An apparatus and method to thermally form a smooth profile tip on a polymer tube such as a catheter. The process employs a metal mold that contains the desired form. The polymer tube is inserted partially into a cool mold which is heated sufficiently to soften the plastic. The tube is then forced further into the mold until the form is completed. The tube is gripped with a clamp and inserted into the mold using a motorized linear stage. In addition to time and temperature control, the apparatus and method adds load cell based force feedback and a motorized linear stage with speed control and encoder based position feedback. The control software provides a multi-step process flow where each step includes user programmable force, distance, speed, temperature, and time. Users can define each parameter in each step to produce a desired result.
