Creganna expands MA facility with specialty needle design and manufacturing services.

Creganna, an Ireland-based medical device manufacturer, has doubled the size of its Marlborough, MA manufacturing facility, enabling it to now offer specialized contract design and manufacturing for companies that develop and market specialty needles.

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Known for its micro tubing for minimally invasive catheter applications, the company now will additionally offer a handle to tip design and manufacturing solution for specialty needles.

"Creganna has extensive experience in the design and processing of precision tube-based medical components and sub-assemblies. Coupled with our materials expertise, molding services and innovative technologies, we can fulfill all the requirements of customers seeking a full manufacturing solution for specialty needles," said Helen Ryan, Creganna's CEO.

With this expansion, Creganna is introducing a high-performance alloy, Javelin, for demanding needle applications.

"Javelin-based needles exhibit high hardness, excellent damage resistance, high column strength, shape-set resilience and minimum tip deflection enabling superior physician control during challenging procedures," noted Dr. Vlado Gergely, head of Metallurgy, for Creganna." The response from product developers of specialty needles to this alloy has been extremely positive. They see great potential for Javelin needles in complex clinical applications as it solves a number of the challenges inherent with traditional materials."

The company also is developing new solutions for improved echogenic enhancement, composite shaft materials, long-length needles and complex needle profiling.

In related news, Creganna recently launched Meridian Technology, a design tool that the company said will enable development engineers design deliver), systems faster and more efficiently. Meridian is facilitated by Finite Element Analysis and allows design engineers to quickly find the optimum metal shaft design for their product application. According to the company, the Meridian database and design tool was the result of an 18-month research and development program.

"Meridian Technology defines a new era in the design of metal delivery shafts," said Michael Howe, manager of the Creganna Innovation Centre. "We have virtually eliminated the design bottleneck that is associated with the traditional iterative design cycle of prototyping and testing. With Meridian, the design engineer simply defines his/her performance requirements, Creganna consult the Meridian database and output a cut geometry that meets exact specifications. The time and cost savings associated with the Meridian Technology approach are enormous."