The focus of BASF’s booth at the Compamed tradeshow in Düsseldorf, Germany, is on the antimicrobial HyGentic product portfolio and its range of support services, and on a number of high-performance plastics for medical technology applications. BASF will be exhibiting its solutions from November 14 through 16, 2012, in Booth No. G28, Hall 08B.HyGentic products feature excellent antimicrobial effects. BASF will present the most recent additions to the HyGentic product family at the tradeshow. HyGentic SBC is a transparent injection-moldable styrene butadiene block copolymer granulate material that contains antimicrobial silver ions. The granulate can be used directly to manufacture medical devices such as inhalers or ventilation filters.
HyGentic PA is an antimicrobial glass-fiber-reinforced, injection-moldable polyamide granulate that is exceptionally well suited to the production of operating elements for medical devices.
“These materials are exceptional in being extremely effective against a range of fungi and bacteria,” explained Edgar Eichholz, Business Development Manager Medical Device Materials, and added: “Moreover, medical devices produced with HyGentic products can be disinfected by conventional procedures.”
BASF is working on a broad range of solutions for medical device and equipment surfaces that durably prevent potentially hazardous microbial buildup. “Polymers and elastomers featuring our additives support the measures of professional hospital hygiene,” Eichholz said. This minimizes the risk that medical devices manufactured from these products will contribute to microbe propagation.
BASF’s medical devices team at the research and development center in Tarrytown, New York, has the expertise, instruments, equipment and lab facilities to produce customized application-focused formulations. The team tests these formulations for antimicrobial effectiveness and incorporates them into a variety of materials that are adjusted for use on the equipment available.
“The selective combination of organic and inorganic antimicrobial ingredients produces synergy effects and boosts the efficiency of the individual components,” Eichholz explained. In the formulations obtained in this way, the individual components will act longer, for example, or faster. A dedicated microbiology team checks the various formulations obtained for antimicrobial effectiveness against relevant microorganisms, including multiresistant pathogens like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
BASF is also researching new generations of materials with novel surface effects that are of interest for medical devices and equipment, and offers cooperation opportunities for medical device manufacturers.
High-performance thermoplastics in medical technology
BASF’s plastics portfolio identified by the suffix “PRO,” which has been geared specifically to meet the needs of the medical technology industry, comprises two classes of materials: the Ultraform® PRO range (POM: polyoxymethylene; polyacetal) and Ultradur® B4520 PRO (PBT: polybutylene terephthalate). By way of customized individual product advantages, the tribological combination of plastic parts made of Ultraform PRO and Ultradur PRO translates into additional synergisms: for instance, insulin pens with excellent sliding friction properties can be produced with these materials. Here, Ultraform PRO accounts for low friction between the individual functional parts while Ultradur PRO, as the sliding member, reliably prevents annoying noises during use.
