Centreless Grinding
Precision Mandrels, Wires and Tube Components for Medical Devices
Our Royal Master centreless grinding facility makes mandrels and other precision wire products as small as 0.012” diameter (.30mm diameter) x 3 metres long. Stainless steel and nitinol wires can be straight ground, tapered or step ground. Stainless and nitinol hypotubes with sufficient wall thickness can also be centreless ground. Tolerances as small as +/-0.0002” diameter are met and parts meet the straightness requirements for catheter manufacture.
We keep an inventory of spooled wire in the most common grades of 304 and 304V grade stainless steel wire and nitinol. For stainless steel wire, our precision straightening, cutting and deburring facility is used to produce a straight, spring hard wire, which is then either used in “as drawn” condition, coated with PTFE or parylene, or alternatively is centreless ground to produce a surface of impeccable quality and very close tolerance diameter. PTFE coating or parylene coating of our wires induces greater lubricity, allowing release of catheters after manufacture.
Wire of impeccable straightness, surface quality and adherence to diameter required allows catheter production, using Pebax or other liner material, to proceed efficiently with excellent subsequent release of the finished multilayer catheter.
Our mandrels are also used to check and ensure consistent inside diameters along long lengths of polymer or stainless steel tubing. Core pins for moulding and precision miniature shafts also require the precision tolerances resulting from our centreless grinder.
