IRP MEDICAL
Applications → Diabetes
Applications · Silicone Components for Diabetes Devices
For engineering, quality, and supply chain teams building insulin pumps, patch pumps, CGMs, pens, and infusion sets.

Qualify one silicone supplier. Scale it for the life of the device.

The seals, valves, septa, and overmolded components inside your device get molded on one floor, by one engineering team, under one quality system, from a ten-piece first article through sustained high-volume production. No mid-life re-source. No second validation because your supplier ran out of room.

Start Your Program Transfer an Existing Program
Send your print. An engineer responds.
📷
Diabetes Hero Visual
IRP-molded components only. Macro of seals, valves, septa, overmolds. Never a recognizable pump, patch, or CGM: a customer device in the hero undoes every framing rule the copy holds.
ISO 13485:2016 Certified FDA Registered Cleanroom Environment Molding 24/7 Operations Molding Elastomers Since 1980
Where This Usually Goes Wrong

The smallest part on the bill of materials is the one that stops the line.

A diabetes device is worn on the body, filled with fluid, and expected to run without intervention for days at a time. The parts that make that possible are a seal, a valve, a septum, an overmolded gasket a few millimeters across. They are also the parts most likely to fail an audit, hold up a validation, or trigger a line-down call at two in the morning.

Problem one

You have not picked a molder yet, and the decision is bigger than it looks.

By the time the program reaches this point, the tolerance stack is locked and the enclosure is tooled. The elastomer has to fit exactly what is already there. There is no room left to design around a supplier who cannot hold the dimension, cannot hold it lot after lot, or cannot hold it at the volume you are heading toward.

Pick for the launch volume and you will be doing this again in three years.

Problem two

You have a molder, and you are not getting the result.

Yields drift. Lots get argued over. The tool was built for a volume you passed two years ago, and every capacity conversation ends with a quote for a new mold. Somebody has already used the phrase "we may need to dual source."

This is the expensive problem, because the cost is not the parts. It is the requalification you are trying not to do.

Why This Keeps Happening

The industry qualifies molders for the volume you are launching at.

That is the habit, and it is the reason the same program gets re-sourced in year three. The fix is not a better vendor scorecard. It is qualifying against the volume curve instead of the launch number.

The usual way

Qualify for launch. Re-source at mid-life.

  • Tooling sized to the launch forecast, because that is what the PO covers
  • A molder chosen for first articles and clinical builds, then outgrown
  • Capacity conversations that end in a new mold quote and a new lead time
  • A second supplier qualified under ramp pressure, mid-life, on a live device
  • Validation repeated, documents rebuilt, and an audit trail that now spans two floors
  • Years of program time spent solving the same problem twice
How we do it

Qualify once. Scale for the life of the device.

  • Cavitation strategy driven by the volume you are heading toward and your target price
  • One molder that runs a ten-piece first article and sustained high volume on the same floor
  • Capacity planned into the tooling roadmap instead of negotiated after the ramp
  • One engineering team, one validated process, one quality system across the whole curve
  • One set of documents to audit, for the life of the program
  • The requalification you never have to schedule

Low-volume, high-mix work and high-volume automated work run side by side here, under the same quality system. That is rarer than it sounds, and it is the whole reason the second qualification never has to happen.

How It Actually Works

The system that makes one qualification hold for the life of the device

Every part that comes off our floor is controlled by four things: a machine, a mold, a material, and a process. We take ownership of all four, so you own none of them. Here is what that looks like from your print forward.

1

Design for manufacturability

Geometry, parting lines, gate location, and tolerance stack reviewed before a mold is cut. Most of the cost and most of the risk in an elastomeric component is decided here.

2

Tooling sized to the curve

Full tooling stewardship: requirements, design authority, DFM, cavitation strategy, vendor selection and management, validation, and transfer. Sized to the volume you are actually going to run. You never deal with a toolmaker.

3

Validation that holds up

FAI, MSA, DOE, IQ, OQ, PQ, with full material and product traceability from raw lot to shipped carton. Built as the work happens, so it is audit-ready any day.

4

Scale without a second qualification

Cleanroom environment molding, automated work cells, and 24/7 operations running the same validated process at ten thousand parts and at ten million.

MachineLate-model liquid injection presses, cold and hot runner tooling, automated work cells, robot demolding for high-cavitation programs.
MoldStewardship end to end. Cavitation driven by your volume and your target price, not by what is on a shelf.
MaterialThe right elastomer for the wear profile, the fluid, and the bond, sourced across every major LSR supplier and compounded to spec where no catalog grade holds.
ProcessValidated, documented, and inspected on the dimensions that actually matter to function.

Consistency is the product

Anyone can mold a good first article. Diabetes programs are won and lost on part number four hundred thousand and part number forty million.

ISO 13485:2016 certified and FDA registered

Quality management system integrated directly into our ERP.

QA lab inside the cleanroom

Not down the hall.

Automated non-contact vision metrology

Plus 3D stereo microscope inspection.

