Skip to main content
Main Menu
  • Capabilities
    Back
    Capabilities
    • Assembly
    • Catheter Design
    • High Purity Specialty Closures
      Back
      High Purity Specialty Closures
      • Closure Assemblies
      • Liners
    • COVID-19 Rapid Manufacturing Capabilities
    • Custom Compounding
    • Custom Filtration
    • Medical Extrusion
    • Medical Molding
    • Prototyping and Tooling
    • Product Co-Development
  • Materials
    Back
    Materials
    • Fluoropolymers
      Back
      Fluoropolymers
      • Basics 101: Fluoropolymers
    • Other Materials
    • Silicone
      Back
      Silicone
      • Basics of Silicone:101
    • Thermoplastics
      Back
      Thermoplastics
      • Basics 101: Thermoplastics
      • PEEK page
  • Markets
    Back
    Markets
    • Cardiology
    • Diabetic Care
    • Drug Delivery
    • Nephrology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Other Medical Markets
    • Surgery
  • Resources
    Back
    Resources
    • Schedule a Lunch and Learn
    • Technical Data and Literature
    • White Papers
      Back
      White Papers
      • Effect of Sterilization on the Mechanical Properties
      • Extruded Silicone Tubing with Optimized Precision for medical device manufacturers
      • Flow Rate Stability of Medical Peristaltic Pump Tubing Materials
      • Liquid Silicone Rubber Injection Molding
      • Low Coefficient of Friction Materials: Tygon® LCF Offers the Ideal Combination
      • The Impact of Gamma and Autoclave Sterilization on Silicone Tubing
      • Two-Shot Silicone-Thermoplastic Medical Molding
    • Quality and Regulatory
      Back
      Quality and Regulatory
      • ISO Certifications
      • Medical Product Disclaimer
    • FAQs
    • Videos
  • About Us
    Back
    About Us
    • Events
    • Blog
    • News
    • Case Study
  • Contact Us
world SAINT-GOBAIN
Logo Saint-Gobain Medical
  • Capabilities
    • Assembly
    • Catheter Design
    • High Purity Specialty Closures
      • Closure Assemblies
      • Liners
    • COVID-19 Rapid Manufacturing Capabilities
    • Custom Compounding
    • Custom Filtration
    • Medical Extrusion
    • Medical Molding
    • Prototyping and Tooling
    • Product Co-Development
  • Materials
    • Fluoropolymers
      • Basics 101: Fluoropolymers
    • Other Materials
    • Silicone
      • Basics of Silicone:101
    • Thermoplastics
      • Basics 101: Thermoplastics
      • PEEK page
  • Markets
    • Cardiology
    • Diabetic Care
    • Drug Delivery
    • Nephrology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Other Medical Markets
    • Surgery
  • Resources
    • Schedule a Lunch and Learn
    • Technical Data and Literature
    • White Papers
      • Extruded Silicone Tubing with Optimized Precision for medical device manufacturers
      • Two-Shot Silicone-Thermoplastic Medical Molding
      • The Impact of Gamma and Autoclave Sterilization on Silicone Tubing
      • Low Coefficient of Friction Materials: Tygon® LCF Offers the Ideal Combination
      • Liquid Silicone Rubber Injection Molding
      • Flow Rate Stability of Medical Peristaltic Pump Tubing Materials
      • Effect of Sterilization on the Mechanical Properties
    • Quality and Regulatory
      • Medical Product Disclaimer
      • ISO Certifications
    • FAQs
    • Videos
  • About Us
    • Events
    • Blog
    • News
    • Case Study
  • Contact Us
COVID-19 Rapid Manufacturing Capabilities – LEARN MORE

You are here

  1. Home
  2. About Us
  3. Blog
  4. Six Questions To Consider When Choosing Your Peristaltic Pump Tubing

Six Questions To Consider When Choosing Your Peristaltic Pump Tubing

March 06th, 2020

Author: Charles Golub – Market Development Manager – Medical Components – Life Sciences


Pump tubing is often one of the most critical components for a system that delivers fluid, and is often overlooked during the design phase.  A number of key parameters go into pump tubing selection, such as:

     1. How many rollers does your pump have?

This is an important initial thought to have because you want to know how many cycles the tube will withstand.  For example, if you have a 4 roller pump, at 120 RPM’s, the tube sees 480 stress-relaxation cycles a minute.  That is a lot of stress recovery on one product.  This ties directly into the next question.

     2. What is the percent occlusion of the pump design?

The percent occlusion of the pump is calculated by [(w*2)-h]/h*100 ; where w= wall thickness of the tube and h= the gap between the roller and housing. The result is the amount the tube is over compressed.  This amount gives information about how much wear the tube will see as well as how much permanent set the tube will take (and how quickly).  If the tube sets are loaded and shipped already assembled, the tube may take a large set and not dispense as accurately as tested to in an ideal state situation. These are important things to consider.  While occlusion is important to ensure things like ability to hold prime and ease of pumping; two of the largest trade offs (specifically for long term pumping applications) are permanent set and spallation.

