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Piv ting into the medical devi...

Choosing and evaluating an adhesive involves considering every aspect of the application, from design to production to processing, in line with the business’ priorities, like performance, productivity or process improvement. Because of this, medical device manufacturers look to specialists like us to support them with product selection and integration to production to processing, in line with the business’ priorities, like performance, productivity or process improvement. Because of this, medical device manufacturers look to specialists like us to support them with product selection and integration. This relationship works best as a long-term partnership that covers both current and future processes, rather than one based on the transactional supply of materials. We understand the culture and drivers of the medical device market, and we speak the language.

WHAT MAJOR CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN THE SECTOR IN THAT TIME?

Medical device manufacturers often use polymers and substrates we don’t see much in other industries. From PEBA or nylon 12 in catheter making, to COC or COP used in the assembly of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD), we need to have adhesives that bond to the specialist substrates of the sector.

Over the last few decades, the use of UV curable adhesives has grown significantly. Their introduction gave medical device manufacturers the ability to cure a material in seconds, on demand, facilitating a significant productivity boost.

In addition, light curable adhesive processes are easy to measure, control, and validate — enabling much needed process repeatability and robustness to a highly regulated sector.

Over the years, there have been advances in UV curing materials. For example, novel adhesives for wearable devices formulated without known skin irritants, materials able to withstand sterilisation cycles, and dual curable cyanoacrylate adhesives. Alongside this, there has been a shift from mercury arc broad spectrum lamps to narrow spectrum LED UV lamps. To enable this, many adhesives have been formulated especially for LED UV curing.

The industry is moving fast and there are an increasing number of adhesives available that have passed ISO 10993 tests. Training is available that covers the variables to consider when specifying materials and application equipment, and that helps build an understanding of the advantages and limitations of different adhesive technologies.