Healthcare Customer Wins Showcase SABIC’s Local Supply, Application Development Expertise

June 27, 2012 - PRLog -- At the first-ever MD&M Brazil Show (booth #709) here, SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business is spotlighting the company’s broad and deep healthcare materials portfolio with high-end applications from two leading Brazilian medical device manufacturers, Sartori Instruments, Implants and Fixers and Braile Biomédica. By replacing traditional metal with SABIC’s high-performance thermoplastic resins, Sartori was able to develop new see-through, laser-markable sterilization boxes for its surgical implant kits, and Braile Biomédica’s new membrane oxygenator enclosures achieved greatly improved impact strength by using SABIC’s resins to replace acrylic. Both customers upped their competitive advantages significantly through SABIC’s extensive industry knowledge and comprehensive resources, including design, development, technical services and local material production. These application successes illustrate SABIC’s commitment to the South American healthcare market and the company’s dedicated support for its customers’ changing needs.

“To help South American medical device customers meet their ever-evolving needs for product differentiation, improved safety, higher performance and cost control, SABIC provides a broad array of locally produced and supplied healthcare grade materials that are fully supported by world-class technology experts and services,” said Ricardo Knecht, general manager, South America, Innovative Plastics. “SABIC places a major emphasis on helping its customers to meet current trends in healthcare device design. Our co-development efforts with Sartori and Braile Biomédica utilized SABIC materials and innovation support capabilities with the goal of advancing key customer business strategies.”

Building a Better Sterilization Box

Sartori turned to SABIC for a material solution that could improve the aesthetics, usability and safety of traditional metal in sterilization boxes for surgical implants. Using biocompatible Ultem* resin, Sartori designed a box featuring a translucent cover that allows clinicians to check the contents without opening the box – and possibly introducing contamination. Another usability improvement – supported by the SABIC team – was a new handle design that employs a simple rotation mechanism instead of a snap-fit.

Ultem resin provided other important advantages to this new application. The expanded design freedom of a thermoplastic versus metal allowed Sartori to minimize sharp corners and other features that can trap bacteria. Aesthetics were improved because Ultem resin resists surface degradation from sterilization processes, such as autoclaving, enabling the boxes to retain their fresh, attractive appearance.



“SABIC has been an outstanding collaboration partner,” said Luiz Guilherme Sartori, director, Sartori Instruments, Implants and Fixers. “Their focus on innovation, material selection and customer support enabled Sartori to create a new sterilization box for medical implants that could outpace the competition and provide the healthcare industry with a new market solution.”

Improving Safety and Throughput

Braile Biomédica was seeking ways to streamline production of its membrane oxygenator and reduce breakage that resulted in costly waste during manufacturing. The challenge was finding a cost-effective, biocompatible, transparent material to replace acrylic. The company wanted a solution offering improved impact resistance, easy assembly with other parts and suitability for a simpler and faster adhesion process.

SABIC recommended a Lexan* PC healthcare resin grade for the membrane oxygenator enclosure based on its water-clear transparency, high impact performance and ease of processing. With Lexan resin, Braile Biomédica achieved two major goals:  reduction of breakage and a much faster adhesion process. Instead of requiring 12 hours to cure, the adhesive now takes only one minute. Overall, cycle times have been cut by 75 percent.

“SABIC is an outstanding solution provider that helped us overcome manufacturing obstacles,” said David Peitl, industrial director, Braile Biomédica. “By converting to Lexan resin, a single proven material that delivers multiple benefits, we have streamlined production through faster adhesion and cycle times and less waste.”

For additional information on SABIC’s healthcare product portfolio, please go to www.sabic-ip.com. For technical product inquiries, please contact us at www.sabic-ip.com/prtechinquiry.