Best Practices - small volume medical device tube cutting (0.020" to 0.080" OD)?

Z

zenbot01

Registered
Question on small volume medical device tube cutting (0.020" to 0.080" OD).

What are Best Practices for medical device tube cutting at very small volumes i.e. < 100 parts (soft, flexible, various lengths from 0.5mm - 100 cm with tight tolerances +/-0.1mm, and durometer).

What is the best way / practice to cut typical medical device tubing that people have found?
Currently, we are doing cuts by hand with a very sharp razor blade. It's "Ok" for now but we want more precision, repeatability, and less effort. We have a hard time avoiding "Fish mouth" on the ends of the cut. We don't want to go to an outside vendor since our volumes are so low. I am thinking of a simple cutting fixture to do this.

Some thoughts I had:
Make a fixture a "roll cutter". Tubing would roll as blade cuts it. Might have issues with spiraling.
Use Teflon Beading to support tubing to be open during the cut? (we would have to pull / push the beading out of each piece).
Mount a razor blade on a conventional linear slide to move the blade across the tube.
Capture the tubing on both sides of the blade.
 
Ronen E

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Moderator
I don't have an answer but I would look in issued patents. You might find something useful where the patent is already expired.
I wouldn't limit my initial search to medical.
 
somashekar

somashekar

Leader
Admin
zenbot01 said:
Question on small volume medical device tube cutting (0.020" to 0.080" OD).

What are Best Practices for medical device tube cutting at very small volumes i.e. < 100 parts (soft, flexible, various lengths from 0.5mm - 100 cm with tight tolerances +/-0.1mm, and durometer).

What is the best way / practice to cut typical medical device tubing that people have found?
Currently, we are doing cuts by hand with a very sharp razor blade. It's "Ok" for now but we want more precision, repeatability, and less effort. We have a hard time avoiding "Fish mouth" on the ends of the cut. We don't want to go to an outside vendor since our volumes are so low. I am thinking of a simple cutting fixture to do this.

Some thoughts I had:
Make a fixture a "roll cutter". Tubing would roll as blade cuts it. Might have issues with spiraling.
Use Teflon Beading to support tubing to be open during the cut? (we would have to pull / push the beading out of each piece).
Mount a razor blade on a conventional linear slide to move the blade across the tube.
Capture the tubing on both sides of the blade.
Click to expand...
Try using smooth Teflon or Nylon rollers to draw tube to the required length.
Have a lock down clamp of Tefon or Nylon to hold the tube and have a moving sharp knife to cut (like a photo cutting table top frame)
A adjustable guide to move the tube straight from the rollers.
The roller rotation controls the length, the clamp down gives the support, the tube is nor pulled or stretched.
Have the cutting knife as close to the lock down clamp as practically possible.
The tube squeezing due the the roller and clamp down will eventually not change the round shape of the tube as the compression is for a short time. Experiment settings to get desired results.
 
Z

zenbot01

Registered
I was thinking more in terms of manual tube cutting fixtures with length controls. I know there are many machines that are capable of cutting tubing using very precise rollers and advancement control.

We came up with this pretty simplified manual tubing cutter. Our tubing runs between 40-80D hardness. Dimensions are between .025" -.080" OD with about .002-.004" wall thickness. We're using those premium razor blades for safety razors.

Any feedback? Green part is a ruler. Purple is a swappable cartridge for different size tubing.
 

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