Anthony Walder is presently the Technical Dreictor at Thermedics Polymer Products.  He has worked for the company for seven years.  During this time he has developed polyurethanes used in the medical field such as the Tecophilic class resins for drug delivery and wound dressing applications.  He has developed several other polyurethanes for the specialty markets in the semiconductor, automotive, aerospace and optical applications.  

Anthony Walder worked for six years at Becton Dickinson as a scientist developing new materials and as project manager.  Anthony Walder has five patents and is an author of several published articles.  Anthony Walder received his Doctorate of Philosophy in polymer chemistry at the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.

Polyurethanes have many medical applications.  The applications range from external devices such as wound dressing to many types of catheters and feeding tubes to long term implants such as pacemakers.  The versatility of polyurethanes allows development of these types of devices.  Polyurethanes are made with a wide range of durometers, from a Shore Durometer of 70A to a Shore Durameter of 85D.  Polyurethanes are elastic at the lower durometers and become rigid plastics at the higher durometers.  Polyurethanes are made with many raw materials to give them the properties to be used in the various applications.  These include the common polyethers and methylene dipphenyldiisocyanate polymers to the polycarbonate methylene cyclohexyldiisocyanate polymers.

Polyurethanes can be made to absorb water.  Polyurethanes have been designed to absorb exact quantities of water.  These types of polymers can be used in delivering drugs or as a protective layer in wound dressing.