     3. How accurate do you need the dispensing to be?

Most medical pumping requires very precise, short term dispensing.  Not all, however, there are some longer term pumps that require pump life just as much as flow rate stability.  For example, pumps that dose cleaning solutions or are used for long term applications can compromise a slight variation in flow rate to ensure the tube lasts the required timeframe before a scheduled change over.  There are tubes that work best for each, some pump tubes offer very precise dosing for short term, however are very poor in longer term.  Whereas some tubes that last a very long time can exhibit what’s known as a “break in” period, when the tube takes a slight set after the first day or two of continuous use.  For this reason, it’s imperative to understand the true needs of the tubing product.

    4. What drive is your pump using or how much torque does the tube see?

The type of drive, amount of torque and wear the tube sees, along with the percent occlusion will ultimately drive how much of a permanent set the tube will take as well as how much mechanical wear the tube may see.  The permanent set is a measure of compressive response (usually tested to ASTM D395).  Essentially material is compressed for a set time frame (22 hours is the standard for ASTM) and the amount the material rebounds is measured and compared to the original height.  The result is percent permanent set and can be used as a leading indicator of how well a tube may perform in longer term pump performance.

    5. How much does the tube wear or spallate? 

Some products, specifically many of those designed for short term pumping, might start to spallate if improperly chosen for longer term continuous operation.  The amount of spallation the tube exhibits is very much dependent on the prior questions, such as how much wear it sees and how much occlusion is designed into your pump. Tests such as tribology testing can give you some idea of the general properties of the wear characteristics of a material, but ultimately a combination of wear properties, compression properties and the design of the pump, all factor into the amount of spallation a tube might exhibit.

    6. How is the product sterilized?

We all know various sterilization methods can play a role in the physical properties of materials, and pump performance is no different.  Ensuring up front discussions about the sterilization and an understanding from the tubing manufacturer as to what those physical property changes are will ensure a seamless scale-up in your product validation.

A few other notes about choosing a peristaltic pump tubing; always tell your tubing manufacturer what chemicals the tube could be exposed to.  For medical applications, it’s easy for a tube manufacturer to assume it would only be exposed to blood or saline; however, we know this might not be the case.  Some pump tubes will perform dramatically differently with different chemistry of fluids.

Also, be sure to specify ID/wall for tolerances.  This seems simple enough, but it may get overlooked in the tube selection process.  General ID/OD tolerances are not sufficient for most medical pump applications.  Ensuring concentricity of the lumen(s) for your pump tube is critical to ensuring consistent performance.
If you have further questions about pump tubing, please feel free to reach out to your local Saint-Gobain sales representative at:   https://www.medical.saint-gobain.com/contact-us

 

Charles Golub - Market Development Manager for Saint-Gobain Medical Components

Charles Golub is the Market Development Manager for Saint-Gobain Medical Components focusing on finding the unmet needs of future customers and providing them with Saint-Gobain’s creative solutions.  Prior to joining the medical marketing team, he spent 12 years in Research and Development and has an expertise in bringing innovative solutions to market. He has technical expertise in polymer materials and blends as well as analytical methods of analyzing them and he holds over a dozen patents.

About Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions which are key ingredients in the wellbeing of each of us and the future of all. They can be found everywhere in our living places and our daily life: in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and in so many industrial applications.

 

Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics' group of businesses gather solutions to save energy, provide protection, improve comfort and sustain the environment for a variety of markets.

MENU

Capabilities
Materials
Markets
Resources
FAQs
About Us
Contact Us
Schedule a Lunch and Learn
Legal
CATSCA

 

 

 

FOLLOW US

 

 CONTACT US

Saint-Gobain’s medical products are distributed exclusively to medical device manufacturers for use in the manufacture, assembly or distribution of their medical devices. Saint-Gobain cannot authorize the sale of its medical products directly to device user facilities (e.g. hospitals, surgery centers, nursing home, clinics, etc.), nor directly to end users (e.g. patients, patients’ caregiver, prescribing physician, nurse, pharmacist, etc.), including distributors serving device user facilities and end users directly. In accordance with every jurisdiction globally, Saint-Gobain’s customers are responsible for determining that any medical device they manufacture and market that incorporates a Saint-Gobain’s medical product, is compliant with each country-specific medical device regulations and has received proper country-specific clearance, certification or registration authorizing the sale of this medical device.


Saint-Gobain’s medical products offer covers:
- Medical Components [21 CFR 820.3(c)], intended for processing or use in the manufacture or assembly of medical devices before the finished medical device is packaged/labeled; Medical Components are intended to be included as part of the finished, packaged, and labeled device [21CFR820.3(c)].
- Finished Devices [21CFR820.3(l)] made on behalf of medical device manufacturers [21 CFR 807.20(a)(2)] under contract-manufacturing agreement. In accordance with the United States’ jurisdiction, Saint-Gobain complies with the FDA’s requirements for contract manufacturers of finished devices.

© Copyright Saint-Gobain 2019. All rights reserved.