4 Medical Devices That Rely On Wire Straightening and Cutting

Wire straightening may seem like a simple, unglamorous process at first glance, but it plays a pivotal role in enabling some of the greatest medical technologies of the modern world. 

Medical grade wire straightening techniques create products with such strict specificity of dimensions, tolerances, and sterility as to be impossible even a few decades ago. Here are just a few of medical technologies dependent on cutting-edge wire straightening processes today:

Surgical needles

Specialized needles used in surgical procedures require advanced wire straightening techniques. The needles used for extremely fine surgical sutures, in particular, must be flawlessly shaped, razor-sharp, and consistent across huge batches to allow for the finest possible control in the surgeon’s hands—be they his own or the hands of a surgical robot.

It’s the consistency available from modern industrial wire straightening that allows for the unprecedented performance of modern surgeons and surgical robots; without consistency in these products, the incredible precision of modern surgical procedures would be for naught.

Guidewire assemblies

Your typical endoscopy or laparoscopic procedure is only possible with components, tools, and simple wires produced through modern medical wire straightening. A guidewire is produced to fit closely against the inside of a length of medical tubing, allowing for accurate direction of the flimsier tubing in any number of precise procedures.

A guidewire assembly acts as a hygienic, easily maneuverable ‘guide’ for any number of larger instruments and tools. They’re used in the placement of IV catheters, feeding tubes, endoscopes, and a host of other devices.  

Probes and stimulators

Medical devices which use implanted electrodes to stimulate muscles or process electrical transmissions for external devices rely extensively upon highly-precise medical-grade wire. These are devices installed directly within the human body as monitoring devices, pain relievers, and more, and must meet very strict standards in every metric; materials, dimensions, etc.

For a familiar example of an installed stimulation device, consider the pacemaker, which regularly applies a current to the heart to encourage healthy heart function. Similar technology can relax or tense muscles, bridge gaps in a damaged spine, and more—and all of these implants require the finest quality medical wire.  

As medical technology advances and implants become more complex and varied, the demands for carefully tailored medical wire will only grow in complexity and importance.

Various manual medical tools

Without wire straightening and the associated tubing production, many modern probing tools wouldn’t exist. For example, many of the tools used in a modern dentists’ office rely upon wire straightening for their existence.

The head of the familiar—and dreaded—dental hook is finely manipulated wire, for example, as are the heads of a number of other probes used by dentists, surgeons, and other medical professionals. These probes may not be as impressive or incredible as cutting-edge implants or exquisite suture needles, but no one has lived a life with modern medicine and not been touched—literally—by this technology, made possible by industrial wire production and shaping methods.  

In Need of Medical-Grade Wire Straightening?

These technologies, of course, represent only the most direct applications of medical wire in modern medicine. Every single aspect of any modern medical experience probably involved industrial wire production for some key component in some electronic device or tool.

If you represent a company in need of medical-grade wire for medical devices, direct medical applications, or other fields with similar standards of precision and consistency, consider LaurelWire.com for your medical grade wire and tubing needs.