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Two-piece tray delivers surgical stents

For a new self-expanding surgical stent, Medtronic Vascular selects compact new thermoform design to make the product easy to unpack.

Medtronic Vascular's new package for its Aurora biliary stent is based on a space-saving two-piece thermoform that's packed insi
Medtronic Vascular's new package for its Aurora biliary stent is based on a space-saving two-piece thermoform that's packed insi

After the company developed a new surgical stent, Medtronic Vascular went to the drawing boards to develop a new smaller two-piece thermoformed container that protects the product better. The Santa Rosa, CA-based medical device developer worked closely with Prent Corp. on the tray design. The tray recently won the Critical Barrier Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers.

The “heart” of the new package is the two-piece thermoform that’s loaded, closed, and inserted into an outer pouch and carton prior to sterilizing. The product is called the Aurora Self-Expanding Biliary Stent, an improved version of Medtronic’s earlier self-expanding stent systems. Stents are used to alleviate arterial blockage.

“We looked at the existing product packaging for our earlier stent systems, and took into consideration the years of experience we had with that packaging,” says Andrew Fronk, principal packaging engineer at Medtronic Vascular. “We wanted to make the packaging smaller overall, and we wanted to protect the stent better, while essentially protecting the pouch from the tray by removing sharp edges or abrasion points. We believe we succeeded on all accounts.”

Fronk says that a cross-functional team from Medtronic Vascular worked with Prent and with customers to design the new tray. “Prent took our laundry list of desired improvements and developed initial designs,” he says. “We asked for changes, and this process continued for several months. Even after we finally tested some sample thermoforms, we made changes to improve how the handle of the device could be removed from the tray and how the catheter was restrained.”

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