How does Extruded Precision Medical TPU Thin-Wall Tubing become an ideal endoscope sheath material? ​

Material properties lay the foundation ​
As a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer rubber, TPU's unique chemical structure gives the made thin-walled tube excellent performance. The soft segment composed of polyester or polyether polyol gives TPU thin-walled tubes good flexibility and elasticity. When applied to endoscope sheaths, this flexibility allows the sheath to easily fit the complex curved shape of the endoscope. During the operation, even if the endoscope needs to change its angle and position frequently, the sheath will not be damaged or creased due to excessive bending, ensuring that the endoscope is always tightly wrapped to maintain its normal function. ​
The hard segment is composed of diisocyanate and chain extender, which brings high strength and wear resistance to extruded precision medical TPU thin-wall tubing. In actual use, the endoscope needs to enter and exit different cavities of the human body many times, and friction with tissues and organs is inevitable during the process. The sheath made of TPU thin-walled tube can effectively resist this friction loss due to its high wear resistance. Even after repeated use, it can still maintain its intact structure, avoid protection failure caused by wear, and provide long-term and stable protection for the endoscope. ​
Excellent biocompatibility is an important advantage of TPU thin-walled tube as an endoscope sheath material. During surgery, the endoscope will directly contact human tissue and body fluids. If the material has poor biocompatibility, it is easy to cause adverse consequences such as immune response and allergies. After strict biological evaluation and clinical trials, TPU thin-walled tubes have been proven to have no adverse reactions in long-term contact with the human body, effectively reducing surgical risks and ensuring patient safety. ​
TPU's good chemical resistance also meets the needs of endoscope use. Before and after surgery, endoscopes need to be strictly disinfected with a variety of disinfectants to prevent cross infection. TPU thin-walled tubes can withstand common disinfection methods such as high temperature and high pressure, ethylene oxide, and irradiation. During the disinfection process, its physical and chemical properties remain stable. It will not deform or deteriorate due to disinfection, nor will it release harmful substances to contaminate the endoscope, ensuring the disinfection effect and safety of use.​
Production process guarantees quality​
The production process of extruded precision medical TPU thin-walled tubes plays a decisive role in their performance and quality. Due to the high fluidity of TPU materials, it is a major problem to accurately control the ultra-thin wall thickness during the extrusion molding process. To solve this problem, optimization is carried out starting from the screw design. A screw made of special materials is used, and its structure is modified. By adding pins, designing separation heads, deepening the bottom groove, and increasing the compression ratio, the material transmission and plasticization process are optimized. The improved screw can make the TPU material more evenly distributed during extrusion, avoiding defects such as uneven tube wall thickness, poor density, and pores, and ensuring the overall quality of the thin-walled tube. ​
Mold design is also critical. A mold steel with specific properties is selected, which has the characteristics of high hardness, high dimensional accuracy, and dimensional stability. The molding structure designed specifically for medical-grade TPU tubes and the unique mirror flow channel design greatly optimize the flow path of the material in the mold. The smooth mirror flow channel reduces the flow resistance and retention of materials, allowing the TPU material to be extruded evenly, ensuring uniform wall thickness and high dimensional accuracy of the thin-walled tube, and providing a basis for the production of high-quality endoscope sheaths. ​
The cooling and shaping process should not be ignored. The fully enclosed vacuum cooling and shaping water tank, combined with vacuum-assisted molding technology, can quickly and evenly cool the extruded TPU thin-walled tube. Rapid cooling can prevent the tube from deforming due to temperature changes during the molding process, and uniform cooling ensures the roundness and surface quality of the tube. At the same time, with the help of online monitoring and precise control equipment, the outer diameter of the tube is monitored and adjusted in real time to strictly meet the standard requirements, realize the precision of the production process, and ensure that each TPU thin-walled tube can meet the use requirements of the endoscope sheath. ​
Performance advantages meet the needs​
The endoscope sheath made of extruded precision medical TPU thin-walled tube has shown many advantages in actual use. Its high strength and wear resistance provide reliable protection for the endoscope. During surgery, endoscopes face complex operating environments, such as traveling in narrow cavities and rubbing against tissues. With its high strength, TPU thin-walled tube sheaths can withstand external forces without breaking, effectively protecting the internal structure of the endoscope from damage. High wear resistance ensures that the sheath can still maintain good protective performance after multiple uses, extending the service life of the endoscope and reducing medical costs. ​
Transparency is another major advantage of TPU thin-walled tubes as endoscope sheaths. During surgery, doctors need to use endoscopes to clearly observe the internal conditions of the human body and make accurate judgments and operations. The high transparency of TPU thin-walled tubes will not cause obvious obstruction to light transmission, ensuring clear endoscopic imaging, allowing doctors to clearly see the details of the lesion, and providing protection for precise surgery. Even if the sheath is wrapped around the outside of the endoscope, it will not affect the doctor's observation effect, ensuring the smooth progress of the operation. ​
The application of disposable medical sterile endoscope thin-walled sheaths can effectively reduce the risk of cross-infection. When traditional endoscope sheaths are reused, if they are not thoroughly disinfected, pathogens are likely to remain, causing cross-infection between patients. The disposable sterile sheath made of TPU thin-walled tube is directly discarded after use to avoid the infection risks caused by repeated use, provide patients with a safer medical environment, and simplify the endoscope disinfection process to improve hospital work efficiency. ​
Under the development trend of new medical technologies, endoscope sheaths made of extruded precision medical TPU thin-walled tubes also show adaptability. With the emergence of advanced equipment such as smart endoscopes, higher requirements are placed on the performance of sheaths. With good processing performance, TPU thin-walled tubes can be compounded or co-extruded with other functional materials to give the sheath more characteristics, such as antibacterial and anti-fog, to meet the use needs of new endoscopes and promote the continuous development of endoscope technology. ​
From material properties, manufacturing processes to actual application performance, extruded precision medical TPU thin-walled tubes show the characteristics of being an ideal endoscope sheath material in many aspects. With these advantages, it provides strong guarantees for the safety and quality of endoscopic surgery, plays an irreplaceable role in the field of modern medicine, and will also continue to expand the application space and improve performance with the advancement of medical technology, bringing patients a better medical experience.