Medical Devices Wetting and Contaminants

The interaction between medical device manufactured parts with the fluids they are designed to come into contact with is crucial to their correct operation and / or their acceptance within the body they are placed. The inappropriate wetting of the electrode contained within a test kit (blood / urine) or a stent (within a vein) could result in false indication or a critical failure. These are best physically evaluated by combinations of XPS or SIMS surface chemical and contact angle techniques allowing manufacturing process recommendations to be made to improve wetting.

Localised stains and particulate contamination can be analysed, tracked to root cause and eliminated by combinations of optical microscopy, SEM/EDX and FTIR depending on the type of contaminant. 

Further examples of support available to the Medical Device industry is listed below:-

• Surface Treatment, Interface and Coating Analysis for implant biocompatibility, passivity or other functionality.
• Medical Device Premature Product Failure and Lifetime Issues, Product and Process Variations, Manufacturing Scale up Issues, Competitor benchmarking.