Frequently Asked Questions

RPE stands for rapid prototyping and engineering. Our RPE center is equipped with the latest technologies, tools, and materials to provide rapid iteration solutions. Manufacturing methods include molding, extrusion, and additive manufacturing.

Our RPE center has all the technologies required to quickly manufacture prototypes to test the viability of a design, which speeds up production and shortens time to market. Other benefits are design for manufacturing, proof-of-concept studies, and fast turnaround—even for complex requests.

Too often manufacturers can only create non-functional or prototype-only parts from limited materials using additive manufacturing. Spectrum has developed technologies that allow end-use parts out of the same production materials commonly used in tubing and catheter manufacturing. Unlike other suppliers, Spectrum uses proprietary AM technologies to process all medical-grade thermoplastic materials. These include nylon, Pebax®, polypropylene, polycarbonate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA), PEEK, polyetherketone (PEK), high impact polystyrene (HIPS), urethanes, and custom materials. We can handle a wide variety of requests, ranging from "napkin-sketch" to highly detailed and specific designs. Customers benefit the most when AM properties are evaluated with quick iterations early in the design process.

Common laser machining process are ablation, cutting, drilling, wire stripping, and hole drilling, all with an emphasis on high-precision micromachining and micron-size features.

• Ablation “vaporizes” material from the tubing’s surface at the micron level, with little or no negative thermal or structural damage to surrounding material.
• Cutting creates miniaturized, complex features as small as 0.0002 inches (5 microns) with no heat effects, in a variety of materials.
• Wire stripping removes sections of insulation or shielding without making physical contact with the conductor, enabling the processing of delicate wires and cables.
• Laser drilling is commonly for micron-size holes, spiral arrays, blind wells, and specialized portals that can be drilled in a variety of patterns.

Popular lasers are pulsed gas and ultrafast, and femtosecond.

• Pulsed gas lasers can selectively ablate certain outer materials of multilayered components. The depth of laser penetration is controlled by pre-programmed pulse singulation, which stops the ablation process at a specific level.
• Ultrafast lasers are in high demand because of their speed, precision, and lack of thermal or structural damage to the material being processed. With an average pulse width of 150 femtoseconds (150 quadrillionths of 1 second), there is virtually no heat transfer beyond the dimensions of the cut, making it a “cool” process.
• With femtosecond (1 fs = 10⁻¹⁵ s) pulses of light, femtosecond lasers cut incredibly fine features with submicron accuracy, eliminating heat-affected zones and reducing the need for secondary finishing. Features can be as small as a few microns, with submicron tolerances. Femtosecond lasers are often used for hypodermic tube cutting for catheters.

Learn more about pulse width here. 

Consistent and repeatable quality is achieved, thanks to high constant speed and automated platforms.

Other advantages are:

• Lasers can create complex features that traditional micromachining cannot.
• Unlike traditional micromachining, mechanical burrs and deformations do not occur with laser processes, improving quality, saving time, and accelerating time to market.

Our laser processing facility - in Missouri has more than 15,000 square feet of manufacturing space, including ISO Class 5 and Class 7 enclosures. Spectrum is both ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certified and all lasers are operated in a carefully controlled environment.

We are committed to providing responses and quotes within a few days of the original request. Our engineering team reviews each request and openly discusses estimated lead times for the potential project. Spectrum offers off-the-shelf laser array tubing and laser cut marker bands in various configurations in our webstore. This is a great option for engineers working on development projects that require laser—processed parts quickly. All our webstore components are in stock and ready to ship.

We do not process any PVC currently due to very noxious gas produced as a byproduct.