Junkosha has introduced a new catheter liner category, called Wrapped Liner, at MD&M Midwest in Minneapolis. The company said the category establishes a different approach to liner construction and draws on its experience in fluoropolymer technologies.
Rather than extruding a complete tube, the Wrapped Liner process wraps PTFE film around a mandrel to build the liner wall. Junkosha said it has applied its proprietary PTFE tape engineering and wrapping technology to create an alternative platform intended to combine high tensile strength, thin-wall construction and flexibility.
How the liner is built
The manufacturing route starts with PTFE film and forms the wall through wrapping. By engineering the tape’s properties, Junkosha said it can design a liner platform aimed at a thin, uniform wall thickness while retaining strength. That combination, according to the company, gives catheter designers and manufacturers more freedom to choose finer braid or coil wire, or to reallocate space elsewhere in the catheter.
Junkosha is positioning the Wrapped Liner category alongside existing liner approaches. Current catheter liners are generally either dip-coated PTFE built up on a mandrel or extruded PTFE supplied as cut-to-length tubing, according to Kevin LaDow, chief sales officer of Junkosha USA Inc. The Wrapped Liner process differs by wrapping film around a mandrel instead of extruding a full tube.
Design trade-offs
Steve Maxson, founder of Maxson InSight Services, said catheter engineers often describe profile as king, but low-profile design involves more than reducing wall thickness. A catheter also has to resist kinking and ovalization while retaining the flexibility its application requires, he said. With extruded and film-cast liners already available in very thin walls, Maxson said the opportunity lies in how thin-wall construction and strength work together to change engineering approaches.
Junkosha said this balance of thin, strong and more uniform properties is central to new catheter development because it may create greater flexibility in how reinforcement is configured. The company is presenting Wrapped Liner as a scalable platform that can support a growing portfolio of solutions for evolving catheter requirements.
Positioned for small-format OEMs
LaDow said current liners are either dip-coated PTFE built on a mandrel or extruded PTFE tubing cut to length. Looking toward 2027, he said there is a need for a new liner category that is not only manufactured differently but also provides distinct benefits for small-format catheter OEMs.
According to Junkosha, the new approach extends possibilities in catheter design and is intended to support next-generation devices that seek greater flexibility and access to a broader range of anatomies. The company’s claims focus on the construction platform and its design potential; clinical performance and commercial adoption were not reported in the announcement.