Functional Surfaces for Medical Plastics

Paul Flavell

Raumedic AG
Hill Court, Walford HR9 5QN, Ross on Wye, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7785 714815   Fax: +44 1989 762601
Email: paul.flavell@raumedic.com

Biography

Paul has enjoyed a long career in technical sales in the medical device industry selling extruded tubing, injection moulded parts and contract manufacturing services. Since joining Raumedic this has included complete catheter developments for critical medical device applications. 

Paul wrote papers on ‘Selecting the Correct Medical Polymer’ and ‘The role of the Injection Moulder in the Medical Device Industry’ which were published and presented at Medtec and Medical Device Technology. Prior to this Paul worked in the pharmaceutical industry winning a number of sales awards.

RAUMEDIC AG is a young flexible company full of bright people and new ideas, producing medical tubing, injection mouldings and medical devices in state of the art clean room facilities near Nuremburg. Current R&D includes non DEHP PVC alternatives, micro extrusion and thin wall tubing, surface treatment of materials for improved biocompatibility, and antimicrobial formulations.

Company Profile

RAUMEDIC can offer you a one-stop development and manufacturing program for medical tubing, injection moulding and full contract manufacturing services. Our engineers will work with you to advise on materials, design and construction, together with packaging and sterilisation.  We are able to offer full Regulatory support to enable you to CE mark your medical device

Abstract

Medical grade plastic materials are highly suitable for the manufacture of medical device disposables today due to excellent biocompatibility and process ability, as well as being economically and environmentally acceptable.

Plastic materials have certain physical and surface characteristics that enable the user to choose the best material for the application.  The surface characteristics of the materials can be modified to enhance the properties for medical device applications. 

Surface modifications can be achieved in three ways, in the material formulation, in an on line process, or as a secondary operation.   The properties of the material can be affected in a number of ways including the coefficient of friction, hydrophobic /hydroscopic properties and enhanced biocompatibility.

This can be translated into benefits for medical devices, such as easier insertion of catheters, reduction of tissue adhesion and enhanced compatibility with certain drugs or infusions.

This paper considers the different types of surface modification, the effect on modified surfaces and the benefits of modified surfaces in medical device applications.