MATERIALS | MEDICAL TUBING


The pipettes are made by extruding medical-grade, 0.25in polycarbonate tube, which is then cut into 5in pipettes that need no


secondary cleaning or finishing operations. Several Conair products were used on the line. The polycarbonate was pre- conditioned using a Conair dX25 Carousel Plus desiccant dryer. It


regulates critical drying setpoints and resin moisture and automati- cally regulates material move- ment through to the extruder. Polycarbonate moving from the


hopper to the extruder also passed through


Above: Conair, Davis-Standard and Zumbach Electronics showcased extruded polycarbonate pipettes at MD&M West/ Plastec West 2023


Conair’s Moisture Minder, an in-line device that reads the moisture content of moving resin. The material was processed in a Davis-Stand-


ard 1.25-inch HPE Horizontal Extruder, which has the torque capacity to handle high-viscosity resins. It is available in sizes from 0.75in (20 mm) to 1.75in (45 mm). The vacuum chamber in the MedVac sizing tank


creates a differential in air pressure that exerts slight outward pressure in the extruded tube, stabilising its dimensions. Here, ultrasonic wall- thickness gauges from Zumbach measured the OD and wall thickness of the tube, first as hot extrudate entered the tank and also later as it cooled. This was used to calculate the ID of the tube – the dimension most critical for medical fluid delivery.


Bath time At K2022, Collin Lab & Pilot Solutions demon-


Recycling anniversary


VinylPlus has celebrated one year of its VinylPlus Med scheme in Belgium by signing up its 16th


and 17th partner hospitals. The scheme, launched in February 2022, claims to have


recycled around 1 tonne of clean, discarded medical PVC from its network of Belgian hospitals. Over 30 more hospitals in Belgium are looking to join the


scheme. In Belgium, waste management company Renewi takes care of the transport and intermediate storage, while Raff Plastics sorts and grinds the waste. Collected material was recently used to create a PVC wall covering, by Dutch company Vescom – which was then exhibited at the Plastic Pavilion in Denmark. “We estimate the potential recyclable volume at 1,000 tonnes


per year – or about a third of the PVC used in Belgian hospitals each year,” said Brigitte Dero, managing director of VinylPlus. � www.vinylplus.eu


30 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | July/August 2023


PVC collected in the scheme is recycled into products such as flooring


www.pipeandprofile.com


strated a medical tube line with its new VKT 3000 vacuum water bath. The line included an extrusion unit with an E 25


P extruder, as well as a lift extruder, strip die and new 3000mm water bath – with optimised, closed- water circulation and vacuum calibration unit. The line enables high precision in roundness and constant tube diameter with up to five layers. The water bath is followed by diameter measurement, a take-off unit and a Collin winder for tubes. “With this line, tubes for minimally invasive


procedures, dialysis, catheter, infusion or drainage tubes or drug-loaded strands can be produced,” said Friedrich Kastner, CEO at the company. “It has a line speed of up to 200 m/min and a diameter range of highly precise tubes of 0.5 to 5mm.” Collin water baths are available in different lengths – for horizontal and vertical tube guiding. Due to the modular design, several water bath units can be arranged in series. This allows water baths with lengths up to 15 m and speeds up to 200 m/min. “The advantage of our tube lines is that they can


be arranged in a modular way with different machine elements for different requirements, depending on the customer requirements – and can be used for non-medical applications,” added Corné Verstraten, CSO at Collin.


High speed Bausano says that its high-speed extrusion line for PVC medical tubes meets standards such as ISO 14644-1 Class 8 Cleanroom – thanks to the strict design criteria adopted. The line is capable of producing up to 120m of tube per minute. The company customises each


IMAGE: VINYLPLUS MED


IMAGE: CONAIR


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