TALL CABINET OVEN WITH CART AND DOLLY FOR ANNEALING CATHETERS

A medical device manufacturer needed and oven for annealing catheter tubes. The extrusion process causes stresses to the catheter tube material that needs to be stabilized. The long tubes require annealing (or conditioning) at 175°F for 30 to 60 minutes. Thermal processing steps are also used to turn the opacity of the amorphous outer layer crystal clear and to stabilize tensile and elongation of balloon tubes.

Polyurethane tubes have a tackiness that requires them to hang without touching each other, and due to the length, there was no good solutions for this process in the market. The customer suggested an oven Ideal would be tall with a small footprint and vertical down airflow to avoid tubes swaying in cross wind. The oven needed to be versatile enough to meet the requirements of a wide variety of catheters including; 4-5 ft multi-lumen tubes with up to 1.5-inch outside diameter, neuromodulation devices, pick lines, drug delivery and crossing catheters with braided substrates.

The Despatch PRC2-63 was designed specifically to address the unique requirements of this and other catheter manufacturers. The oven can accommodate catheters up to 80 inches long inside the chamber and features a stainless-steel interior for easy cleaning. It has an operating range of 105 °F to 500 °F and a vertical up airflow to achieve consistent temperature uniformity throughout the work chamber. A truck and dolly system with a rack for hanging catheters was also purchased by this customer. The stainless-steel truck was specifically designed for hanging catheters and includes rails on the top with pins on a grid of 4-inch centers and clear height of 80 inches below the pins to hang catheters on and includes high temperature wheels. The dolly is used for transporting oven trucks loaded with catheters. The casters have a brake and a locking pin to prevent movement while loading an oven truck into and out of the oven.

This oven is now available as a standard offering in the Despatch line.