MEDICAL TUBING | MATERIALS
New and alternative materials will be critical in improving the performance of medical tubing – for a diversity of applications that are not always met by PVC
Material worth: latest in medical tubing polymers
Medical tubing – whether it is used as a catheter or as part of a diagnostic machine – must be pro- duced to the highest standards. Materials are critical to tubing performance and are constantly being re-evaluated for use in this application. Delegates at Medical Tubing & Catheters – a
recent online conference organised by AMI – learnt how developers are constantly looking for material alternatives for their products.
Demanding applications Jonathan Jurgaitis, senior extrusion engineer at Spectrum Plastics Group, said that his company typically uses Peek for demanding applications – but needs to know “when Peek doesn’t stack up”. Alternative materials will typically be used in similarly demanding applications. Jurgaitis listed a few potential alternatives: Arkema’s Kepstan (Pekk) material; Solvay’s Udel PSU (with 20% glass fibre) and Ixef polyamide (50% glass fibre); and Vectra
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LCP from Celanese. Each material had specific attributes, either positive or negative in comparison to Peek – such as price, stiffness or surface finish properties. Spectrum carried out a study to compare the tensile and flexural properties of tubing made from each material. Peek and Pekk tube was made with an outside diameter of 0.06in and inside diameter of 0.05in. Pekk samples were annealed, as per recommenda- tions, with a support mandrel. Tubing made from other materials varied in size, but were compara- ble, he said. Tensile tests (maximum load, elongation at break and tensile modulus) showed that Vectra LCP had by far the highest maximum load and tensile modulus, while Peek had the highest elongation percentage at break. For flexural properties, Ixef showed the highest maximum load, while Vectra had the largest flexural
Main image: Materials for medical tubing must be robust, chemically resistant and flexible
May 2021 | PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION 13
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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