Eastman Launches Next-Gen Copolyesters for Medical Device Housing

Eastman has launched a new portfolio of next-gen Tritan MXF copolyesters that offer chemical resistance, higher impact strength, and easier processability for the housing and hardware of electronic medical devices. The company unveiled the new copolyesters at MD&M West 2020.
“Most electronic medical devices have an enclosure that meets a UL 94 V-2 flame resistant rating, and customers came to us asking for higher impact strength,” Ellen Turner, Eastman’s global market development manager, medical devices, told MD+DI. “If you look at failure modes, there’s something to be learned from testing that looks at impact—these devices are being dropped and bumped all the time.”
The impact resistance of durable medical equipment can change over time as surfaces are repeatedly cleaned with strong chemicals, whose stringency hospitals have been stepping up year after year.
Eastman had developed a four-step testing protocol for determining how disinfectants affect impact resistance. “Customers really like our four-step test, and they asked for higher-impact-resistant materials,” Turner said. She added that “polycarbonate/ABS is the most widely used incumbent for enclosures, but it is failing.”
With next-gen Tritan MXF copolyesters, “we were able to hit on customer needs, a...

Source: MDDI - March 6, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Daphne Allen Tags: Materials Source Type: news