Medical Dip Casting with Efficient Development Timelines and Quick Iterations
Dip casting is one of the best manufacturing methods for your silicone medical device, depending on your requirements. It is ideal for forming complex shapes and shell geometries (large balloons/envelopes with thin walls). Lubrizol Life Science (LLS) Health has refined and mastered the traditional dip casting process to produce parts with precision and efficiency.
How LLS Health Achieves Precision through Dip Casting
In silicone dip casting, mandrels are fabricated with the desired part geometry (inner surface of a shell), silicone dispersed in solvent is precisely applied (manually or by machine) to the mandrel, solvent evaporated, then cured (polymerized/cross-linked/vulcanized) to form an elastomeric shell. Careful control of process parameters allows for optimization, precision, and reliability of the process.
Economic Solutions for Efficient Medical Device Prototyping
Tooling and setup costs for dip casting can be less than other manufacturing methods, making it an attractive option for prototyping design iterations.
Optimal Method for Manufacturing Silicone Medical Balloons
The advantages of dip-casting make it an ideal method for manufacture of balloons with special requirements. Dip casting allows manufacture of large shells, large balloons with small openings (up to 5:1 max:min diameter), thin walls with tight tolerances, “undercut” and other geometries, no parting lines, and other features not achievable by traditional molding.
Full-Service Capabilities, from Design to Optimized Volume Medical Device Assembly
At LLS Health, we care for the life of your product. That’s why we offer a complete range of manufacturing and support services — from design assistance and prototyping, to dip casting and medical device assembly.
We provide expertise in meeting the following specification:
- Wall thickness as thin as 0.001” or thinner depending on part geometry
- Wall tolerances as tight as ± 0.0005" (0.00127mm) depending on part geometry.
- Flash-free components without parting lines.
- “Undercut” and other complex geometries
Additional features we offer:
- Surface options include Macro or Micro Textures, smooth, or optically clear.
- Rapid prototyping of tooling and balloons for fast product development services.
- Laser marking.
- Assembly
