Medical
Fine Tubes offers a range of high quality metal tubes in stainless steel and titanium alloys, designed to meet the unique requirements of customers in the medical device industry. Surgeons, dentists, nurses and their patients equally rely on the performance of our tubes – frequently in life-and-death circumstances.
You’ll find our medical tubes used in implants, surgical and dental instruments such as biopsy needles, coronary stents, endoscopy equipment, Marknagel, cannulas, spinal cages and trauma nails. We know that engineers designing these products need excellent strength to weight ratios. The highest levels in microbiological corrosion resistance and fatigue life are also critical. Consequently, we don’t just set out to meet industry standards for tubular medical pre-materials, we aim to exceed them.
We have the flexibility to produce precision thick wall or thin wall tubes in seamless, welded and redrawn forms. Fine Tubes’ high levels of ID and OD surface finish, tolerance and ovality controls yield precision tubes at competitive prices versus alternative gun drilled products. Meanwhile, our cold drawn seamless tubes offer the added benefit of extremely high consistency, and can be supplied in 10ft (3m) lengths optimized to work efficiently with bar feed set-ups.
Applications
- Trauma and orthopedic implants
- Trauma nails and screws
- Lag screws
- Spinal cages and screws
- Dental implants
- Coronary Stents
- Peripheral Stents
- Endoscopy equipment and instruments
- Biopsy needles
- Cannulas
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Product information
The size range for Fine Tubes medical tubes is based upon manufacture of cold drawn tubing in the range from 0.30 mm (0.012") to 50.8 mm (2") OD. Tolerances: OD & ID up to 0.0127 mm (0.0005") are achievable.
Trauma and orthopedic implants
- Tubes for trauma nails and screws
- Tubes for micro implant screws
Material used: Cannulated bar in Titanium 6Al/4V super ELI, 316LVM, 22-13-5 (Nitronic 50), Rex 734
Typical Dimensions (OD x ID):
- 16 x 5mm
- 14 x 5mm
- 13 x 4mm
- 13 x 2.7mm
- 12 x 5mm
- 12 x 3.5mm
- 11 x 3.5mm
- 11 x 3.8mm
- 5 x 2.15mm
Stents
- Tubes for coronary stents
- Tubes for peripheral stents
- Tubes for other stent applications (biliary/urological).
Material used: Cobalt chrome (L605 and MP35N), 316 LVM
Spinal
- Tubes for spinal cages
- Tubes for spinal screws
Material used: Pure titanium (Grade 2), titanium 6Al/4V
Dental
- Tubes for dental surgery instruments
- Tubes for dental implants
Material used: Titanium 3Al 2.5V, Titanium 6Al 4V, Pure titanium (Grade 2)
Endoscopy
- Tubes for endoscopy equipment and instruments
Material used: 304, 316L
Cannulas
- Tubes for biopsy and core biopsy needles
- Tubes for MRI cannulas
- Tube for bone injection cannulas
- Tubes for drug infusion.
Material used: Titanium (Grade 9 and Grade 2)
Integrity Assurance
The process of control within Fine Tubes is critical in respect of consistently achieving the highest level of specification requirements.
Reduction control through pilgering and drawing is specific to each product dimension and specification requirements. This is the driver for tolerance control, OD and ID surface finish control, inclusion levels and final grain size.
ID surface finish is further refined by passivation, polishing or electro polishing processes. OD surfaces are finished down to 0.1μm (0.25μ"), ID down to 0.2μm (0.5μ"). Grain size is based upon ASTM E112. Our process capability delivers precise control of product dimensions - typically h8 for OD control and with ID surface finish to a smoothness of 0.2microns achieved by electro polishing.
Typical Manufacturing Standards
- DIN 17449 W-Nr 1.4401
- ASTM F136 1996 Ti6/4 ELI
- ASTM F138-00 316L/316LVM
- ASTM F1314 1995 22Cr-13Ni-5Mn
- ASTM F2063-00 - NiTi Shape Memory Alloys
- 21Cr 10Ni 3Mn 2.5 Mo
- ISO 5832-11 1994 BS7252: Part 11 - Ti 6Al 7Nb
- ISO 5832-1 1997 Analysis D BS7252: Part 1
- ISO 5832-9 1993 BS7252: Part 9
- ISO DIN 25832-1 (Implants for surgery – seamless tubes for surgical implants - materials based on iron)
ID surface finish: Refined by centre less grinding and/ or ID electropolishing to achieve 0.2 μm (0.5 μ”)
ID defect levels: UT tested to levels down to 20 microns (0.02mm / 0.0008”)
Fatigue life: Control of texture combined with extra low levels of interstitial impurities leads to higher fatigue performance than equivalent drilled bars.
Tolerances: In-house control to ISO 286-2 h8
| Outside Diameter | Tolerance +0/- | |
|---|---|---|
| mm | inches | |
| 6-10 mm | 0.022 | 0.00086 |
| >10-18 mm | 0.027 | 0.00011 |
| >18-30 mm | 0.033 | 0.0013 |
ID/OD ratio: Our tube production can be controlled over full length to maintain small ID’s from 0.3 to 0.15 of OD
|
ISO5832-1 'D' 316LVM Type of Inclusion |
Thin Required (Typical) |
Thick Required (Typical) |
|---|---|---|
| A - Sulphides | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| B - Aluminates | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| C - Silicates | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| D - Globular Oxides | 1.5 (0.5) | 1 (0) |
|
ASTM F1314 22-13-5 Type of Inclusion |
Thin Required (Typical) |
Thick Required (Typical) |
|---|---|---|
| A - Sulphides | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| B - Aluminates | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| C - Silicates | 1.5 (0) | 1 (0) |
| D - Globular Oxides | 1.5 (1.0) | 1 (0) |