nitinol Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Resonetics closes $900M nitinol deal and rebrands Memry and Smart Materials

Nitinol is used for a variety of medtech applications. [Photo via Adobe Stock]

Resonetics has closed on its $900 million acquisition of the SAES Getters medical nitinol business.

Nashua, New Hampshire-based Resonetics said it will rebrand Memry Corporation and SAES Smart Materials as Resonetics.

The Smart Materials business creates raw nitinol alloy from nickel and titanium and produces nitinol wires, bars, ribbons and sheets. The Memry business offers electric discharge machining, laser processing, centerless grinding, and nitinol tubing, sheet, and wire fabrication.

Those two companies have around 600 employees at facilities in Bethel, Connecticut, New Hartford, New York, and Menlo Park, California.

Nitinol has superelastic and shape memory properties that make it uniquely useful for a variety of medical applications. Medical device developers are finding new and improved ways to use nit…

FTC concludes antitrust investigation of $900M SAES-Resonetics nitinol deal

Nitinol is used for a variety of medtech applications. [Photo via Adobe Stock]

The Federal Trade Commission has closed its antitrust investigation into Resonetics’ planned $900 million purchase of the SAES Getters medical nitinol business.

Milan, Italy-based SAES said it and Resonetics “will define the timing to finalize the closing of the transaction” in the coming days and will provide further updates.

The company did not say whether the FTC will allow the sale without conditions, but it doesn’t sound like the agency or the Department of Justice will sue over the transaction. More information was not immediately available.

Nashua, New Hampshire-based Resonetics signed a binding agreement in January 2023 to buy the medical nitinol division from SAES, including U.S. subsidiaries Memry Corp. and SAES Smart Materials. The business supplies medical device manufacturers with ra…

Shunt device startup wants to break barriers in nitinol and heart sensing

Adona Medical is designing its adjustable heart shunt device with pressure sensors on both sides of the heart. [Illustration courtesy of Adona Medical]

Medical devices have yet to tap nitinol’s shape memory properties, but that’s just one breakthrough Adona Medical hopes to achieve with its adjustable, bi-atrial-sensing heart shunt.

Adona Medical co-founder and CEO Brian Fahey’s presentation on his shunt device startup’s aspirations elicited palpable interest from the cardiologists in the room at CSI Frankfurt.

“You plan to disrupt two fields in heart failure?” asked Dr. Daniel Burkhoff, the director of heart failure, hemodynamics and MCS research at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s Clinical Trials Center.

“We’re going to try,” Fahey replied. “Our plan is to improve patient care.”

Fahey has publicly said little abo…

After recall and relaunch, Medtronic wants to go global with its Harmony valve

Each Medtronic Harmony valve is sewn by hand to attach laser-cut pig tissue to the nitinol that makes this minimally invasive heart implant possible.

Medtronic’s Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV) is made of nitinol wire, polyester and laser-cut pig tissue, all sewn together by hand. [Photo courtesy of Medtronic]

Medtronic’s Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV) design is paying off after engineers solved a delivery catheter recall and relaunched the system this year.

The Harmony TPV uses pig tissue, shape-memory alloy nitinol and manufacturing techniques old and new to solve a special challenge for children and adults.

The catheter-placed Harmony valve offers a minimally invasive way to improve the flow of blood to the lungs and delay open-heart surgery for congenital heart disease. Congenital heart defects are present in about 40,000 babies born each year, making it the most …

Medical nitinol manufacturing: How this nickel-titanium alloy is made for medical devices

Titanium sponge (pictured) is a key ingredient for medical nitinol manufacturing. [Photo by Alexey Rezvykh via Adobe Stock]

Nitinol (NiTi) might be the hottest material in the medical device industry as manufacturers find new applications for this superelastic, shape-memory metal.

Nitinol — an alloy of nickel and titanium — takes a long, hot journey from the Earth’s crust to the deepest parts of the human anatomy. It starts with ore heaved from deep mines undergound or stripped from the soil and refined into titanium and nickel.

To make raw nitinol, suppliers melt pure titanium — in the form of sponge or top-shelf crystal bar — with pure nickel. They must be combined at a roughly 1:1 atomic ratio, which comes out to around 55% nickel and 45% titanium. A nitinol at that ratio would be referred to as nitinol 55.

