Junkosha introduced a new catheter liner category, called Wrapped Liner, at MD&M Midwest in Minneapolis. The company says the category draws on decades of expertise in fluoropolymer technologies and establishes a different approach to liner construction.
The core of the approach is Junkosha's proprietary PTFE tape engineering and wrapping technology. Rather than extruding a complete tube, the manufacturing process wraps PTFE film around a mandrel to form the liner wall. By engineering the properties of the tape, Junkosha says it can design a liner platform intended to achieve a thin, uniform wall thickness with exceptional strength. Junkosha describes the resulting platform as an alternative for catheter liners, with tape properties used to engineer wall thickness and strength.
That combination is meant to give catheter designers and manufacturers more room to work. According to Junkosha, a liner with thin walls and high tensile strength may allow engineers to choose finer braid or coil wire, or to reallocate space elsewhere in the catheter construction. The company presents the balance among thinness, strength and uniformity as a central factor in how reinforcement can be configured.
Design trade-offs in focus
Steve Maxson, founder of Maxson InSight Services, said in comments included in the announcement that catheter engineers often treat profile as king. But he argued that low-profile design is not just about reducing wall thickness: a catheter still needs to resist kinking and ovalization while maintaining the flexibility its application requires. Maxson also noted that extruded and film-cast liners already exist with very thin walls, making the interaction between thin-wall construction and strength the more important opportunity.
Junkosha describes that balance as the linchpin for new catheter development, with the potential to create greater flexibility in reinforcement configuration. The Wrapped Liner category is positioned as a scalable platform, not merely a single liner, and is intended to support a growing portfolio of solutions as catheter requirements evolve.
Existing liner options and the OEM case
Kevin LaDow, chief sales officer of Junkosha USA Inc., described the current landscape in the announcement. Existing catheter liners, he said, are either dip-coated PTFE built up on a mandrel or extruded PTFE supplied as tubing cut to length. As 2027 approaches, LaDow said there is a need for a new liner category that is manufactured differently and provides distinct benefits for small-format catheter OEMs.
According to LaDow, the Wrapped Liner approach extends the possibilities of catheter design. Junkosha says it is intended to support next-generation medical devices designed to enhance flexibility and broaden the range of anatomies that may be accessed and treated. Junkosha presents these aims as the rationale for the new category.