junkosha Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Junkosha names new US leadership

Joe Rowan is retiring as CEO and president of Junkosha USA. [Photo courtesy of Junkosha]

Japanese fluoropolymer supplier Junkosha today announced new leadership for its U.S. subsidiary.

Joe Rowan has retired as CEO and president of Junkosha USA but will remain as an advisor as Mike Winterling takes over as chief operating officer.

“Our aim is to be acknowledged as the most responsive partner for specialized high-performance polymer solutions; to be organizations’ No. 1 partner by meeting their unmet needs and ultimately being easy to do business with,” Junkosha CEO and President Mamoru Sogo said in a news release. “This is what we have always strived to do and will further expand our global presence into the future with Mike as he takes over from Joe as part of our succession plan.”

Rowan founded Irvine, California-based Junkosha USA, which sells fluoropolymer-based medical components …

Junkosha plans new medical plant by 2025 as expansion strategy accelerates

NEWS RELEASE: Junkosha Plans New Medical Plant by 2025 as Expansion Strategy Accelerates

A Junkosha associate assessing product [Photo courtesy of Junkosha]

Japanese fluoropolymer manufacturer Junkosha, best known for its peelable FEP Heat Shrink Tubing and PTFE Liners, is staying true to its word by actively expanding capacity across its interventional medical component manufacturing sites. The company has announced the building of a new facility in Kasama, Japan, planned for 2025. Junkosha’s target is to implement a four times growth across the PTFE Liner products and three times growth across its peelable FEP Heat Shrink Tubing portfolio. An announcement to meet customer needs was made last year and the ramping up of capacity is now underway with onboarding in February. The rollout of new equipment will continue over the next 18 months until capacity goals have been hit.

As a sector, medical technology is no…

Junkosha honors Creo Medical CTO as the winner of its its Technology Innovator of the Year Awards

Junkosha announced today that it is awarding Creo Medical founder and CTO Chris Hancock with a $25,000 prize as the winner of its inaugural Technology Innovator of the Year Awards.

The U.K.-based company has created an advanced energy multimodality instrument developed for flexible endoscopy. According to Junkosha, Creo Medical’s technology combines the benefits of bipolar RF and super high-frequency microwave energy to provide the ability to dissect, resect, coagulate and inject in a single device — producing results that could reduce cancer recurrence.

“Chris’ breakthrough technology holds the potential to transform the point of treatments for a range of cancers. Overall, Chris’ achievement is one we can use as a yardstick to measure others in future years,” said Joe Rowan, Junkosha’s president and CEO in the U.S. and Europe.

Said Junkosha CEO Mamoru Sogo: “We believe that enabling innovators, like Creo Medical, is central to th…

Junkosha boosts production of PTFE liners and FEP-based heat shrink

Junkosha announced today that it plans to double production capacity to meet shortages of PTFE liners and FEP-based heat shrink for catheter manufacturers.

Both OEMs and contract manufacturers in the catheter space are stressed from shortages in the global supply of vital components, according to the Japanese maker of sophisticated fluoropolymer application technologies.

“We believe this capacity expansion will help secure the supply of increased orders from existing customers and many new ones,” said Joe Rowan, president and CEO of Junkosha’s U.S. and Europe operations.

“We will see incremental increases in capacity in early 2022 with a larger impact in the second half of 2022. We are not only targeting our core business of smaller neurovascular and cardiovascular applications but also larger size vessel opportunities such as structural heart.”

Kazuhiko Arai, director of operations of the Junkosha Group, said the com…

Junkosha touts cable product innovations to enable ‘intelligent’ catheters

Junkosha Multi-Filar Cable (left) and Junkosha Multi-Channel Transmission Cable (MCT) (right) [Images courtesy of Junkosha]

Junkosha officials think the company’s Junkosha Multi-Filar Cable and Junkosha Multi-Channel Transmission Cable (MCT) could bring the medical device industry closer to “intelligent” catheters.

The increasingly sophisticated catheters — small and flexible — can better send diagnostic signals into the body or provide therapy, according to Mike Winterling, VP of business development at Junkosha USA. (Winterling wrote a description of the products for Medical Tubing + Extrusion and Medical Design & Outsourcing.)

“Solutions such as the Junkosha Multi-Filar Cable and Junkosha Multi-Channel Transmission Cable (MCT) represent a breakthrough in the design of medical device cables that take us one step closer on the journey to the next generation of these important devices,” Winterling sa…