Catheter Tips for Rapidly Insertable Central Catheters and Methods Thereof

A method for forming a catheter tip of a rapidly insertable central catheter (“RICC”), comprising:

• inserting a mandrel-mounted catheter tube into a cavity of a radiofrequency (“RF”)-welding die, a distal end of a mandrel of the mandrel-mounted catheter tube being short of an end of the cavity after the inserting of the mandrel-mounted catheter tube therein;
• heating the RF-welding die to melt a first polymeric material in the cavity of the RF-welding die, molten polymeric material of the first polymeric material allowed to conform to the cavity around the mandrel during the heating of the RF-welding die to form, in a single piece, a nascent catheter tip coupled to a distal end portion of the catheter tube;
• thrusting the distal end of the mandrel into the end of the cavity of the RF-welding die when the molten polymeric material exudes through an exit hole in the end of the cavity, excess polymeric material being cut from a distal end of the nascent catheter tip to form the catheter tip coupled to the distal end portion of the catheter tube with the thrusting of the distal end of the mandrel into the end of the cavity, and the catheter tip having a taper profile defined by different tapers of successive sections of the catheter tip including:
• a first section having a first uniform taper over an outer diameter of the first section of the catheter tip;
• a second section having a second uniform taper over an outer diameter of the second section of the catheter tip;
• and
• a third section having a non-uniform taper over an outer diameter of the third section of the catheter tip,
• wherein successive transverse cross sections of the catheter tip in a proximal direction along the catheter tip approximate increasingly larger concentric annuli in the first section of the catheter tip, increasingly larger concentric annuli in the second section of the catheter tip, and increasingly larger eccentric annuli in the third section of the catheter tip.