What "Quick Turn" Actually Means in Custom Medical Extrusion
Search for a medical tubing supplier and you will find that every one of them offers “Quick-Turn”. So the term has stopped carrying urgency and significance. Our quick turn is One week or less from receipt of purchase order. With all parameters defined, we can cut the lead time to as fast as three days. This is a service that is repeatable and our standard on single lumen projects where the selected material is on our shelves.
If you are evaluating suppliers, it is necessary for you to ask each of them the following questions and compare the answers.
What actually consumes the clock
A Quick-Turn order requires the following four things:
Tooling. Custom tubing needs a custom tip and die. If a tip and die combination is not available in house, most extrusion houses must source it out and have to wait weeks to get it manufactured.
Material. The resin grade is on the shelf or it has to be ordered, and whether the supplier has it available to ship it within the desired timeline.
Line time. Whether a machine can be broken into for a short run, or whether your short order has to be queued behind a production order with three days left on it.
Inspection and documentation. First piece approval, in process inspection, and the paperwork that makes the run usable inside a design history file.
Three of the four items above have nothing to do with how fast the parts can be manufactured, yet they all must work in sync for good parts to be manufactured and shipped in a timely manner.
Tooling is where the weeks go
Tooling is where the weeks go. Tooling on for a Quick Turn order means getting the tooling manufactured and delivered so that the quoted Quick Turn timeline is met.
So we manage the tooling cycle rather than wait on it, we achieve this by leveraging our long standing tool shop relationships, tight windows, and no “slack built” into the schedule. When the tooling job is awarded the expectation and date is set.
It also sets the failure mode. When a first article comes back and the wall is not where you want it, or a lumen web needs to move, the only question that matters is how fast the revision gets cut. We work closely with the machine shop(s) to ensure that the changes can be done in a timeframe that fits the promised ship date.
If you can envision an extrusion design, we can challenge ourselves to manufacture it for you. Send us the geometry another extruder passed on and we will tell you honestly what it takes to run it or if it's achievable.
What quick turn does not mean
This is the part most suppliers leave out, so we will be direct about it.
It does not mean the inspection plan gets shortened. We operate to an ISO 13485:2016 QMS, in a Class 8 certified cleanroom. Every incoming raw material lot is inspected to ensure all the paperwork is accurate and it matches what is ordered. First piece inspection covers the customer’s critical dimensions, and some internal standards when not listed on the drawing/specification. In process inspection on critical dimensions is performed every thirty minutes or less, where extrusion and quality alternate to ensure impartiality. An Associated AQL is used, where C=0; spooled product is measured and recorded at the beginning and end of every spool, additionally, the OD is measured and recorded in real time throughout the length of the run using an integrated 3-axis lasermike. On projects that require it we will also perform 100% sorting.
It does not apply uniformly across geometries. A single-lumen part in a stocked resin is different from a profile extrusion with a custom material. Multi-lumen or profile extrusions require more tooling development and more inspection, and it is quoted accordingly. We will be transparent upfront, if the timeline doesn’t work for your project it’s better for you to know up front rather than weeks into the project.
It does not mean we will take a job we should not. If certain materials are not feasible for what you are trying to achieve, we will let you know during quoting. A fast quote followed by a failed run is slower than an honest conversation on day one.
What you can do to land in the fast case
Most of the delay we see happens before the PO, in the back and forth required to turn an inquiry into something quotable. You can eliminate most of that by sending the following up front.
Critical dimensions such as OD,ID,Wall with their respective tolerances, where one of the three is a reference dimension.
Raw material required
Length, quantity, and whether you want it cut in line or spooled
Sterilization method, because it constrains resin choice
Radiopaque filler and loading, if any
For multi-lumen or profile work, a dimensioned cross section, CAD, is preferred.
Inspection method - how you intend to inspect each critical dimension
That last one matters, we would measure using the same method to ensure measurement alignment.
If the design is not frozen, send it anyway. Material choice, wall thickness, lumen geometry, and sterilization method all interact, and the cheapest time to find the conflict is before tooling is cut.
Why any of this matters
For a development engineer, lead time is not a procurement metric. It is the length of your iteration loop.
A one week turn means you can submit your design concept on Monday, hold the result on Friday, and order the revision the same month. On a development project that difference decides whether you hit a milestone or explain a slipped quarter.
Having the tubing is just how you help your development project be delivered.
Have a print, or a problem that is not a print yet? Send it over. We will tell you what we can and cannot achieve on it, and how fast.
Emerald Extrusion, 1975 Chicago Ave STE B, Riverside, CA 92507. ISO 13485:2016 certified. Class 8 cleanroom.
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