Freudenberg Medical, a developer and manufacturer of finished medical devices, components, and minimally invasive solutions for the medical device industry, has expanded industrial design and human factors engineering through the launch of a Handle Design Center of Excellence (CoE) in Jeffersonville, Indiana. 

With the expanded Handle Design CoE, Freudenberg has centralised handle design and development efforts in one location, with the intent to increase the speed of iterations for prototypes and to unify handle learnings across the organisation. Freudenberg Medical develops user interfaces for minimally invasive products in a wide variety of therapeutic areas.

Freudenberg Medical’s Handle Design Center of Excellence unifies in-house capabilities to design and iterate ergonomically focused handles with development of manufacturable functional mechanisms. This focus ensures shortened development and launch timelines with products that are compliant with human factors and essential requirements.  

Mark Ostwald, CEO of Freudenberg Medical, said: “Our industrial design and mechanical development team has over 50 years of combined product design experience, this team is focused on physician interaction, product functionality, and translating that to commercial manufacturability. Our extensive clinical knowledge combined with established suppliers places Freudenberg Medical as the premier handle design partner.”

Freudenberg Medical’s catheter development includes advanced extrusion, catheter shaft and balloon development, which can be seamlessly integrated with the Handle Design CoE for full service prototype and product development. Manufacturability is a major tenant of the handle design and development process to ensure products will seamlessly transition to commercial manufacturing.