Nitinol supplier Fort Wayne Metals wins Medtronic innovation award

A photo of Fort Wayne Metals President Jeremy Rohrs and Chief Commercial Officer Kimberly Shoppell posing with their 2025 Supplier Innovation Excellence Award from Medtronic.

Fort Wayne Metals President Jeremy Rohrs and Chief Commercial Officer Kimberly Shoppell pose with their 2025 Supplier Innovation Excellence Award from Medtronic. [Photo courtesy of Fort Wayne Metals]

Medtronic has awarded a Supplier Innovation Excellence Award to Fort Wayne Metals for its nitinol melt program, the medtech supplier said.

That nitinol program “has strengthened global supply chain resilience and supported the advancement of life-improving medical technologies,” Fort Wayne Metals said in a news release announcing the award.

“The award is part of Medtronic’s Supplier Excellence program, which celebrates suppliers who deliver exceptional performance in quality, service, cost, innovation, and delivery,” Fort Wayne Metals said in the release, adding that its “work in expanding nitinol melt capabilities, enhancing material consistency, and supporting next-generation medical devices contributed directly to this year’s honor.”

A sphere-shaped, expandable lattice device with electrodes for cardiac ablation

Medtronic’s Affera Sphere-9 mapping and ablation catheter is designed with an expanding nitinol lattice that can provide radiofrequency ablation or PFA to treat AFib. [Photo courtesy of Medtronic]

A Fort Wayne Metals representative declined to say which Medtronic devices and systems use its nitinol. Medtronic — the world’s largest medical device company — uses nitinol for minimally invasive technologies including its pulsed-field ablation (PFA) PulseSelect and Affera catheters that treat atrial fibrillation, Symplicity Spyral renal denervation (RDN) catheters that treat hypertension, and catheter-delivered heart valve implants like the Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV).

Free download: Learn how Medtronic and other major OEMs developed their PFA systems in MDO’s Nitinol Innovation Special Report

“Being recognized by Medtronic is a tremendous honor,” Fort Wayne Metals Chief Commercial Officer Kimberly Shoppell said in the release. “This award reflects the dedication of our entire team to push the boundaries of what’s possible in nitinol processing and to reliably deliver world-class materials that support our customers and their patients.”

Fort Wayne Metals said it “continues to scale its nitinol melt and downstream processing operations [and] remains committed to supplying the medical device industry with highly engineered materials that advance their customers’ innovative devices worldwide.”

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