Confluent - Previously Nitinol Devices & Components - NDC

We have interacted with the personnel at NDC and they have all been highly knowledgeable and experts in the field of Nitinol, along with applications within the medical industry. My knowledge of Nitinol has expanded due to their internal staff and browsing through the NDC website. A great source when gathering information about Nitinol: website, place to start and learn for new and old engineers, manufacturing, sustain and operation personal.

Strengths: They are experts in Nitinol products. Their internal Engineering and Sales (Internal & External) team was able to help R&D and Manufacturing develop a procedure that ensures the product can be manufactured reliable every time. We tried other vendors and nobody was able to reproduce to our controlled documents - repeatable, per order.

Needs to improve: NItinol tends to be a bit pricey. They are experts and if you are trying to be within a certain price range it can be tough.

We have been using NDC for a main supplier for stents, guide wires, and coils. Specially the nitinol that we use from them is heat treated in our facility for allowing us to have the performance in our products that we'd like to have. We have not had any issues with heat treating their products and they have all performed flawlessly. We have worked closely with them in creating a nitinol composition tailored to our specific needs. Their products are expensive but their expertise in material science is unparalleled. Orders get shipped out very quickly and they are very nice and easy to deal with over the phone. We have always had great yields from their lots and have no issues with tolerances on our end. I highly recommend them for anyone looking for a nitinol supplier.

Strengths: nitinol devices, hardware supplier, quality product

Needs to improve: none

My start up used NDC to do prototyping designs with Nitinol based medical devices. They have an extremely knowledgeable team that is very accessible to help customize solutions. Since the merger with J&J, they have go back to basics in terms of servicing but no longer contract with smaller firms. This had been one of their core competencies, but now seems to have been lost in bureaucracy. Will most likely not use again.

Strengths: High level of industry knowledge, tailored solutions, decent work product

Needs to improve: Price, turnaround time

I have interacted with many of the personnel at NDC and they have all been highly knowledgeable and experts in the field of Nitinol as well as its applications with the medical industry. I have learned quite a lot through my years in the industry from working with the people at NDC or just browsing through their website. For any young engineer or person that wants to learn about Nitinol, their website is probably the best place to go as a first place to start and learn. Many of their white papers and research through the years are publicly available and still extremely relevant today.

Strengths: Strong expertise in Nitinol. Very professional and quality services

Needs to improve: None

NDC is in flux. Historically they've provided components to Large Medical Device Companies. When bidding for jobs from Startups their price structure was not competitive. They've also struggled to keep up with the capabilities of their competitors. When competitors were quoting tighter tolerances with lower prices, NDC was unwilling to compete. Recently NDC has been looking to bolster their business with development work for startups. Pricing has become more competitive but they are still reluctant to provide the tighter tolerances of their competitors, insisting to sticking with their +/- 25 microns, which puts limits on what one can do from the design side.

Strengths: Stent Manufacturing

Needs to improve: Pricey

NDC specialized in process all related to nitinol from selling tubing to process, forming and testing. It is all spread out that purchasing just tubing itself sales force is not strong enough as other vendor like fort wayne. The tubing are good quality though.

Strengths: Good quality nitinol tubing.

Needs to improve: Hard to find the good rep like other fort wayne metal company

NDC provide exceptiona services and customer service will encourage every one to use NDC

Strengths: I have interacted with many of the personnel at NDC and they have all been highly knowledgeable and experts in the field of Nitinol as well as its applications with the medical industry. I have learned quite a lot through my years in the industry from working with the people at NDC or just browsing through their website. For any young engineer or person that wants to learn about Nitinol, their website is probably the best place to go as a first place to start and learn. Many of their white papers and research through the years are publicly available and still extremely relevant today.

Needs to improve: non

We have used NDC to do prototyping work with Nitinol based medical devices. They have an extremely knowledgeable staff and have the resources to produce high quality work. They were acquired a years ago by J&J. They have since returned to their roots but no longer cater to the smaller companies. This used to be their strong point but nowadays NDC is seems to be only interested in doing work for larger companies.

They produce high quality parts but this comes at a price.

Strengths: Experts in Nitinol, R&D and prototyping

Needs to improve: Pricing has gotten incredibly expensive, does not cater to smaller companies nowadays

Our company worked with NDC to bring a concept for a delicate part of a medical device into reality. Their team provided exceptional service and worked with our company to ensure a successful end-product. Because of the fragile nature of the build we needed a company that had not only the mechanical capabilities but also a communicative team that would qualify every process. Going with NDC was a good choice and we were more than satisfied with the outcome. Do your own research but we found NDC was a great fit for our needs.

