The Nanopass II Needle

 

The Nanopass II needle for diabetics insulating injection, developed jointly by Okano Industrial Corporation and Terumo Medical Corporation. Injections used to hurt mainly because of the thick needle. But when a Japanese company began marketing the world's thinnest hypodermic needle in 2005, the big surprise was: No pain! Before then, needles for inoculations and other medical purposes had a diameter of 0.4 mm, but the new needles were only 0.2 mm. Halving the diameter meant reducing the tip area to about a quarter. Medicinal solutions pass through a hole that has an interior diameter of 0.08 mm.

To facilitate injections through such a small needle, the needle tip is very thin but the base is larger. This design is possible thanks to a precision press manufacturing technique that rolls a super thin metal sheet into a cylinder. In 2012, a needle with an even thinner tip diameter-0.18 mm- began making life even easier for diabetics who must use needles daily.