Case Studies

Objective

Develop a Polyurethane Spray Coating Solution to produce a component of an arterial catheter for coronary applications.

Result

The customer is a Fortune 500 company, and a major producer of coronary catheters. Their R&D group had developed a new catheter tip component that was formed via spray coating onto a mandrel. The critical issue for the customer was they were unsuccessful in developing a spray forming solution that was stable; the polymer would precipitate in a very short time yielding the process impractical.

Bay Materials developed a solvent system that maintains polyurethane in solution, and worked with the client to optimize the polymer properties for the application. We further completed a formal development including documentation that met the requirements of their stringent quality system.

Upon completion of the development, the customer needed a “small volume” source, so Bay Materials agreed to produce the spray-forming solution. This required a Quality System Audit that met the highest quality standards for invasive medical devices. “Bay Materials passed with pride.”

Objective

Develop a compound with good heat transfer properties that can wet and flow into a matrix of carbon nano-tubes that are grown off a substrate.

Result

The customer was a Silicon Valley Start Up addressing the issue of efficiently pulling thermal energy out of computer chips. Carbon nano-tubes have exceptional heat transfer properties, so in effect are “perfect heat transfer fins”. However, to be effective in a heat transfer application, they must be wetted by a heat transfer medium; in this case a solid state material.

Bay Materials did a broad screening to identify candidate materials that could be effective as a heat transfer medium, and further could wet and flow into a nano-tube matrix in a melt condition. Test methods were developed to screen candidate materials. Screening was completed and a few top candidates were selected for development. A matrix of formulations were produced and tried until a final candidate was selected.

The outcome of the project was a material formulation, a process for application, quality documentation, and related intellectual property were handed off to the customer.

Objective

Develop a sensor that can measure a property of saliva (Saliva Osmolality) that is a bio-marker for the state of Human Hydration.

Result

The US Army recognized some leading physiology research that identified an association between saliva osmolality and human hydration. They initiated a Small Business Innovation Program to unlock practical approaches to measuring saliva osmolality in soldiers. Bay Materials conceptualized and proposed the use of a “sensing polymer” in combination with a MEMS Microcantilever, a base technology that was invented at Northern Arizona University by Tim Porter, PhD, and Michael Eastman, PhD. The development had two needs to prove the concept; we needed a polymer that would swell reversibly as a function of saliva osmolality, and a piezo-resistive microcantilever to measure volume changes of the polymer.

Hydrogel Polymers that are available commercially were screened and showed promise, but none could meet all the requirements. Dr. Stewart formulated a sensing polymer at the Bay Materials Facility that did meet all the requirements. In parallel, Jim Reed worked with Alisa Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Associates, to develop a micro-cantilever MEMS die that met all the requirements of a sensor that would eventually reside in the oral cavity. After a few MEMS development cycles at Stanford Fab Lab, we eventually worked with a commercial MEMS Foundry to produce micro-cantilever MEMS die on 6” wafers (commercial scale). We did succeed at demonstrating “proof-of-concept” and went on to develop a hand held instrument.

Recognizing that a Medical Device Human Hydration Sensor did not fit the Bay Materials Business Model, Cantimer Incorporated was founded to commercialize the technology. (see “Cantimer.com”)

Objective

Our client was a startup medical device company with an idea for a revolutionary orthodontic product called Invisalign®.

Result

Working closely with the client’s scientists and clinicians, we developed a comprehensive material needs and wants profile. After finalizing the material criteria, we identified multiple candidate polymeric materials and developed manufacturing processes to speed them into clinical tests. Simultaneously, we developed rigorous laboratory test methods to predict product performance and lifetime.

Our polymer material was used as a custom fitted aligner to sequentially move teeth over a period of time. Today, the client is the worldwide leader in aligner therapy treatment with over 2 million patients treated.

Our documentation and quality system enables us to meet industrial needs, and allows us to deliver extruded and die cut product on a monthly basis with 100% on-time and 0% reject over the last two years.

Objective

Develop a metal foil that could be heat sealed to cyclic olefin co-polymer (COC) polymers.

Result

Commercial materials were screened and found to be unsuitable for the client’s needs. A custom heat seal layer r was developed and coated onto a thin commercial metal foil. This modified foil was suitable for application in the automatic sealing equipment used by the client. Client was delivered production information for the film along with prototype quantities of working material.

Objective

Who doesn’t love a perfectly roasted turkey? Our client was an established company with a desire to improve on a reliable temperature indicating device. An organic material was desired to replace the existing metal based trigger component for pop-up roasting timers. A significant number of variables must be taken into account to deliver an indicator for a perfectly roasted product and a safe, convenient material that will rapidly melt at the target temperature is the solution to that need.

Result

Bay Materials has developed a range of Precision Melting Organic Compounds (PMOC) with exact melting temperatures from 70-90 C for this industry. Materials are compounded at Bay Materials and their precise temperature properties are verified with each batch through our in house analytical systems. The material is shipped to the U.S. manufacturer for incorporation in the final device.

Today the pop-up timer market has expanded from consumer turkeys and industrial cooking to a much broader range of roasted products such as pork shoulder and tri-tip. If you go to the market on any given day you’ll see some of these timers with our enabling material just waiting to pop in your oven.