medical | Innovation
Right: RPC Formatec’s Twist’n’hale
inhaler system is designed for blister-packed powder dosing
component at the K show using two of its MicroPower 15/10 micromoulding machines linked by a Wittmann W8VS2 Scara obot and operating under controlled cleanroom conditions. The manufacturing process and moulds are all from UK-based micro moulding specialist MicroSystems UK. The process involves first producing two carrier parts in a 2-cavity mould in the first of the two MicroPower machines. These are then picked up by the Scara robot, which presents them to a camera inspection unit and then immediately assembles them together before trans- porting the assembled parts via a servo-electric linear axis within a clean room tunnel to the second MicroPo- wer machine. The robot then places the assembled parts in the second mould, where they are overmoulded with TPE to permanently join them together.
Under the skin Perhaps the most challenging – and highly regulated – applications for plastics are in implantables. Italian implantable device maker Plan 1 Health is using Eviva PSU resin from Solvay Specialty Polymers’ Solviva Biomaterials product line to manufacture its Healthport Plastics Low Profile (PLP) implantable catheter port for drug delivery. The PLP catheter port is a multi-piece assembly
consisting of an injection moulded housing and ring component, both produced in Eviva PSU, and a titanium inner chamber. It is considerably lighter and more cost-effective than its all-titanium predecessor, which required more expensive manufacturing techniques, ac- cording to Plan 1 product manager Alessandro Rainis. The moulded housings are welded together to enclose the titanium chamber. Plan 1’s PLP ports are used in Europe, Asia and India and carry CE certification. The company is working to
Right: Italy’s Plan 1 uses Solvay’s Eviva PSU resin to injection mould the enclosure of its implant- able infusion port
obtain 510(k) clearance from the FDA in preparation for a US launch. Solvay Specialty Polymers is also supplying the resin used in US-based MedShape’s orthopedic implants, which are claimed to be the first devices to use shape memory polymer technology to gain FDA clearance. MedShape’s Suture Anchor device is used
in tendon and ligament repair and is injection moulded in the company’s propri- etary Altera shape memory PEEK polymer, which is based on Solvay’s Zeniva PEEK resin. The device uses shape memory technology to allow
it to be deployed at the target surgical site with minimal mechanical force. The anchor deploys dynamic wings with a high bearing area into the cancellous bone beneath the cortical shelf for improved device fixation. According to MedShape, active rehabilitation can
cause anchor loosening, which can lead to clinical failure. Laboratory testing has shown that traditional anchor pullout can occur below 1,000 cycles at a load less than 50% of initial pullout strength; the Morphix Suture Anchor responds positively to cyclic loading due to its dynamic geometry and stored shape memory strain. After implantation, cyclic loading drives it to its ‘zero-strain’ state, where the retention wings are fully extended, to avoid risk of pull-out.
Click on the links for more information: ❙
www.zahoransky.com ❙
www.arburg.com ❙
www.ferromatik.com ❙
www.braunform.com ❙
www.netstal.com ❙
www.sabic.com ❙
www.kebo.com ❙
www.piovan.com ❙
www.tanner-formenbau.ch ❙
www.lyondellbasell.com ❙
www.motan-colortronic.com ❙
www.efcooling.com ❙
www.maenner-group.com ❙
www.waldorf-technik.de ❙
www.engelglobal.com ❙
www.hack-formenbau.de ❙
www.materialscience.bayer.com ❙
www.topas.com ❙
www.owenmumford.com ❙
www.rpc-group.com ❙
www.lpkf.com ❙
www.wittmann-group.com ❙
www.microsystems.uk.com ❙
www.solvayspecialtypolymers.com
16 INJECTION WORLD | September 2013
www.injectionworld.com
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