Resources · Prototyping
A braided shaft takes weeks to change: new mandrel, new braid schedule, new reflow. A laser-cut hypotube changes in a program edit. Used with a stock catalog, that turns shaft development into a loop measured in days. This is the loop as we run it with customers.
Pick the size the device needs and order the three interrupted-spiral rhythms at one pitch from the catalog: 120° cut at 2.5 CPR, 80° at 3.5, 65° at 4.5. Three parts, $600, 6 in each, with a print and a 3D model on every page. If the tightest radius is the unknown, order one rhythm at three pitches instead. Every one of the 29 catalog ODs from 0.014 in to 0.353 in carries the same three rhythms, so the spread exists for whatever size you are at.
Four measurements decide a shaft, and all four come off a 6 in shorty.
| Measure | How | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Bend radius | wrap round pins of decreasing diameter until the slots close | the pitch and rhythm to keep |
| Kink | bend past that point; does it come back | whether 304 holds or the section wants nitinol |
| Torque | clamp one end, protractor on the other, read the lag at a fixed torque | how much uncut the steering section needs |
| Push | tip against a load cell, push the hub | whether the pitch is too short for the support section |
Do it for all three rhythms and the direction of the next cut is on the bench in front of you.
The custom cut does not need a drawing. It needs the numbers the part has to hit: OD and ID, the bend radius you measured or the one you want, which way the shaft should behave (maximum flexibility, balanced, stiff, or variable from tip to base), and anything else that matters, from kink resistance to radiopacity. The requirements form asks for exactly those, and our engineers design the geometry from them. If the shaft wants two behaviours along its length, a dogbone deflection zone running into an interrupted spiral, say so; that is one program, not two parts.
Prototypes leave in two to three days, programmed and cut on the same floor by the people who wrote the pattern. That puts a custom-cut shaft on your bench within the week you ordered the catalog spread, and a second custom turn before the following weekend. Two design turns a week is the normal cadence, with a program library of more than 8,500 cuts behind every new one.
Every part, catalog or custom, is cut with the same 0.001 in kerf to the same ±0.0002 in standing tolerance on the same ISO 13485 floor, and every lot is traceable to its heat with a certificate of conformance on request. The prototype you bench and the production part you validate are the same program; the number in the order field is what changes.
Catalog parts ship as cut: not cleaned, passivated or sterile unless the product page says so, with ASTM A380 cleaning and A967 passivation available as finishing steps. They are 304 stainless. The modelled bend radius on each page is engineering guidance, marked experimental, and the bench is the decision. And we sell components: the device, its validation and its clearance are yours.
