• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Medical Tubing and Extrusion

Medical tubing and extrusion technologies

  • Technologies
    • Balloons
    • Brain-computer interfaces
    • Cardiac Implants
    • Catheters
    • Endoscopes
    • Heart valves
    • Pulsed Field Ablation
  • Components
    • Connectors
    • Needles and Injections
    • Seals
    • Tubing Components
  • Manufacturing
    • Coatings
    • Extrusions
    • Machining
    • Molding
      • Injection Molding
      • Insert molding
      • Mold Components
    • Tools
  • Materials
    • Advanced Materials
    • Metals
    • Nitinol
    • Plastics
    • Silicone
  • Business
    • Distribution Agreements
    • Legal News
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Partnerships
    • Personnel Moves
  • Regulatory
    • 510(k)
    • CE Mark
    • FDA Breakthrough Designation
    • ISO Certification
    • Pre-Market Approval (PMA)
    • Recalls
  • Suppliers
  • About Us

8 medical device industry supplier innovations you need to know

June 21, 2019 By Nancy Crotti

Nikomed USA: Recyclable wires for patient monitors and ECG electrodes

Nikomed USA developed recyclable wires and reusable connectors for electrodes. (Image from Nikomed USA)

Nikomed USA will soon launch (June 26-28 at Florida International Medical Expo in Miami Beach) a non-metal, disposable and universal lead wire system for patient-monitoring equipment and ECG electrodes.

Many health providers using metal leads find disposal to be a challenge because they can’t recycle the material, according to Nikomed USA (Hatboro, Pa.). The company designed BioWire to be recyclable; it’s made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and silver ink.

PET is light, flexible and strong, and silver ink is conductive and bonds well with PET, Nikomed USA president Steve Epstein told Medical Design & Outsourcing. The company adds chloride to the silver to match the AAMI standard for ECG electrodes and lead wires because chloride prevents polarization of contacts after defibrillation.

BioWire can easily adapt to most monitoring equipment and all ECG electrodes. Its ribbon-like design makes it possible to write on or apply a label to the wiring itself, according to the company. Healthcare customers’ desire for disposable wires has led to an issue with waste, added Nikomed USA president Steve Epstein.

“There’s miles and miles of metal wire being discarded every day,” Epstein said. “I said, ‘There’s got to be a better solution.”

BioWire may also reduce the likelihood that disposable wires are reused from patient-to-patient, preventing cross-contamination and improving the bottom line for customers, he added. Nikomed sells exclusively through medical supply distributors.

Nikomed USA manufactures tab electrodes for use in diagnostic testing and surgical applications, so taking on lead wires seemed like a logical next step. The challenge was developing connectors to mate with BioWire. The company worked on a few ideas but they proved too expensive, Epstein said. Company officials decided to replace the yoke, which holds the individual wires that attach to the electrodes placed on the patient’s skin, with its own clamp device connector.

Nikomed USA worked with medtech development companies and has a patent pending for a reusable connector that can accommodate three, five or six wires and can slip onto an ECG’s trunk cable or other monitoring equipment’s cable.

How recyclable is BioWire? “It’s a hard thing to say,” Epstein said. “No one can say how long it will take to break down, but you’re not throwing metal away.”

Next>>

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9

Filed Under: Advanced Materials, Coatings, Components, Extrusions, Injection Molding, Materials, Mold Components, Product Development, Research & Development, Silicone, Tubing Components Tagged With: 3m, covestro, Freudenberg Medical, herrmann ultrasonics, Integer Holdings Corp, Nikomed USA, Teleflex Medical OEM, Trelleborg

Primary Sidebar

“mte
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest trends and developments in medical tubing and extrusion.
MDO ad

Sponsored Content

A new way to access scientific papers?

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Footer

Inv Logo

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech 100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Sourcing
R&D World
Drug Delivery Business News

Medical Tubing + Extrusion

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy | RSS