feature story
Medical Printed Electronics at Katecho Inc. This article provides an inside look at a specialty manufacturer in the medical print-production field. Ray Greenwood Katecho
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atecho is an OEM manufacturer for the medical device and patient care products industry. We are not a brand but rather the manufacturer of critical components behind many well known brands within the medical industry. We produce an ever-expanding range of products centered on several key competencies: electronic and electrochemical engineering; product and process design; printing, converting, and value-added processes; and raw material design and manufacturing (Figure 1). The most descriptive definition is that Katecho is a precision raw materials converter in the medical device industry. Everything we do is specialized in some form to fit that industry segment. A simple looking product like a pre-medicated bandage or a defibrillator electrode can have as many as eight individual layers within the packaging alone, not to mention the layers that produce the product itself. The web attributes (stretch, temperature expansion, static potential, slip, and cutting characteristics) of each layer are different and require separate tension and run speeds. All of these tolerances stack up fast and must be held within a collective maximum of 0.030 in. or less. This means that the individual tolerances of each material and each additive process of the conversion must be held to 1/10th or less of the total tolerance stack. For example, printing tolerances for graphic items must be held to a maximum tolerance of 0.003 in. Printing tolerances for deposition must be held to about 15 Îźm (0.59 mil) for the thicker, less sensitive materials and within 5 Îźm or less (0.2 mil) for some of the more critical conductive inks. Because of the critical raw material tolerances, there are quite a few materials that Katecho manufactures in-house for use as sub-assemblies of precision substrates. One of our specialties is the in-house production of hydrogels 14 | Industrial + Specialt y Printing www.industrial-printing.net
from design through formulation, batching and inline casting into web roll form. The range of process types involved under one roof brings Katecho firmly into the realm of vertical integration: product design, raw-material manufacturing, processing, testing, certification, packaging, warehousing, and distribution. Because each electrode design may require unique test networks, connectors, location nests, extra tooling for additive features, and heat sealing fixtures, these production lines are created from scratch, by in-house engineering and machine services as needed. Although printed and imaged material of some type touch every product produced at Katecho, here is a snapshot of the other integral processes: product design and realization, engineering, and raw materials testing; ink and hydrogel chemistry labs; roll-to-roll screen printing for material deposition with a modular Kammann K-61 (Figure 2); flexography for packaging, product graphic, and material deposition; Delta converting systems; highspeed inkjet and toner-based marking systems for serial marking and packaging solutions; standalone die-cutting and digital plotting and cutting; robotic handling and application lines for liquids and gels; and testing laboratories for long term aging and in-field performance of both incoming raw materials and finished products Because of the speed and volume of roll-to-roll printing and deposition with inline converting, in-situ sampling, vision systems and statistical process control are all active tools of the process.