White Paper: Medical
A New Platform for Advanced Catheter Design: Performance Without PFAS
SPONSORED BY: ![]()
As medical device design grows more complex and material expectations continue to evolve, manufacturers are beginning to seek new materials that deliver dependable performance while also enabling greater flexibility and long-term confidence. In this interview, Suresh Sainath, Chief Technology Officer at Zeus, and Jim O’Connell, Chief Commercial Officer, discuss Zeus’ new PFX™ platform: a forward-looking solution to support the next generation of advanced catheter designs.
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Overview
The document is an interview with Zeus executives Suresh Sainath, Chief Technology Officer, and Jim O’Connell, Chief Commercial Officer, discussing Zeus’s newly launched PFX™ platform—a forward-looking portfolio of non-fluorinated polymer materials designed to support the next generation of advanced catheter designs. This platform addresses evolving challenges in medical device manufacturing such as moving beyond PFAS chemicals, sustainability concerns, and sterilization alternatives beyond traditional ethylene oxide (EtO).
The first product in this platform is PFX Flex™ Sub-Lite-Wall™, introduced as a next-gen catheter liner alternative to film-cast PTFE. Made from a non-fluorinated polymer resin without intentional PFAS use and confirmed by third-party testing to have fluorine levels below 20 ppm, PFX Flex offers high lubricity comparable to PTFE, which is inherent to the material rather than requiring coating. It also matches or exceeds PTFE in flexibility. A key advantage is its superior bonding capability through direct covalent bonding without chemical etching, unlike PTFE, and compatibility with multiple sterilization methods—e-beam, gamma, and EtO—without degrading performance.
PFX Flex supports a broader range of design options, offering inside diameters (IDs) from 0.013 to 0.387 inches—significantly larger than PTFE film-cast liners—and nominal wall thicknesses as low as 0.0015 inches. This enables applications across small neurovascular devices to larger structural heart systems.
Beyond PFX Flex, the platform roadmap includes several innovations: PFX Max™, a liner alternative to free-extruded PTFE emphasizing enhanced strength, tighter tolerances, and thinner walls; PFX Peelz™, a peelable heat shrink alternative to FEP focused on processing efficiency and waste-to-energy recovery; and PFX Glide™, a next-generation substitute for lubricious polyimide.
Together, these products embody Zeus’s commitment to delivering high-performance materials paired with sustainable approaches, enabling engineers to innovate catheter designs without sacrificing performance or safety standards. Confidence in this new platform is supported by collaboration with customers to accelerate R&D and embrace first-mover advantages in evolving medical device technologies. Further information is available on Zeus’s website.
In summary, the PFX platform represents a comprehensive, sustainable, and high-performance material solution developed for the advanced demands of next-generation catheter manufacturing, helping overcome limitations of existing materials like PTFE while aligning with future regulatory and environmental trends.