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Surface treatments

Having been involved in manufacturing products for medical and biotech applications for several decades, Unimed’s technicians are unexcelled in finishing / post processing small tubular parts.Our products can be provided with :

  • Heat Treatment, e.g. Annealing / Stress releaving processes in Vacuum Oven or under Inert Gas Protection.
  • Vibratory Polishing, which removes burrs and breaks edges in order to create a nice surface finish.
  • Electropolishing, a controlled chemical process that removes a slight amount of the surface, thus creating a bright appearance and enhancing the corrosion resistance.
  • Microblasting can be used to deburr, to roughen and clean the surface of tubular parts. It creates a non-reflective surface for graduations and allows for better adhesion of injection-moulded plastics.
  • Passivation, a chemical process which increases the corrosion inhibiting properties of stainless steel and removes welding discoloration.
  • Ultrasonic and other Cleaning Processes. A variety of methods can be applied to remove dirt, grease or residual contaminants from the interior and the exterior of tubular components. Unimed is also in a position to apply a customer’s own cleaning process to a particular device.
  • Surface Coatings of various kinds, in order to achieve specific material properties in the required areas, such as :

    • Electrical Insulation
      Combining the properties of plastic and glass, a coating thickness of only about 10 µm already provides excellent electrical insulation

    • Anti-Adhesive (hydrophobic) Properties
      Liquids are effectively repelled by applying special coatings, resulting in residue-free cleaning and in optimum dripping behaviour (non-stick effect). On the other hand, surfaces can also be treated to become hydrophilic.

    • Smoothing of Surfaces
      Surface roughness, resulting from the production process and machining, is considerably reduced by applying coatings which have an outstanding smoothing behaviour , with a clear reduction in material abrasion, carry-over and deposits

    • Hardening of Surfaces
      A protective coating of hard chrome can be deposited by a plating process on various base materials to produce a hard wearing low friction surface. Hard Chrome Plating can meet tight tolerances and features extreme hardness as well as excellent abrasion and corrosion resistance.

    • Decorative Effects
      Our specialists are well versed in nickel plating, chrome plating, gold plating, etc and can apply these processes on a variety of base materials.

In addition to a variety of coating solutions for precision mechanics, Unimed offers, in particular, appropriate Functional Surfaces for Biotechnology Products, specifically outside and/or inside coatings of capillary probes for optimum dripping behaviour, reduced adhesion of proteins or a diffusion barrier for metal ions.