Lighteum Medical appoints Gaurav Agarwal as CEO

Lighteum Medical, San Diego, California, a manufacturer of precision medical components including high-complexity nitinol-based solutions, appointed Gaurav Agarwal as chief executive officer.

Agarwal has nearly 30 years of leadership experience across medical devices, diagnostics, and healthcare technology, including involvement in more than $15 billion in M&A transactions and $11 billion in private equity dispositions. He most recently served as president and CEO of Capsa Healthcare, where the company delivered more than 20% revenue and EBITDA growth in 18 months and completed two tuck-in acquisitions. He previously served as president and CEO of Vyaire Medical and held senior positions at Acelity/KCI, Smith & Nephew, and GE Healthcare. At Acelity/KCI, he led global commercial roles during the company’s $6.725 billion sale to 3M.

“Gaurav is an accomplished medtech leader and proven growth-oriented operator with a track record of building high-performing organizations and driving results,” said Gregory T. Lucier, chairman of the board.

“I am excited to join Lighteum Medical and advance our mission of providing precision-engineered solutions that enable life-enhancing, minimally invasive medical devices,” said Agarwal.

Lighteum Medical, a Montagu portfolio company, was formed by combining Medical Device Components LLC and Lighteum LLC. The company specializes in platinum group metals and nitinol components and applies expertise in metallurgy, micromachining, femtosecond laser processing, shape setting, and electropolishing. It operates manufacturing centers in San Diego and Oceanside, California; Mexicali, Mexico; and Tullamarine, Australia.

Read further here: https://qmed.com/lighteum-medical-appoints-gaurav-agarwal-as-chief-news129923.html

Axel Johnson Inc. takes full ownership of Fort Wayne Metals

Axel Johnson Inc. (AJI), New York, acquired full ownership of Fort Wayne Metals Research Products LLC, Fort Wayne, Indiana, from the Glaze family. AJI first invested in the company in 2021.

Founded in 1970, Fort Wayne Metals develops and manufactures high-performance precision materials for medical devices and other critical applications, supporting millions of medical procedures each year. The company will remain headquartered in Fort Wayne, where it has operated for more than 50 years.

Jeremy Rohrs continues as president and CEO of Fort Wayne Metals.

“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Fort Wayne Metals and AJI,” said Sara Greenstein, CEO, Axel Johnson Inc.

“This milestone represents an exciting opportunity for our employees, customers, and partners,” said Rohrs.

The transition completes a partnership that began five years ago and places Fort Wayne Metals fully within AJI’s portfolio of long-term holdings. AJI, founded in 1920 and headquartered in New York City, is a family-owned investment company that builds businesses through long-term ownership partnerships. It employs more than 5,500 people and is part of the Axel Johnson Group, which has about 40,000 employees.

Fort Wayne Metals is a supplier of precision wire and materials to the medical device industry, with a long history of innovation and quality in materials for medical and industrial applications.

Read further here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260701588723/en/Fort-Wayne-Metals-Joins-Axel-Johnson-Inc.-in-Full-Ownership-Transition

Pressio Spine completes first cases with nitinol compression staple

Pressio Spine announced the successful completion of the first surgical cases using its Continuum compression staple, a superelastic nitinol fixation system for single-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).

The Continuum staple is engineered to provide continuous compression across the fusion site. It uses an in-line spinal positioning design with a streamlined placement technique and is supplied as a fully sterile, single-use instrument kit.

The initial cases were performed by Dr. Daniel Leas of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates.

“The nitinol compression is doing real work immediately,” said Leas. “I don’t have to think about screw angles or trajectories or multi-step fixation protocols.”

Conventional anterior cervical fixation typically relies on plates and screws placed in multiple steps. Pressio Spine positions Continuum as an alternative in which the superelastic nitinol actively maintains load on the graft after placement.

“Continuum changes that entirely,” said Kent Ellington, CEO, Pressio Spine. “The nitinol compression is actively working, continuously supporting the fusion site.”

The staple is designed for use alongside the company’s Tidal cervical fusion cage, a 3D-printed titanium cage with 80% porosity and a threaded design for rotational stability.

