A new Advanced Bio-Circular medical polymer for medical
With a proven legacy in high performance materials for medical applications, Arkema now announces the launch of a new high rigidity Advanced Bio-Circular polyamide 11 medical polymer intended to replace metal and traditional polymers in demanding medical applications.
Arkema’s Advanced Bio-Circular (ABC) materials have a long, proven legacy in some of the world’s most demanding applications. These bio-based, recyclable polymers are derived from Arkema’s flagship amino 11 chemistry, which in turn, is derived from the oil of the renewable castor bean. Castor beans do not compete directly with the food chain and do not cause deforestation.
Formulated with a high content (65%) of glass fibers, the new Rilsan® MED polyamide 11 grade displays a tensile modulus of 18.5GPa, making it an ideal candidate to replace metal for the production of highly demanding surgical tools.
The new grade also requires low mold temperatures and injection pressures. Those properties helped early adopters to switch materials easily and to decrease their cycle times significantly whilst maintaining component integrity.
Furthermore, this new material exhibits excellent resistance to gamma, steam, ETO and e-beam sterilization, opening new doors and opportunities for the development of sustainable reusable surgical tools and for the replacement of petroleum based polymers.
The biocompatibility of this new product has been successfully assessed according to USP Class VI, ISO 10993-4, ISO 10993-5 and ISO 10993-10 standards.
We have found in this new product an ideal material for our surgical tools, easier to process than the PARA (Polyarylamide) we were using before. Its bio-based nature has given us a real advantage to answer our customer’s drive towards more sustainable materials.”
Arkema continues to innovate to offer sustainable and recyclable materials, based on our proprietary polyamide 11 chemistry, to the most demanding and challenging markets. Our medical device customers are becoming more and more vocal on sustainability and Arkema is extremely well positioned to successfully help them transition to renewable materials and reaching their goals to reduce natural resource depletion.”
