Medical Device Industry

Custom Medical Materials and Manufacturing

Building Trust into Every Material We Make

Many of the medical industry’s leading OEMs trust Shawmut with their highest challenges for medical composites and components.

Shawmut is a significant and critical supplier of non-woven, woven, knit, and laminated advanced materials and composites for incorporation into a wide variety of medical devices, orthopedic equipment, medical fabrics, and gowns.

Our advanced process technologies include the expertise to laminate thin barrier films to various substrates — providing the highest barrier protection while maintaining the natural high-performance wear and comfort properties of the substrates and films, no matter the application.

Medical Device Industry Challenges We Solve

How can we help you solve your most pressing medical device materials challenge?

Reduce dependency on distant supply chains and factories while retaining global competitiveness.

The global pandemic of 2020 highlighted several concerns about putting nearly the majority of our critical safety products in the hands of a distant overseas supply chain. According to HHS, 70% of respirators used in the U.S. at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak were made overseas, and China was the source of 50% of the world’s N95 respirators. When China shut down, that left us high and dry.

Supply chain issues have demanded that many manufactures look at reshoring or near-shoring suppliers and raw materials sources over the past few years. Shawmut makes PPE in the US and North America. We’ve taken that opportunity to produce N95 filter media in-house in the US that is a higher quality than what can be sourced overseas, is a more consistent quality, can be acquired in a fraction of the time, and provides innovation that allows for an overall delivery of higher value. 

Our supply chain does not cross any international borders as our raw materials are sourced on shore. Our supply chain is not subject to trade embargoes. This results in consistent quality and performance, much shorter lead times and quick turnaround.

Overcome technical challenges where humans, laminates and medical devices intersect.

At the interface of man and machine, technical textiles can be the buffer between hard and non-breathable surfaces and the soft skin and tissue of the human body. For example, a metal knee brace is needed to stabilize that critical joint for mobility, but we can’t put hard metal right up against our skin and tissue without a cushion in between, oftentimes a laminate. This laminate needs to be soft and breathable enough to protect the skin on one side, but durable enough on the other to adhere to the metal brace without ripping, shredding or delaminating, while offering a cushion in the middle to avoid hard shocks to the knee joint and leg area.

A similar challenge exists for medical inflatables like DVT prevention cuffs, lymphedema wraps and blood pressure cuffs. The side facing the skin needs to be soft and breathable for optimum skin care, but the other layers must withstand the repetitive cycles of air pressure distorting the inflatable bladder the fabric is laminated to.

Shawmut has excelled at technical lamination challenges such as these for decades as a proven supplier to the top manufacturers in the medical device field.

Build trust into every product we make for the medical device industry.

The one word that describes success in the medical device field is “trust.” If healthcare providers cannot trust your product to perform exactly the same every time, with no defects, they will not use it.

 

Shawmut has decades of building trust into our materials we produce for medical device manufacturers, whether it is barrier fabrics for reusable or single-use surgeons gowns, to stretch laminates for orthopedic products, to welded inflatable laminates that cycle through hundreds of thousand of air pressure loads, to simple hook-and-loop laminates that must stay in place after repeated use. 


We put that trust into every medical product we make, and it starts with US-sourced materials and products engineered and manufactured in North America. Shorter supply chain, longer trust.

Combine materials functionality with design to help tell the customer’s story.

Our customers succeed when their products tell a rich and compelling story to the market.

We understand evolving technology and design trends. We work closely with our customers to translate those insights into custom materials with the appearance, texture, and functionality that support our customer’s design vision. 

 

Our customers sweat the even minute details of texture and appearance, often down to the contrast created by a single stitch in order to tell a story, so we do as well. Comfort, sophistication, performance or sustainability –  we can help tell that story.

 

Whether it’s a specific color with the perfect texture and a custom surface embossing, or a breathable, autoclavable viral barrier with a sleek technical look, Shawmut brings complex design visions to life.

We create solutions to your production challenges

How can we help you solve your most pressing medical device materials challenge?

Shawmut Corporation improved an RF welding process, reducing cycle times by 20% while maintaining high quality in medical air bladder manufacturing. A multi-discipline team of experts designed a solution to increase capacity constraints that allowed the client to re-shore production and achieve over 1 million units annually with JIT methods.

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Medical Device Industry Capabilities

Medical Device Industry Applications

DVT Prevention
Shawmut’s state-of-the-art RF welding capabilities are critical to DVT wrap components.

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Surgical Gowns
Shawmut is a significant and critical supplier of laminated barrier fabrics for surgical gowns.

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Orthopedic Bracing
We excel at soft composites used against the skin in a wide variety of orthopedic bracing.

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Arm Slings
We bring contract manufacturing capabilities from design through packaging.

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Inflatable Medical Devices
Whether you require waterproof seams, airtight seals, or customized designs, our expertise and inflatables welding equipment deliver exceptional results.

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Fetal Monitor Straps
Strapping and unbroken loop applications for medical devices and wearables are key competencies for Shawmut.

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Respirators
Our high-efficiency meltblown filter media is a crucial component in the production of surgical masks and respirators.

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Lymphedema Prevention
Shawmut is a world leader in innovative materials for medical fabric and medical device applications.

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