from the initial design phase and prototyping through to supplying the product and bringing medical devices to market. That also includes assembly of components as well as finished medical devices.
 
Fenske: What’s the most common challenge customers inquire about and how do you address it?
Schmiedel: There are three main inquiries we hear: 1) Balancing cost and quality, 2) Engineering and material expertise and 3) Speed (to market). Trelleborg helps customers address all of these inquiries because we provide a one-stop-shop from prototyping to serial production. We, therefore, understand how to design a prototype (from the beginning) to ensure it can be manufactured globally in large quantities. We leverage our engineers’ decades of experience, our finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities, our understanding of regulatory requirements (such as MDR and ISO 10993), and our state of the art facilities and processes to help our customers bring new products to market faster and ensure once the product is in the market, it can be produced with the highest quality—consistently and reliably.
 
Fenske: If you could give one piece of advice to companies seeking a manufacturing partner before they make a decision, what would it be?
Schmiedel: View us as an extension of your project team and contact us during the design and development stages. It’s important to focus on carefully balancing cost and quality, and to consider the total lifecycle cost. If our experts are involved early, they can provide solutions for complex components to lower the overall cost of ownership, for instance, by helping design a component without parts that require assembly or by considering regulatory requirements as part of the project plan.
 
Fenske: What are the forces driving medical device manufacturers to seek your technology/services over doing it in-house?
Schmiedel: Medical device manufacturers know how the product will be used and how it must function in its intended environment. They approach Trelleborg for its engineering and material expertise. This expertise helps our customers select the right materials and ensures designs that can be reliably and consistently manufactured.
 
We are a one-stop-shop for design, development, prototyping, and serial production, as well as additional processes like slitting, printing, cleaning, sterilization, packaging, and assembly.
 
Fenske: In what ways is your company able to aid in getting a product (project) to market faster?
Schmiedel: We support in design, development, project management according to ISO 13485, prototyping, and serial production. Regulatory requirements are at the front of mind over all steps. This is important, as failing to consider an important regulatory aspect during development can substantially add development time and cost to a project. In the end, we understand the importance of getting a product to market faster and do whatever we can to help achieve this goal without sacrificing the long-term manufacturability of the product.
 
Trelleborg Healthcare & Medical is located at Medica/Compamed in Hall 8A, Booth/Stand F02.