Oxford Performance Materials buys out Arkema’s stake in PEKKOxford Performance Materials buys out Arkema’s stake in PEKK

Oxford Performance Materials Inc. (OPM; Enfield, CT) is once again on its own, with the company's original founders buying back the polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) medical business from Arkema, which partially acquired the business in 2009. OPM founders Scott DeFelice and Severine Zygmont purchased the complete ownership of the biomedical business unit, which they have managed since the firm's inception in 2002.

OxPEKK

OPM will be moving into a new 18,000-sq-ft facility South Windsor, CT with expanded clean rooms intended for polymer processing and what the company called "additional fabrication technologies" that it will now offer. The company says the expansion project will be completed by this September, with further details to be announced.

DeFelice, president and CEO of OPM said in a release that, "Arkema has been a great partner, but the demands of the biomedical business and industrial business now require more efficient and focused structures."

DeFelice described its biomedical business as being "a very specialized, low-volume sector that is most suitable for a small, nimble organization." In addition to the biomedical business, OPM is now increasingly focusing on the orthopedic sector with the development of what it calls "high value-added manufacturing technologies." OPM's OxPEKK polymers are currently being used in medical, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, and industrial markets.

There are 14 grades of OxPEKK available, with crystalline, amorphous, and biocompatible variations, and materials suitable for bearings, body implants, and general medical/healthcare applications. The company's standard products include neat formulations as well as carbon-filled, glass-filled, and various polymer composites. Specialty grades can be developed, and the company supplies a line of OxPEKK color concentrates developed specifically for the material. Present color offerings are blue, green, brown, black, and tan, with FDA-approved concentrates also available.