Developing Medical Microtubes for Biomedical Applications: Rapid Prototyping with Micro-Processing

Published: January 15, 2026 · Reading time: 2 minutes

Introduction

Medical tubing is a foundational component in biomedical devices such as catheters, drainage systems, infusion lines, and ophthalmic implants. Although seemingly simple, medical tubing is a highly engineered product whose performance depends on material formulation, processing history, dimensional precision, and surface quality.

Thin-walled microtubes with sub-millimeter dimensions are increasingly used in applications such as wound drainage and glaucoma treatment. These devices must combine biocompatibility, flexibility, dimensional stability, and reliable long-term performance.

Micro-compounding: Designing the Tubing Material

Micro-compounding enables formulation development using gram-scale material quantities under realistic melt-processing conditions. This allows rapid screening of biomedical-grade polymers, blends, and additives before scale-up.
Xplore Microtube extrusion technology enables continuous extrusion of thin-walled tubes using a microtube die coupled to an MC 15 HT or MC 40 (Fig. 1). Pressurized lumen air prevents tube collapse, enabling precise control of tube geometry.

Figure 1: Microtube Die Attached to MC 15 HT

Processing–Structure Relationship

By varying the take-up speed while keeping melt temperature and feed rate constant, tube diameter and wall thickness can be precisely controlled. Outer diameters as low as 170 µm and wall thicknesses down to 45 µm have been demonstrated using a thermoplastic medical grade polyurethane (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Effect of Take-Up Speed on Tube Dimensions and LM images showing the coaxiality & microtube dimensions

Why Micro-Compounding and Microtube Extrusion Belong Together

The integration of micro-compounding and microtube extrusion enables a seamless workflow from material formulation to application-ready tubing prototypes using minimal material. Micro-compounding combined with microtube extrusion provides a powerful platform for rapid prototyping of medical tubing. This approach reduces development time, minimizes material waste, and de-risks scale-up for next-generation biomedical products.

This article summarizes key aspects of the application. For a deeper technical analysis and detailed results, we invite you to read the full application note here: https://bit.ly/4sHeLcD