To be used for medical devices, the resulting nitinol should meet standards set by…

How Medtronic uses nitinol to improve the structure and effectiveness of heart devices

Tim Laske is Medtronic’s VP of Research & Business Development, Cardiac Ablation Solutions. [Photo courtesy of Medtronic]

Tim Laske, VP of research and business development for Medtronic‘s cardiac ablation solutions business, discusses the challenges of designing devices for the heart and explores the properties of nitinol.

The heart is often one of the most underappreciated aspects of human anatomy, and its atrial appendages are often overlooked even in cardiac anatomy.

These delicate and astonishingly thin structures are challenges for medical device developers.

Some intricate structures within the heart are so thin that a business card can be read through them, said Tim Laske, VP of research and business development for the cardiac ablation solutions business at Medtronic. When observing the heart in a surgical space, it becomes evident that atrial appendages carry blood, emphasizing the ne…

Resonetics to buy SAES Medical nitinol business for $900M

Resonetics announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Memry Corp. and SAES Smart Materials from SAES Getters S.p.A, Milan, Italy.

The planned acquisition will expand Nashua, New Hampshire–based Resonetics’ nitinol raw material and component manufacturing capabilities.

The companies expect the $900 million deal to close this year. The transaction is subject to the receipt of regulatory clearances and approvals. In addition, there are other closing conditions, including the approval of the SAES Getters S.p.A. board of directors.

Both of the businesses that Resonetics is acquiring are U.S. based. They have 550 employees and operations in Bethel, Connecticut; New Hartford, New York; and Menlo Park, California.

The deal enables Resonetics to better serve a wide range of medtech

Nitinol is enabling technological advances in a range of therapeutic areas, such as structural heart, peripheral vascular, electrophysiology, neurovascular…

Johnson Matthey opens medical nitinol facility in Mexico

Johnson Matthey today opened a brand new nitinol facility in Mexicali, Mexico for its Medical Device Components business.

The facility has 40,000 square feet of manufacturing space for nitinol sheet and tubing, double the capacity of the company’s previous location in San Jose, California. The newly constructed plant in Mexicali is the world’s only low-cost-country manufacturer of nitinol sheet and tube, Johnson Matthey said in a news release.

The site is scheduled to be fully operational by 2023.

Johnson Matthey said the new facility will give its customers increased capacity for device launches, optimized cost, enhanced quality assurance and dependable deliveries with shorter leadtimes. Additionally, Mexicali’s proximity to Jonson Matthey’s San Diego facility will allow for consistency with JM’s company values, business processes and management oversight, the company said.

“With 35 years of nitinol experience, this is a n…

Salt baths increase stability in the medical device tempering process

Calibration baths, like salt baths, were originally for calibrating temperature assets. But there’s another use for them: manufacturing Nitinol medical devices.

Travis Porter, Fluke Calibration

The Fluke Calibration 6050H Extremely High Temperature Calibration Salt Bath (left) can handle high temperatures (550 °C) with stability (±0.002 °C) and uniformity (±0.005 °C). The Fluke Calibration 6331 Deep-Well Compact Bath (right) can handle both high (300 °C) and low (-80°C) temperature with excellent stability (±0.005 °C) and uniformity (±0.007 °C). [Images courtesy of Fluke Calibration]

Nitinol is a nickel-titanium alloy that exhibits both thermal shape memory behavior and super-elasticity. It’s a great metal to use in medical devices because it’s possible to set the wire or mesh design into a form using the tempering process. Then, fold it up into a fraction of end size to use in minimal…

SMT’s TAVR wins CE Mark for aortic stenosis

SMT’s Hydra TAVR is indicated for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis. (Image from SMT)

Sahajanand Medical Technology (SMT) announced today that its Hydra TAVR device has received the CE Mark for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis.

The Hydra aortic valve is a self-expandable, nitinol-based, supra annular aortic system with a mechanism for recapturing the valve during deployment, according to Mumbai, India-based SMT. This property helps in precise placement of the valve and ensures orthotopic deployment, the company added.

The non-flared inflow section of the frame and supra-annular valve leaflet design are intended to ensure better aortic valvular area in smaller annuli and in valve-in-valve settings. The frame has 3 tentacles or antennae for better anchorage and larger cells (10mm) for better access in future coronary interventional procedures. The delivery cable is highly flexible and…