History
fIt started in 1990, at the Innovation department of Pope Cable and Wire, a Philips Electronics company. Hans Hanssen and Emiel Lenders started to experiment with using the coating process for enamelled copper wires for other purposes. They soon found that coating stainless steel with PTFE would be suitable for medical applications. So they developed a new process for this purpose. In 1994, the Innovation department began the development of hydrophilic coatings. The result is known today as the patented SlipSkin™ hydrophilic coating.
Over time, the Innovation department developed an increasing number of contacts in the medical world, and established itself as a separate business entity. Belden Wire & Cable acquired Pope Cable & Wire and joined forces with the University of Maastricht and Biomat. In 1999 they formed MCTec to commercialise medical applications for its reel-to-reel coating process. In early 2001, STS Biopolymers (Henrietta, New York) acquired MCTec, and in December 2003, all assets of STS Biopolymer (including MCTec) were acquired by Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.
As a separate business entity, MCTec develops more and more new coating applications for medical purposes. Some examples include Heparin-releasing coating and a PTFE-coated hypotube for PTCA applications. In 2004 MCTec launched its first prototype of hydrophilically-coated polymer tube. This was developed throughout the course of 2005 and 2006.
On January 1st 2006, the MCTec shares were acquired by Merit Medical Systems. Merit Medical Systems supplies the medical world with a range of OEM components, such as torque devices, injected moulded parts and syringes.