Since 1980

Molding elastomers.

Functional lot release

Leak, inflation, rebound, and response testing matched to what the part must do.

Complete traceability and 24/7 operations

Material and product traceability on every lot, round the clock for large-scale and time-sensitive programs.

Silicone components for diabetes devices

We are not a catalog. Every component below is custom, tooled to your print, and validated to your requirements. This is a representative list, not a limit.

Seals and O-ringsFor reservoirs, cartridges, housings, and fluid path interfaces.
Duckbill, umbrella, and check valvesFor controlled one-way flow.
Septa and pierceable sealsFor cannula insertion, needle penetration, and resealing.
Gaskets, diaphragms, and membranesFor pressure, venting, and environmental sealing.
Overmolded componentsBonded to plastics, metals, polyimide, film, fabric, and other silicones.
Grommets, dampers, and strain reliefFor sensor bodies and wearable enclosures.
Molded sub-assembliesDelivered ready to install, not ready to finish.
Conductive silicone componentsFor contact, grounding, and shielding applications.

Do not see your component? Tell us your application. We mold far more than fits on this page, and if we cannot mold it, you will hear that fast too.

Send us the print

Your spec picks the material, not our supply agreement

Most diabetes programs arrive with the material already specified. We work across every major liquid silicone supplier, so you are not forced into a compromise grade because of who we happen to buy from. Where no catalog grade holds the requirement, we compound to it.

LSR, full durometer range HCR and gum silicone Custom compounds to your property spec Fluorosilicone Conductive grades Organic and synthetic rubber
See all materials and molding processes →
Not Ready To Send A Print Yet

Three ways to start, and only one of them is a project.

Most engineers land here in the middle of an evaluation, not at the end of one. So there is something useful at every stage, and none of it requires a decision you have not made yet.

Instant value

The CTF Molder Audit Checklist

Twenty questions to ask any molder before you qualify them, including the four most teams skip and regret. Use it on us, and use it on whoever else is on your list.

Get the checklist
The step after

Where the checklist runs out

A checklist tells you what to ask. It cannot tell you whether a specific tool, at a specific cavitation, will still be the right tool at forty million parts. That is a print-level conversation, and it takes about thirty minutes.

Momentum step, thank-you page
Connection value

A 30-minute component risk review

Send one print. An engineer walks the geometry, the likely process, the cavitation path to your projected volume, and the two or three things most likely to bite you later. You leave with the answer whether or not you ever quote it.

Book the review

Second sourcing without a second headache

Qualifying a new supplier on a launched diabetes program is one of the least appealing projects in a medical device engineer's year. Tooling has to move or be rebuilt. Validation has to be repeated. Someone has to own the risk.

It is also the moment that decides the next several years of the program, which is why it is worth doing once, with a supplier built to carry the volume you are heading toward rather than the volume you are shipping today.

We do this regularly. Bring us the print, the history, and the failure mode you are trying to design out, and we will tell you honestly whether we can improve it, match it, or whether you are better off where you are.

Transfer an Existing Program

Questions we get from diabetes programs

Can IRP Medical mold silicone components for insulin pumps and CGMs?

Yes. We mold seals, valves, septa, gaskets, and overmolded components for insulin pumps, patch pumps, continuous glucose monitors, insulin pens, and infusion sets, from first article through high-volume production.

What happens when our volume grows past what the original tool supports?

Cavitation strategy is planned against your projected volume curve rather than your launch forecast, so added capacity is a planned step in the tooling roadmap instead of a new supplier qualification. The process, the quality system, and the engineering team stay the same.

What materials do you use for diabetes device components?

Liquid silicone rubber, gum silicone, fluorosilicone, conductive grades, and organic and synthetic rubber compounds. We work across all major liquid silicone suppliers and compound to custom physical property requirements where no catalog grade holds.

Are your components molded in a cleanroom?

Yes. Molding, inspection, secondary operations, and packaging are performed in controlled cleanroom environments inside our ISO 13485:2016 certified facility.

What volumes can you support?

Programs run from first article through sustained high-volume production. High-cavitation cold runner tooling, automated work cells, and 24/7 operations support the upper end.

Can you overmold silicone onto plastic or metal?

Yes. We overmold onto plastics, metals, polyimide, film, fabric, and other silicones, and we mold thermoplastic components for silicone overmolding applications.

Do you handle secondary operations, or do we need another supplier?

We handle slitting, die cutting, sub-assembly, inspection, and device packaging in house, so components arrive ready to install. Sterilization is coordinated.

Can you take over an existing program from another molder?

Yes. We regularly transfer launched programs, including tooling transfer, revalidation, and requalification.

What certifications do you hold?

ISO 13485:2016 certified and FDA registered. The certificate is available on our Quality page.

Tell us what is failing, and we will tell you if we can fix it.

Send the print, the volume, and the requirement. You will get an answer from an engineer, not a form letter, and an honest one even when the answer is no.

Start Your Program Transfer an Existing Program
Send your print. An engineer responds.