MATERIALS | MEDICAL TUBING


accounts for around 27% of all medical polymers in Europe and around 31% of medical tubing – the largest share. He added that a growing number of schemes are collecting and mechanically recycling medical PVC waste. “PVC is fit for mechanical recycling,” he said. “It can withstand 8-10 thermal cycles for rigid PVC and at least four for flexible PVC.” Recycling is aided by the fact that many PVC consumables are single-layer products, he said. PVC waste can be turned into other durable


products for the health sector, such as hospital wall coverings, flooring, training mannequins and rehabilitation equipment, he said. Countries including Australia, New Zealand, the


Above: PVC flooring for hospitals is now being made from recycled products such as medical tubing


mers,” said Philip Engel, head of medical systems Europe at Evonik. The new technique promises to reduce the


production time, cost, and complexity of making these devices. It involves direct bonding of the company’s Vestamid Care ME-B – a polyether block amide (PEBA) – with Neoflon EFEP, in a single co-extrusion step. The method eliminates the need for mandrels,


etching, and multiple construction steps, reducing the risk of errors and improving the overall product quality, he said. Co-extruded PEBA/EFEP catheters can be


produced in a wide range of stiffnesses. The company has also developed a new way to validate the peel strength of multi-layer medical tubing. There is currently no standard ISO of ASTM available to quantity peel strength, he said. The new Evonik method was developed to quantita- tively measure and compare peel strength. In each case, OD, ID, layer thickness and perimeter was measured for each tube before peeling for checking the interfacial area of contact. This produced a value for the measurement of


force (N) needed to separate the layers. “Vestamid Care ME-B grades show excellent bonding strength, with an increase of one order of magnitude,” said Engel.


Major medical device OEMs are already testing


grades of the material, and Evonik plans to extend the range to other materials such as PA12, PTFE and TPU. It has a co-extrusion line at its US facility to help customers with extrusion trials.


PVC recycling Despite ongoing efforts to find alternatives to PVC, the material remains commonly used – thanks in part to efforts to recycle it more effectively. Tobias Johnsen, communications manager at PVC Med Alliance, told delegates that PVC


22 PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | Summer 2024


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.fostercomp.com � www.collin-solutions.com � www.nordsonmedical.com � www.oscor.com � https://tekni-plex.com � www.eldonjames.com � www.asahi-kasei.com � www.kraton.com � www.evonik.com � https://pvcmed.org


www.pipeandprofile.com


UK, South Africa, Canada and the US all have schemes that collect and recycled PVC medical waste. VinylPlus Med, a scheme launched in Belgium in


2022, has a network of 29 hospitals – with 30 more on a waiting list. The scheme is being extended to France and will include collection of products made of flexible PVC (such as tubing and bags) and rigid PVC.


Johnsen also cited a lifecycle analysis (LCA) of


PVC medical tubing in Europe, carried out by Ecovamed, which showed that mechanical recy- cling reduced carbon dioxide emissions by around 25% compared with incineration. VinylPlus has also commissioned Aimplas of Spain to study how many thermal cycles PVC medical tubing can withstand without significant degradation. To date, it has run four cycles – with no significant loss of properties such as colour, tensile strength or elastic modulus. Next, it will move to six cycles. A final report will be made this year. n The next Medical Tubing and Catheters North America conference is held in Tampa, USA on 29-30 October 2024. For more details, contact Louella Osano (louella.osano@amiplastics.com) on +1 610 478 0800. The next event in Europe takes place on 1-2 April 2025 in Dusseldorf, Germany.


IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK


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