Junkosha introduced a new catheter liner category, which it calls Wrapped Liner, at MD&M Midwest in Minneapolis. The approach forms the liner wall by wrapping PTFE film around a mandrel rather than extruding a complete tube, and the company presents it as an alternative liner platform intended to combine high tensile strength, thin wall construction and flexibility.
Junkosha said the category builds on decades of expertise in fluoropolymer technologies and applies its proprietary PTFE tape engineering and wrapping technology. Rather than shaping a finished tube, the process starts with film: the tape is wrapped around a mandrel to build up the liner wall, and the tape's own properties become the design lever.
Engineering the tape instead of the tube
Because the wall is assembled from wrapped film, Junkosha says it can engineer the PTFE tape to target a thin, uniform wall thickness while pursuing high strength. The company frames the result as added room for catheter designers and manufacturers, who could choose finer braid or coil wire, or reallocate space elsewhere in the catheter construction, without giving up wall performance.
Steve Maxson, founder of Maxson InSight Services, said catheter engineers often describe profile as king, but argued that low-profile design involves more than reducing wall thickness. In his view a catheter must still resist kinking and ovalization while retaining the flexibility its application needs. With extruded and film-cast liners already available in very thin walls, he said the more meaningful opportunity lies in how thin wall construction and strength work together to change the way engineers approach catheter design.
Junkosha describes that balance of thin, strong and more uniform properties as the linchpin of new catheter development, potentially allowing greater flexibility in how reinforcement is configured. The Wrapped Liner category is presented as a scalable platform intended to support a growing portfolio of solutions tailored to evolving catheter requirements.
Why the company sees room for a new liner category
Kevin LaDow, chief sales officer of Junkosha USA Inc., said current catheter liners are either dip-coated PTFE built up on a mandrel or extruded PTFE supplied as tubing cut to length. Heading into 2027, he argued, there is a need for a liner category that is not only manufactured differently but also brings distinct benefits to small format catheter OEMs. Through the approach, Junkosha says it is extending the possibilities of catheter design to support next-generation devices intended to enhance flexibility and broaden the range of anatomies that may be accessed and treated.
The announcement did not include pricing, detailed product specifications or published test data. The strength, wall-uniformity and design-freedom benefits described are company and expert characterizations rather than independently verified results.