Pressio Spine develops spine surgery technologies intended to bridge clinical potential and patient outcomes in modern operating environments.

Read further here: https://www.financialcontent.com/article/bizwire-2026-9-15-pressio-spine-announces-successful-completion-of-initial-continuum-cases

Quasar Medical acquires Nitinol Design and Development Center in San Diego

Quasar Medical, a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for minimally invasive medical devices, acquired the Nitinol Design and Development Center in San Diego, California, from Medres International.

The 10,000-sq-ft center, established in 2024, provides nitinol design, development, process engineering, and precision manufacturing for minimally invasive devices. Its capabilities include laser cutting, shape setting, and electropolishing. The acquisition brings dedicated nitinol operations and engineering staff to Quasar and adds design, prototyping, and process optimization capabilities.

The center is about an hour’s drive from Quasar’s facility in Tecate, Mexico, and will have access to the company’s global manufacturing network of 11 locations. Integration will be overseen by Christine Trepanier, senior vice president of technology at Quasar Medical, with Tom Duerig, who introduced nitinol to medical devices as founder of NDC, serving as senior advisor.

“Nitinol is a foundational technology for many of today’s most advanced devices, both in minimally invasive disposables and implantables,” said Alex Wallstein, CEO, Quasar Medical. “This is a significant upgrade of Quasar to a whole new level of expertise.”

“We are confident that under the stewardship of Quasar, the Nitinol Center in San Diego will thrive with dramatically increased resources and customer reach to achieve its full potential,” said Dr. Chris Cheng, CEO and chairman, Medres International.

Quasar Medical has more than 38 years of experience, about 5,000 employees, and 11 locations. The ISO 13485:2016-certified company supplies catheters, balloons, steerable systems, nitinol technologies, electromagnetic sensors, and complex assemblies.

Read further here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quasar-medical-acquires-nitinol-design-and-development-center-302839603.html

Norman Noble wins NTMA Superior Safety Award

Norman Noble, Highland Heights, OHIO, has been awarded the Superior Safety Award by the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) for its performance in 2023. The award recognizes Norman Noble’s outstanding safety record, which is among the best in the industry according to Gillen Young, NTMA Chairman of the Board.

Norman Noble uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in their Daily Management System to track progress towards health, safety, and environmental goals. These KPIs include the number of lost time claims, recordable injuries, first aid incidents, days of restricted work activity, and near misses.

Julie Bennett Lowry, Director of Facilities and Environmental Health & Safety at Norman Noble, highlighted the company’s commitment to employee health and safety. “The Norman Noble team has made tremendous progress over the past 20 years in Environmental, Health, and Safety fields. Achieving zero lost time claims in 2023 led to this recognition by the NTMA for Superior Safety Performance. As of May 9, 2024, Norman Noble has achieved over 736 days without a lost time claim.”

Norman Noble, Inc., established over 75 years ago, is family-owned and specializes in ultra-precision micromachining of medical implants. The company is renowned for producing nitinol-based implants with sub-miniature precision. They comply with FDA regulations and ISO 13485, offering advanced processes like athermal laser machining, laser welding, Swiss turning and milling, and more.

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Neural network based control for magnetic shape memory alloy actuator

Sophia University, Japan, researchers have developed a new control scheme for the magnetic shape memory alloy-based actuator (MSMA-BA) that improves its positioning accuracy.

While MSMA-BA is a crucial component for high-precision positioning systems due to its high precision, low energy consumption, and large stroke, its hysteresis is an intrinsic property that can negatively affect its positioning accuracy. The team proposed a multi meta-model approach that combines the nonlinear auto-regressive moving average with exogenous inputs (NARMAX) and Bouc–Wen (BW) models to describe the dynamic hysteresis of MSMA-BA.

A wavelet neural network (WNN) was used to construct the nonlinear function of the multi meta-model, while iterative learning control was combined with a WNN to improve convergence speed. The proposed iterative learning controller was tested on MSMA-BA, with experiments demonstrating the scheme’s validity. The study’s main contribution was the convergence analysis of the iteration learning controller with iteration-dependent uncertainties.

Read further here.