Junkosha has launched a new catheter liner category, called Wrapped Liner, at MD&M Midwest in Minneapolis. The company said the category represents a different approach to liner construction and draws on its experience in fluoropolymer technologies.
According to Junkosha, the platform applies proprietary PTFE tape engineering and wrapping technology. Rather than extruding a complete tube, the process wraps PTFE film around a mandrel to build the liner wall. By engineering the tape’s properties, the company aims to create a liner with a thin, uniform wall thickness while maintaining high tensile strength and flexibility.
The company says those characteristics could give catheter designers and manufacturers more freedom to select finer braid or coil wire, or to reallocate space elsewhere in the catheter construction. That matters because reinforcement choices and wall thickness affect how a catheter balances profile, stiffness, flexibility and other performance requirements.
Junkosha describes the balance of thinness, strength and uniformity as central to new catheter development, potentially allowing greater flexibility in how reinforcement is configured. The Wrapped Liner category is intended as a scalable platform supporting a growing portfolio of solutions for evolving catheter requirements.
Industry context
Steve Maxson, founder of Maxson InSight Services, said catheter engineers often emphasize profile, but a low-profile design involves more than reducing wall thickness. He said a catheter still needs to resist kinking and ovalization while retaining the flexibility required by its application. With extruded and film-cast liners already available in very thin walls, Maxson said the real opportunity lies in how thin-wall construction and strength work together to change catheter design.
Kevin LaDow, chief sales officer of Junkosha USA Inc., described the existing liner landscape as split between dip-coated PTFE built up on a mandrel and extruded PTFE supplied as cut-to-length tubing. He said that as the industry moves toward 2027, there is a need for a new liner category that is manufactured differently and offers distinct benefits for small-format catheter OEMs.
Junkosha said the Wrapped Liner category draws on decades of expertise in sophisticated fluoropolymer technologies. The company is presenting the category as an alternative platform for catheter liners, with the manufacturing method and material properties positioned as the basis for its design benefits.
Junkosha is positioning the Wrapped Liner approach as a way to extend catheter design possibilities and support next-generation medical devices. The company says those devices are intended to enhance flexibility and broaden the range of anatomies that may be accessed and treated. The announcement focused on the new category and its manufacturing concept; specific product dimensions, commercial availability and clinical performance were not detailed.