MEDICAL | MATERIALS
Health kick: new medical materials and applications
Recent examples of extruded medical products – including a thermoformed package for implant screws – show that innovation is thriving
While many applications of plastics in the medical industry are related to injection moulding – especially for medical devices – there is also a huge amount of film extrusion, particularly in packaging. There is also a huge demand for thermoforming. The thermo- forming division of the US-based Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) announced several medical industry winners in its annual parts competition. These included a tray to keep bone screws in place, a part for a neonatal unit and an enclosure for medical equipment. In the roll-fed thin gauge industrial category, US thermoformer Placon won for a custom tray that keeps medical screws suspended to prevent hydroxyapatite (HA) coating damage. The product, made for medical device manufac-
turer Orthofix, is a tray package designed to hold two medical screws – coated with HA – in place until they were used in the operating room. The HA coating on each screw helps reduce the screw from backing out of the bone after being implanted into the patient. Once screws are fastened into the retainer base, a retainer cover snaps into place to create a second secure barrier for the HA-coated screws. The tray and all packaging components are
made from PETG. The tray comprises two designed parts – a retainer tray and tray cover – and two pre- validated, double sterile barrier trays. These go inside each other and hold the newly designed tray and tray cover. The customer is using the double sterile barrier
trays to package around 2,000 different products from its portfolio. Placon was able to save over
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US$50,000, as this is the average cost of validating a new medical package. The customer had to find a solution that would hold the product without causing the HA coating to rub off while in the package – which would make the product defective. This was done by creating a locking retainer for
the head of the screw, while keeping the body of the screw suspended.
Clear winner Profile Plastics was also a winner, in the cut sheet heavy gauge vacuum forming category. It won a gold award for a clear part – made from cast acrylic sheet. The part requires total clarity on all flat surfaces to give nursing staff an unimpeded visibility of premature new born babies. At the same time, a precisely ‘shaded’ section
was required, to hide the unit’s electronics and wiring. This was done via distortion printing of each sheet of cast acrylic prior to forming. Ridge forming was chosen for the moulding process. To achieve the customer’s target price point, the part was produced in a rotary forming machine equipped with a quartz oven.
Main image: Placon’s custom thermoformed tray keeps medical screws suspended to prevent
damage to the specialist coating
� January/February 2020 | FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION 37
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