Resonetics builds end-to-end nitinol capabilities: Here’s why that matters

Resonetics has long been a major supplier of nitinol to the medtech industry, but it’s increasingly become an end-to-end nitinol development and manufacturing partner. 

At MD&M West in Anaheim, California this February, a team of Resonetics nitinol experts presented a case study on a representative transcatheter heart valve frame. The goal was to demonstrate how Resonetics’ nitinol expertise translates into real-world performance advantages when development, material selection, laser cutting, and post-processing all happen in-house.  

[Want to dig deeper into Resonetics’ nitinol expertise? DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi recently hosted Resonetics VP of Nitinol Technology Scott Robertson and Director of Strategic Projects and Lightspeed Andie Pequegnat for a DeviceTalks Tuesday webinar exploring nitinol from ingot to complex component. Originally aired March 18, 2025, the session is now available on-demand. Watch it here.]

Resonetics is leaning into its history with nitinol and taking a position in the growing trend among industry suppliers as they seek to offer a seamless path from concept through commercialization. The company’s Lightspeed Lab network spans more than 10 global labs, each specializing in rapid prototyping across a range of capabilities. Resonetics’ three nitinol-focused labs in Bethel, Connecticut; San Diego; and Israel offer hands-on support for innovation and prototyping. Its Agile Product Development group — formed through the acquisitions of Distal Solutions in 2021 and Agile MV in 2022 —  includes a team of more than 50 engineers focused on early-stage contract R&D. Together, these early-stage offerings help medtech innovators accelerate development, reduce risk, and bring better products to market faster.  

For the case study presented at MD&M West, the Agile Product Development team designed a nitinol heart valve frame and the Lightspeed Lab developed the processes to produce the part. Sticking with Resonetics from the creation of the material through to the finished nitinol component has its advantages, said David Rezac, global VP of Resonetics’ Agile Product Development. Instead of just supplying nitinol, Resonetics engineers the material specifically to meet the final product’s needs, ensuring better performance and manufacturability from the start. 

Nitinol’s combination of flexibility, superelasticity and shape memory has enabled medtech innovation, particularly when it comes to minimally invasive devices for cardiovascular and structural heart applications. But what’s underappreciated about nitinol is the nuance of all its individual properties, and what that means from a design perspective, Rezac said.

“The more we know about your application up front, the more we can fine-tune the material at the ingot level to really maximize your design envelope, getting things to a place where your processing ranges and COGS are healthy while meeting functional targets,” he said.  

When it comes to creating a frame for a heart valve, the Resonetics team can take mechanical properties like radial force, fatigue resistance, and transformation temperatures into consideration early in the process to ensure the material will perform optimally in tough cardiovascular environments.  

There are many ways that Resonetics can customize nitinol properties at the ingot level, according to Resonetics Operations VP Rich LaFond.  

“We make a lot of different chemistries, different transformation temperatures, from –50°C up to plus 95°C, and binary. … We do this for different reasons, whether it’s to make a more narrow hysteresis, a wider hysteresis, stiffness of the material, things like that. So there are a lot of things we can do. Most medical devices are all just binary, and so that’s compliant with ASTM F2063,” LaFond said.

Resonetics provided other advantages in the heart valve project: 

• Control over nitinol production and tubing quality allowed Resonetics to optimize material properties for more consistent performance in subsequent steps like femtosecond laser cutting, shape setting, and electro-polishing. 
• In-house testing and benchmarking provided feedback along the way and validated how early decisions at the ingot and tube selection level, and the ability to make decisions about material properties, component design, and manufacturing in one place, which translated into a high-performing, scalable product. 
• With control over the full process, Resonetics could rapidly iterate and refine the heart valve design and performance.  

“We picked the raw material, starting with the right ingot and tube for the heart valve application,” Resonetics VP of Nitinol Business Development Eric Veit said. “We did the appropriate component processing and design and development to get the mechanical property characteristics that we wanted. We tested it, and now it’s time to manufacture at volume.”