Innovation Program Success Story

NDH Medical, Inc. Testimonial
“NDH Medical, Inc. Balloons with Success”

NDH Medical, Inc. (NDH) has delivered unique extrusions and contact manufacturing services to the medical industry since 1994. The company strives to stay ahead of the curve and provide the most advanced products to its clients. In particular, they provide a variety of tubing with unique physical properties, as well as a line of elastomeric balloons for use in the manufacturing of medical products.

In NDH’s search for ways to improve its catheter balloons, collaboration with the Time Wise Management Systems (TWMS), Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Florida MEP), and the University of South Florida (USF) began. Florida MEP provided NDH with a H-1B Advanced Manufacturing Grant, funded by the US Department of Labor and administered by the Brevard Workforce Development Board, allowing NDH to initiate a mini-assessment of the company, its products and business methodology. Based on these results, NDH resolved to hiring mentors for NDH employees in the area of medical polymers and polymer constitutionals beneficial to the company. The H1B grant supported the training of NDH employees on the use of tear strength materials. This knowledge gave NDH the ability to expand its balloons to a size and order of magnitude greater than its existing product. Following this discovery, a process for consistently producing balloons was prototyped in parallel with characterization of the new material.

By employing this grant, NDH was able to: save $17,000 in direct cost through identified grants; expand their talented staff; enhance overall balloon marketability be developing and deploying new high elastic modulus materials; invest in new technology to automate the manufacture of these balloons; and increase market by providing a solution that permits additional applications.

“Being able to utilize funding from the ‘Advanced Manufacturing Grant’ provided a vehicle for furthering research with the University of South Florida, and the subsequent completion of critical work on our new catheter balloon project,” said Geary Havran, CEO of NDH Medical. “The training we received included specifics on materials and material processing, which will allow us to introduce a new product into the marketplace, while enhancing our ability to explore new, mass-production methodologies, on our own.”