The Hardest Part Was Making It Manufacturable

Most surgical gowns still leak at the glove-gown interface — a problem surgeons have dealt with for decades.

In this episode, Bill Kimball explains how his company developed Tough Cuff, a surgical gown technology designed to eliminate fluid leakage. But the real challenge wasn’t inventing the solution — it was figuring out how to manufacture it reliably at scale.

Bill walks through the failed first prototype, the manufacturing constraints that forced a redesign, and how the team ultimately developed a production method that could pass FDA 510(k) approval while remaining cost-competitive with existing gowns.