Materials

Toray Medical will manufacture a polysulfone membrane dialysis device, which it calls an artificial kidney, in a plant under construction in Qingdao, China.

In the dialysis process, solutions from a patient suffering kidney failure are diffused across a semipermeable membrane such as polysulfone film while circulating outside of the body. Urea and other waste products, potassium, and phosphate diffuse into the dialysis solution. Polysulfone dialysis membranes are well known to have excellent biocompatibility in clinical use.

It seems as though not a week goes by without some plastic raw materials manufacturer announcing a collaboration with a producer of biobased materials. It's an interesting trend, and one that serves to underline the increasingly important role of bioplastics in the marketplace today as a sector that everyone wants to be part of.

The initial application for the industry's first cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) elastomer is expected to debut soon in an extruded medical application.

The newly developed material targets plastics such as nylon and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in medical applications including tubing and bags. The benefits of the COC elastomer for film are toughness, purity and moisture barrier.

Gas barrier properties are the Achilles heel when it comes to using biopolymers in (fresh) food packaging. Around the world, scientists and industry are working - often together - to develop feasible alternatives based on renewable resources to replace the use of conventional petroleum-based plastics.

Polyzen (Apex, NC) is expanding capacity and adding employees to meet rapidly growing demand for its proprietary medical materials, including a new polyurethane film for low-pressure balloons used in cardiovascular and other surgeries.

The Center for Automotive Research (Ann Arbor, MI) has launched the Coalition of Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM) to support efforts by auto manufacturers to aggressively down-weight vehicles to improve performance, fuel economy and safety. Founding members include including Trexel, 3M, BASF, Plastic Omnium, Altair, EWI, Material Sciences Corp., Michelin, PPG Industries, and Shiloh Industries.

Microbes are highly creative, hardy little adapters when it comes to survival. Mutation, natural selection and genetic variation are all means which they cleverly employ to evolve and adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo) concluded a technical partnership agreement with Gordon Murray Design Limited (GMD; Shalford, U.K.) on the side-lines of the 42nd Tokyo Motor Show 2011 aimed at promoting GMD's iStream hybrid production process in vehicle manufacture and other industrial sectors.

A new thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) boasts up to three times the coefficient of friction (COF) of conventional TPE's for both dry and wet applications with reportedly no negative impact on physical and rheological performance. Kraiburg TPE says its so-called Wet Grip technology, offered under the Thermolast W trade name, could boost performance for current elastomer grip applications and potentially open up new markets.

Hinges in a newly developed knee replacement technology are made from carbon-fiber reinforced (CFR) polyetheretherketone (PEEK).

Aesculap, a division of healthcare supplier B. Braun Melsungen, is using  PEEK-OPTIMA CFR in its FDA 510k-cleared and CE-Marked EnduRo knee revision system.