Machining, Extruding, Molding

IDEX Health & Science offers a comprehensive array of machining services, specializing in complex, burr-free, high-precision turning, milling, and processing of high-performance engineering thermoplastics and corrosion-resistant metals. For more information, see Machining.

Our injection molding capabilities, combined with industry-leading expertise in the use of high-performance engineering thermoplastics, enable us to meet your most demanding specifications. IDEX Health & Science has more than 15 years of experience building injection molds for exotic resins. We injection-mold 500+ products from PEEK™ alone. For more information, see Molding.

We offer fast turnaround of custom melt-extruded high-performance thermoplastic tubing, with in-house tooling design and production. We also guarantee precise tolerances with online laser gauges and closed-loop feedback/statistical process control on all equipment. For more information, see Extruding.

Machining

• Pressure, flow, and leak testing
• Assembly, with in-house-produced components, fittings, tubing, seals, o-rings, etc.
• Class 10,000 and 1,000 clean room assembly areas
• Performance testing of turnkey subassemblies using customer-supplied equipment and specifications
• Holes as small as 0.004" (102 µm) in plastics and 0.007" (178 µm) in metals
• Tolerances as low as 0.000030" (0.762 µm) in metals and less than 0.0001" (2.54 µm) in thermoplastics
• Surface finishes of 16 µin. (Ra) or better available on all materials
• State-of-the-art CNC turning and CNC milling
• ECM equipment for precision cutting of metal tubing
• Strategic subcontract partnerships with key machine and secondary operation houses for operations such as metal coatings (including gold electroplating and anodizing), electropolishing, investment welding, and precision TIG welding

Machining Equipment

• 3-, 4-, and 5-axis CNC milling equipment
• CNC turning/screw equipment
• CNC drilling/tapping equipment
• Distributed Numerical Control system
• State-of-the-art CNC turning and CNC milling equipment, including Swiss and high-speed screw machines, with an average machine age of less than five years

Machining of UltraHard Materials

With expertise honed for more than a century, the Sapphire Engineering facility of IDEX Health & Science is the world expert in processing ultrahard materials.

Materials

• Sapphire
• Ruby
• Alumina ceramic, zirconia ceramic
• Other materials available upon request

Capabilities

• Tolerances as low as 0.00001" (0.254 µm)
• Surface finishes down to 0.25 µin. (Ra)
• OD lapping and centerless grinding
• ID honing
• End grinding
• Flat lapping/polishing
• Plus numerous other proprietary processing methods

Services

• Design/concurrent engineering with CAD/CAM data transfer, including all popular file formats
• Materials selection assistance
• Quick turnaround on production and R&D parts
• Prototype runs available for pre-production validation
• Low-volume production available
• Ultrasonic cleaning
• Custom packaging and labeling

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Extrusion

IDEX Health & Science is recognized as a world leader in high-performance engineering thermoplastics and corrosion-resistant metals. By concentrating on adapting these materials to our intricate parts and tubing over the past 19 years, we have developed an unsurpassed expertise. Put us to work to design solutions to fit your particular needs.

• Outer diameters (ODs) from 0.0145" (360 µm) to 0.313" (7.95 mm)
• Wall thicknesses from 0.0015" (38.1 µm) to 0.090" (2.29 mm)
• Inner diameters (IDs) as small as 0.002" (50 µm)
• Standard OD and ID tolerances as low as ±0.0005" (12.5 µm)
• Multilumen capabilities available
• Precision, tight tolerance, small-diameter, capillary fluidic tubing
• Custom compounding
• All extrusion performed in a controlled environment
• Available in a variety of colors
• Other custom capabilities such as tapered tubing, tip forming, thermoforming, necking, flaring, bonding, swaging, foil marking, and laser marking
• Custom sizes, as well as more than 100 stock items readily available
• Spooled, continuous lengths or cut lengths on-the-fly
• On-line, real-time data acquisition (SPC data) for process capability analysis and runtime data collection
• Low-volume R&D runs capability for product validation
• Date and batch sensitive traceability available
• Custom tubing forming and annealing
• Custom tubing assemblies, product kitting
• Custom packaging, labeling, and other value-added services
• JIT environment and VMI stocking operations available

Materials

• Polyetheretherketone (PEEK™)
• PEEK-CLASSIX™
• PEEK-OPTIMA™
• PFA and FEP (Teflon^®)
• ETFE (Tefzel^®)
• Polysulfone (PSU, Udel^®)
• Polyethersulphone (PES, Radel^® A)
• Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU, Radel^® R)
• ECTFE (Halar^®)
• Polyetherimide PEI (Ultem™)
• PCTFE (Kel-F^®)
• Methylpentene copolymer (TPX™)
• Acetal (Delrin^®)
• Polysulfone (PSU, Udel^®)
• Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS)
• Polyimide (Vespel^®)
• Polyethylene
• Other high-performance thermoplastics

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Molding

• Precision injection molding of tight-tolerance configurations
• Shot capacity up to four ounces
• Insert molding options
• Microprocessor-controlled molding machines
• Short-run tooling and manufacturing: as few as 100 parts/year
• Custom compounding
• To-specification design and pre-production development
• Prototype and market entry tooling and production
• Design critique for manufacturing
• Product assembly and secondary operations
• Custom kits, packaging, and labeling
• Design/concurrent engineering with CAD data transfer, including all popular file formats
• SPC-capable
• Complete traceability available
• JIT environment and VMI stocking options available

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