MEDICAL TUBING | MATERIALS
materials meaning that later removal is not needed. “The design stage
involves critical decisions – and material selection impacts performance,” he added. For instance, he said that an unsuitable material leads to premature failure, while an over-specified material restricts future development. “Focus on performance
attributes, not full specification,” he said. “Flexibility allows iterative improvements.” Cost is important, but a balance is needed. Low-cost materials help to cut expenses but may not be suitable for all tests. Conversely, choosing costly materials too early may make scale-up impossible. “Selecting the right
material at the design stage requires an approach that accounts for many factors,” he said. “By weighing functionality, cost, availability and development needs, companies can improve the chances of success while avoiding complications.”
Styrenic tubing Ryohei Akatsuka, sales and marketing manager of Asahi Kasei Europe, explained how styrenic thermoplastic elastomers could replace PVC in medical tubing.
He said the company’s
SOE branded product is well established, with soft-touch haptics and kink resistance. It also overcomes the main issues of PVC tubing, he says – medical drug adsorption and plasticiser migration. The
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material sits between PVC and TPU in terms of cost and performance. Target applications include IV infusion set tubing, pump tubing and spiral tubing. A new grade, SOE L614, has very high melt flow – with an MFR of 100 (compared to less than 5 for other SOE grades). This makes it much more processable – but it also has high hardness and low
stickiness. It is also compatible with other SOE grades, so can be blended with them to create grades with desired flow, hardness and kink-resistance. In addition, he presented
details of how peristaltic pump performance can be raised with tubing made from a blend of its Tuftec L523 and polypropylene (PP). The tube was tested by compressing it at several
points. The tube had an outer diameter of 4mm and wall thickness of 0.65mm. It also led to less fatigue on the pump than with a PVC tube.
Light work Martin Duffner, CEO of Puray, explained how his company is developing a disposable catheter that is disinfected using light – while it is in use. This helps
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