Ashley Philipp, marketing director, Injectech, explains the importance of considering barb styles when choosing a fitting for your medical device.
When you do a simple search online or if you find yourself inside a hospital, it is easy to see that medical devices used for various types of patient care such as heart and lung support, respiratory therapy, or orthopaedic surgery, require plastic components in a wide range of configurations. Each plastic fitting is chosen to serve a specific purpose to ensure the success of the procedure and functionality of the medical device. The role of a component supplier is to provide trust, quality, variety and knowledge with their product line to match the original equipment manufacturer’s needs. This variety applies to categories of plastic fittings such as, luers, tube to tube connectors and check valves, but it also applies to the specific features offered for each product. A feature that requires consideration when examining potential for success is barb style. Barbs are used on many fittings and can be offered in options such as standard, high flow and rigid barb. But how do you know which is right for your medical device?
When considering a barbed connector, it is highly recommended that users test the barb in their specific applications as tube material, durometer and tubing tolerances can affect the barb fit. A standard barb design typically expands flexible tubing by 50% over its normal size. Common tubes used with this barb are flexible polyvinyl chloride, silicone, polyurethane, thermoplastic elastomers and thermoplastic rubbers. Another barb style that is offered can be identified as a rigid barb. This rigid barb has a lower profile on the barb outside diameter allowing for easier insertion into rigid tubes such as polypropylene and polyethylene. The rigid barb typically expands the tube by 25%. It is also common to see the rigid barb used on the tubing the next size down for example, 1/8” barb used for 3/32” tubing. This allows for greater security with the connection while still allowing the barb to be inserted, typically with a tube stretcher. A third barb choice is a high flow barb which falls between the expansion ratio of the standard and rigid barb profiles. The increased diameter inside of this barb allows for maximum flow/vacuum through the fitting. With each of these separate characteristics in mind, it can be understood how important it is to match your project needs with the best barb style for your device.
Once you’ve determined the barb style that will be the most effective for your medical device or assembly you should determine what material is necessary for your fitting to be manufactured in. When weighing material options, there are several key inputs that must be taken into consideration. These include regulatory requirements, type of fluid/gas flowing through the tubing circuit, sterilisation method, tubing material and chemical resistance. Finally, you should request samples. These samples will allow you to test your selected barb style and material to ensure the fitting won’t just be effective for your project but also for the end user, the patient.
Keep these important steps in mind when making your component decision and make sure you’re working with a component supplier that will collaborate with you to provide exactly what you need to meet all your requirements.