When You Make Things That Get Implanted in People, Small Th...( PASO ROBLES Calif. July 28 /- O...),Health

PASO ROBLES, Calif., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- On a routine day, Specialty Silicone Fabricators in Paso Robles, California, will make silicone micro-implants such as surgical drains, catheter systems, intravenous drug delivery devices and pacemaker leads. What is not routine is the incredibly precise tolerances demanded of these miniature products. Considering that silicone is a highly flexible substance, achieving consistently precise results to within .001 inch is no small achievement.

With many patented processes to their credit, American-owned SSF is the acknowledged world leader when it comes to doing the "tough stuff." For engineers this means making products that are just too technically difficult for other manufacturers, or in some cases, seemingly impossible. Such is the case with the company's patented extrusion process called Geo-Trans(R). This patented process makes it possible to extrude a continuous tube while varying inside and outside diameters, the shape, size, quantity and location of multiple lumens without joints, connectors, seams, adhesives and/or couplings. The process can even switch silicone materials during the extrusion process to vary the hardness of a product over its length -- as with a catheter, which requires a rigid proximal end and a flexible tip.

Any one of these features would be amazing enough. The kicker is that all of these features can be achieved in a single tube and still hold a tolerance of .001 inch. The company is able to consistently reproduce these results in part through the use of sophisticated statistical discovery software. This allows SSF engineers to fine-tune their measurement systems and ensure repeatable results with confidence.

It's attention to detail and the small things that add up to big results when manufacturing implantable silicone products. All of this points to the incredible skill and dedication that is focused on producing
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