Month: July 2020

At Component Supply, we frequently receive inquiries regarding the sterilization options for our nylon mesh products. Typically, they want to know which methods of sterilization are most effective between autoclave, gamma sterilization, and EtO.  

First, can you autoclave nylon mesh? To this question, we say, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” While we have had customers successfully autoclave nylon mesh, many more have attempted this process without success. The autoclave process speeds up the absorption of the water in the polyamide causing the material to either become brittle and break or gummy. The settings and the autoclave itself lead to varying degrees of success, or rather, failure.

Gamma sterilization of nylon 6/6 doesn’t perform well either. From our experience, you will see a decrease in the melting point, causing the material to become brittle, which can result in cracking. Additionally, the fiber surface can become rough, which can affect filtering in some application. These changes also do not happen at the time of sterilization but can continue over time after irradiation.

That brings us to our last sterilization method, which is EtO. To our knowledge, EtO is the best sterilization method for nylon 6/6 because materials sterilized with this method are not exposed to excessive heat, moisture or radiation as seen with other sterilization methods.  

For more information about the suitability of nylon mesh for your application, please visit our website or contact us directly at parts@componentsupplycompany.com.

As the economy continues to reopen and production ramps up in the medical device industry, Component Supply has quadrupled its burr-fee cutting capacity for hypodermic tubing and stainless steel wire. Adding equipment and skilled personnel allows Component Supply to cut more material to tight length tolerances while keeping the lead times short.

“We were starting to see more and more requests for medium to large volume tubing and wire cutting, so we wanted to be prepared for those new requests while still providing the same level of speed and quality to our current customers,” said Kristin Livesay, vice president of sales and marketing.

While burr-free cutting of stainless steel tubing and wire has been a core business for Component Supply since its inception in 2009, the need for larger volumes and faster lead times has increased over the past year. Length tolerances range from +/- 0.002” to +/- 0.005” and the average lead time is one week.

The mission of Component Supply is to be a resource to researchers and product designers by connecting them with the components and knowledge they need to change the world. While research and development has always been a priority to the company, this added capacity will enable Component Supply to bridge the gap between R&D and production.