By Sean Fenske, Editor-in-Chief

The product development and manufacturing cycle, from concept to market launch, can be significant in both expense and time. As such, medtech firms are seeking to trim as much waste and excess as possible from the process. Fortunately, supplier companies supporting the industry understand this and are able to address their needs.

One such organization is Resonetics, a full-service contract manufacturer that maintains expertise in a number of areas, from materials to innovative processes. They offer specialized support services to further aid in the effort to cut costs and speed time to market. The firm’s Lightspeed Lab, for example, is one such offering that differentiates Resonetics from other supply chain partners.

To help further explain the company’s unique capabilities and offerings that provide substantial value to medical device manufacturers, Kevin Hartke, chief technology officer at Resonetics, responded to a series of questions in the following Q&A. In addition to giving more insights on the Lightspeed Lab, he also covers the organization’s material expertise, innovation support, and communication with customers.

Sean Fenske: Can you please explain what the Lightspeed Lab is, its focus, and its overall benefit to customers?

Kevin Hartke: The Resonetics Lightspeed Lab is a specialized team of over 150 expert engineers, technicians, and machinists. They are dedicated to providing rapid turnaround prototyping solutions for medical device customers, from emerging startups to established OEMs. Equipped with cutting-edge technology and an innovative custom operating system, the Lightspeed Lab excels at providing industry-leading turnaround times for quoting and project completion.

Resonetics operates nine strategically located Lightspeed Labs across California, Minnesota, Ohio, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Israel. Each lab focuses on distinct, advanced technologies, including nitinol processing, laser processing, precision metal fabrication, and sensor fabrication. By developing fabrication processes tailored to produce complex components and sub-assemblies, these labs ensure seamless scalability to high-volume manufacturing. This capability empowers customers to accelerate product development cycles and significantly expedite their time to market.

Fenske: What materials are used by the Lightspeed Lab, and how do they help drive faster prototype development?

Hartke: Resonetics’ Lightspeed material department stocks over 1,000 SKUs and has access to more than 4,500 SKUs of quick-turn materials, including stainless steel, cobalt chrome, nitinol, and precious metals in various forms including wire, tube, and sheet. Our comprehensive inventory management ensures materials are readily available, enabling our teams to initiate prototyping activities without delay.

As a value-added service to our Lightspeed Lab customers, we offer complete access to this extensive material stock, allowing for exceptional flexibility and significantly accelerated development timelines. By leveraging this strategic stock availability, Resonetics consistently achieves industry-leading prototype delivery times, typically less than a week, ensuring our customers maintain their competitive edge and rapidly advance innovative medical devices from concept to market.

Fenske: Can you explain what Lightspeed Lab Days are? Why is it important to work alongside the customer during the development process?

Hartke: A Lightspeed Lab Day is an on-site, accelerated development experience designed to transform your medical device concepts into tangible prototypes within hours, not weeks or months. By collaborating directly with our dedicated engineering team and utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, customers can rapidly iterate designs and instantly validate results. This immediate, interactive environment enables swift adjustments based on real-time feedback, fosters deep collaboration between teams, and significantly accelerates problem-solving. At the conclusion of a Lightspeed Lab Day, you leave equipped with functional prototypes in hand, dramatically shortening your product development timeline and enhancing your pathway to market.

Fenske: Given the importance of communication between supplier and OEM, do you have specific tools in place to enable a customer to speak with an engineer about their project?

Hartke: Resonetics understands that launching a new medical device often involves uncertainty, particularly when specific part requirements are still taking shape. To support our customers during this crucial initial stage, we’ve introduced our “Talk to an Engineer” feature.

This easy-to-use communication tool enables customers to quickly schedule a personalized meeting with one of our expert engineers. During this one-on-one consultation, you’ll have the opportunity to discuss your application in detail, ask questions, outline initial concepts, and receive immediate, insightful feedback. Our engineers, equipped with extensive industry experience, will guide you through the decision-making process, clarify technical challenges, and identify the best strategies tailored to your project’s needs.

By connecting directly with our engineers early in your project, you’ll minimize potential misunderstandings, streamline development efforts, and significantly reduce the timeline from concept to reality. Whether you’re exploring various possibilities or have already outlined clear objectives, our technical experts are ready to help you navigate your journey efficiently and effectively.

Fenske: Given Resonetics has a variety of locations, how do you facilitate innovation to take place across multiple sites?

Hartke: Resonetics’ Advanced Technology Group (ATG) serves as the company’s core R&D organization, strategically structured by specialized technology disciplines. Each discipline within ATG is led by a dedicated technology leader responsible for maintaining comprehensive technology roadmaps and executing annual projects aligned with market-driven customer needs and synergistic innovation opportunities. Resonetics leverages this framework to effectively manage innovation across multiple global locations, enabling consistent coordination, resource sharing, and best-practice implementation throughout the organization.

ATG provides targeted expertise across multiple domains, including agile product development, raw materials, laser processing, metal fabrication, nitinol processing, medical power and sensors, advanced diagnostics, and automation. By applying the ATG framework, Resonetics efficiently integrates these capabilities across geographically dispersed teams, fostering cohesive innovation efforts, accelerating problem-solving, and ensuring the timely delivery of complex medical device projects.

Fenske: While the design and prototype stages are important, the project can fail if the transition to full production is not handled correctly. How does Resonetics ensure a smooth transition?

Hartke: After successful prototyping, customers benefit from Resonetics’ extensive component manufacturing network—one of the largest in the medical device industry. Coupled with our industry-leading commitment to quality, this network ensures scalability, consistency, and reliability, positioning your project for long-term success and growth. Resonetics employs a disciplined phase-gate process, designed to efficiently transition projects from prototyping into full-scale production. This structured methodology meticulously evaluates and validates each stage of development, significantly reducing risks and ensuring a seamless transfer to manufacturing.

Fenske: Do you have any additional comments you’d like to share based on any of the topics we discussed or something you’d like to tell medical device manufacturers?

Hartke: Resonetics offers industry-leading, integrated supply chain solutions, combining rapid prototyping through its innovative Lightspeed Lab with highly scalable manufacturing capabilities across multiple global facilities. This integrated approach ensures a seamless transition from the initial concept through commercial production, significantly reducing risks and accelerating customers’ time to market. Resonetics uniquely controls the entire nitinol value stream—from precision melting of raw materials to the fabrication of semi-finished forms to fully engineered components—ensuring exceptional quality, consistency, and performance. Resonetics’ expertise in advanced micro-manufacturing of precision components further complements this capability, enabling the company to maintain stringent quality standards and tight material specifications throughout prototyping and scaled production. Additionally, our collaborative, customer-focused approach fosters innovation, enabling continuous design refinement and process optimization across the entire product lifecycle. By choosing Resonetics, medical device companies gain a trusted partner capable of expertly managing the complexity of moving cutting-edge medical devices efficiently from prototype to patient care.

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