Foster Corp. (Putnam, CT) has been appointed the exclusive distributor of Lotte Advanced Materials’ Starex acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and Infino polycarbonate (PC) polymers for the North American healthcare markets. Effective Nov. 1, 2017, Foster will provide sales, technical and order fulfillment support to customers from their regional stocking facilities in Nevada and Connecticut.

ABS and PC are used throughout the medical industry for components that require toughness, dimensional stability and surface quality, as well as transparency.

ABS polymers provide a balance of performance, processibility and economics for large equipment housings and single-use instruments, such as scalpel handles.

PC provides toughness, strength, chemical resistance and transparency for applications that include trocars, breathing masks and filter housings.

Lotte’s Starex ABS and Infino PC polymers were developed to meet performance requirements specific to the medical market. These include USP Class VI compliance, ISO-10993 certification and resistance to ethylene oxide, gamma and e-beam sterilization. Infino medical-grade PC also withstands steam sterilization and has demonstrated 13% more resistance to bleach in a 24-hour period than competitive PCs, according to a press release from Foster.

The materials will be available to customers in 25-kg (55 lb) to truckload quantities.

Foster has been supplying biomedical materials, including custom compounds, implantable grades and drug/polymer blends, to  medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers for more than 25 years. The company offers comprehensive support to customers from formulation development through production in facilities certified to ISO 13485:2003 and ISO 9001:2008.