Strengths: Inhouse experience.

Needs to improve: None.

Very knowledgeable and great support. High quality products.

Strengths: NDC is a well established company with twenty years as a provider of Nitinol material and services. From material supply to component fabrication, and device design to testing, analysis, simulation capabilities. We use them as one of our total outsourcing partners. They are able to work with us on a few projects from prototyping services through high volume production, as well as an extensive range of testing and simulation services. We work very closely with technical and manufacturing staff. Very professional. Support is excellent. Quotes are accurate and deliveries on time.

Needs to improve: None

Interacted with several different teams at NDC, both when they were a J&J company and now that they're separate again, and they've always been very professional and are open to working together with their customers, including educating them on vital nitinol information (Check out the Nitinol University section of their website!). Their expertise does come at a high price though.

Strengths: Home to some of the brightest NiTi experts in the world; Capable of helping you design devices from scratch; Capable of manufacturing nitinol devices

Needs to improve: Costly for services and components

We have not had any issues with heat treating their products and they have all performed flawlessly. We have worked closely with them in creating a nitinol composition tailored to our specific needs. There customer service is always professional and gives great service. There pricing is very fair, and the turnaround time is always quick. Will continue to use this vendor.

Strengths: The components were all easy to use and great quality. Their customer service is always a pleasure to work with. We will definitely use this firm again!

Needs to improve: none

They have good customer service and are willing to work with you on your project instead of just being a hands-off material supplier.

Strengths: Aside from being able to supply nitinol in most any shape you may require, they also have deep in-house expertise in nitinol heat treatment and manipulation and can help consult with you on your project.

Needs to improve: Not really a complaint, but it would be nice if some of the special order sizes could be delivered more quickly so that prototyping could happen at a faster pace.

Nitinol helps us to develop and commercialize our world-class medical devices. We currently have 3 new products coming to the medical dialysis market. Nitinol really understand the unique needs and demands of the medical device industry and have proven experience in helping customers like us take their ideas from prototyping to production. Great all around company with a proven trac record.

Strengths: They are a local Bay Area company that specializes in making your prototypes reality.

Needs to improve: Their services are not cheap but well worth every penny.

We have used NDC to help with the design development and manucaturing of an implant that we recently market released. Their technical expertise and nitinol processing capabilities are unmatched by anyone else in the industry.

Strengths: They are the diffinitive NiTinol eperts. They provide a wide assortment of nitinol products like wire, tubing and strips. they also have the expertise to design, develop and manufacture anything made from Nitinol.

Needs to improve: Getting quotes is not always fast process and their customer service is slow to return calls.

We source our system components through Nitinol for our small scale assembly. Being a small company, we need to deal with vendors that can accommodate our varying order quantities yet still offer value. Nitinol is great as their customer service team is insightful and offers us countless solutions. They are easy to reach and quick on every front. Great production selection, quick turnarounds and competitive pricing. Will continue to support.

Strengths: wide product selection, customer service, quality products

Needs to improve: none

We bought Nitinol tubing from them in my last company and we were happy with them. Almost always they are responsible for the tubing defects that they shipped. At current company, we worked with their engineer team for full service Nitinol devise from designing to making parts and testing. They are capable of anything related to Nitinol.

Strengths: Quality Nitinol tubing vendor. Knowledgeable engineer team for design and testing relate to Nitinol. Fast responsive customer service.

Needs to improve: Expensive for full service.

NDC prefers not to work on prototypes volumes while you are developing your product. They also struggle with providing parts of super high tolerance (< 10 microns) needed to understand design sensitivity. If you have large volumes and wider tolerances (+/- 25 microns) they are fine though pricey. Lead times are middle of the road.

Strengths: Large Volume Stent Production

Needs to improve: $$$$$ and low desire to work on prototype runs

NDC provides NiTi flat wire ribbons for our product, but have also used NDC as a consulting service for processing Nitinol stents and coils. Very knowledgeable staff and extremely helpful. They can provide a detailed engineering report for failure analysis for root cause investigations. The quality of their Nitinol ribbons are excellent and have not yet had an issue with them from the years using them.

Strengths: Technical knowledge, NiTi processing, Quality Product

Needs to improve: Price

NDC has built stent prototypes for my companies in the past. Volumes were lower though, so better pricing was found elsewhere.

Strengths: NDC is a premier supplier of nitinol devices (stents, etc.)

Needs to improve: They have become less helpful to smaller companies as their focus has shifted to be a key supplier to large companies. They used to help small companies for nominal fees, but no charge significantly higher rates.