1 Jul 2004
GE ADVANCED MATERIALS EXPANDS CAPABILITIES IN HEALTHCARE
GE’S PLASTICS AND SILICONE PRODUCTS SUPPORT FULL RANGE OF MEDICAL DEVICES
BERGEN OP ZOOM, The Netherlands — June 29, 2004 — The global healthcare industry demands continual technical innovations in materials to keep pace with advancing healthcare technologies and to support the growing shift from hospital-based care to outpatient and home care. To meet demand, manufacturers of healthcare devices, therapies, and pharmaceuticals must rely on materials suppliers that can develop and deliver a steady pipeline of innovative, high-performance products.
As a global leader in thermoplastic and silicone materials, GE Advanced Materials offers an expanding portfolio of healthcare materials for diverse industry segments. These include liquid silicone elastomers to help speed production and enable minute and precise part fabrication; to LEXAN® polycarbonate (PC) resins, offering lipid resistance and gamma-radiation stabilization; to high-heat resistant ULTEM® resins for autoclaved precision parts and trays.
Screening and Monitoring
Screening and monitoring measures in preventative care are growing. The integration of monitoring and imaging are driving new equipment designs. As a result, wireless and related technologies used for accessing information are requiring medical devices with improved shielding from electromagnetic and radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI), which can be obtained using GE’s LNP Stat-Kon® and Faradex® lines of electrostatic dissipating and shielding compounds.
The call for more portable screening devices – used between care facilities and at-home follow-up – is driving greater component miniaturization, along with lighter weight and more ergonomic designs. Here, GE Advanced Materials’ CYCOLOY®, NORYL®, and LEXAN resins can provide durability and impact strength in a range of monitoring and imaging equipment such as heart monitors, CT scanners, MRI and ultrasound imaging, and digital x-ray printers. The company’s silicone products – including LIM®/LSR and Tufel™ II – are being used for keypads on these devices.
Healthcare device manufacturers are also developing new products to keep pace with conditions like osteoporosis, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea. For this segment, GE’s CYCOLOY and LEXAN EXL resins are being used in equipment such as bone densitometers and blood glucose meters. Sleep apnea devices also incorporate LEXAN and CYCOLOY resins, as well as LIM/LSR and Tufel II silicones.
Screening and monitoring equipment can also benefit from the flame retardancy and chemical resistance that GE’s family of healthcare materials can help provide. As home use of these devices grows, aesthetics – especially color and design – are becoming more important. GE Advanced Materials can help customers address this need with an array of Visualfx® special-effect resins. The company also has color innovation centers in the United States, Europe, and Asia to help manufacturers develop products with eye-catching consumer appeal. Custom color services are even offered for GE Advanced Materials’ liquid silicone product portfolio.
Diagnostics
Diagnostic devices are as diverse as screening and monitoring devices and are also requiring the high-performance properties that plastics and silicones can provide. Here, GE Advanced Materials offers ULTEM resin for the intricate internal components of pipettes; VALOX® films for diagnostic test strips; and LEXAN and ULTEM resins for clinical bottles and centrifuge containers.
For large diagnostic equipment where durability and light weight are increasingly important, the company offers its foamed NORYL resins. GE’s silicone products are also finding wide application in diagnostics, from custom, high-consistency elastomers (HCE) for use in blood culture devices to molded liquid silicone rubber (LSR) for laboratory septa.
Treatment
As new surgical techniques proliferate, there is increasing demand for minimally invasive surgical (MIS) instruments. For this segment, GE Advanced Materials offers a range of products for multifunctional instruments that facilitate ergonomics and ease
Reader enquiries
GE Bayer Silicones GmbH & Co. KGBuilding V7
51368 LEVERKUSEN
Germany
Robert Scheib
robert.scheib@ge.com
Tel: +49 214 306 71 37
Fax: +49 214 306 71 26
Germany
Notes for editors
GE Advanced Materials
GE Advanced Materials is a world leader in providing materials solutions through engineering thermoplastics, silicon-based products and technology platforms, and fused quartz and ceramics. Among its businesses are:
• Silicones, which includes GE Toshiba Silicones in the Pacific region and GE Bayer Silicones in Europe, offers silanes, specialty silicones, urethane additives, adhesives, sealants, resins, and elastomers for a variety of industries such as personal care, automotive, tire and rubber, construction, healthcare, electronics, household and institutional, agriculture, textiles, appliances, bedding and furnishings, foam control, and consumer (https://www.gesilicones.com/gesilicones/am1/en/home.jsp);
• Plastics is a global plastics materials supplier and distributor, which serves customers in a variety of industries including aerospace, appliances, automotive, building and construction, data storage and optical media, medical, electrical and electronics devices, telecommunications, computers and peripheral devices, outdoor vehicles and devices, and packaging (https://www.geplastics.com);
• Quartz produces high purity materials for the semiconductor, fiber optic, lamp making and water purification industries. GE Quartz is a leading supplier of quartz materials to the semiconductor industry (www.gequartz.com/en/index.htm);
• GE (NYSE:GE) is a diversified technology, media, and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, television programming, and plastics, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
LEXAN, ULTEM, CYCOLOY, NORYL, LIM, VALOX, Visualfx, Tufel, LUBRICOMP, THERMOCOMP, Stat-Kon and Faradex are registered trademarks of General Electric Company.
XYLEX is a trademark of General Electric Company.
Related images
Healthcare industry leader, Bioject®, has selected two of GE Advanced Materials’ high-performance thermoplastic resins for use in its needle-free drug delivery injection devices. The Biojector® 2000, an injection device that is powered by compressed CO2 (above left), uses LEXAN® resin for excellent clarity, impact strength, and durability. GE’s CYCOLOY® resin was chosen by Bioject for the resin’s excellent balance of impact resistance and other mechanical properties for the company’s Vitajet® needle-free injector, a popular spring-powered device.
Cardiac Science, a major supplier of equipment to the healthcare industry, uses GE Advanced Materials’ CYCOLOY® and LEXAN® resins for its Powerheart AED G3 automated external defibrillator unit. The self-testing, battery-operated AED uses CYCOLOY resin for its base and a clear LEXAN resin grade for its front lid. Cardiac Science chose the GE resins for their outstanding impact strength, chemical resistance, durability, and ease of moldability. LEXAN resin also provides the needed transparency to view under-lid instrumentation.
Two lines of Dideco’s oxygenators use tough LEXAN® polycarbonate resin from GE Advanced Materials. LEXAN resin was selected by Dideco for its excellent clarity, processability, and impact strength. This high-performance GE material is also biocompatible, FDA compliant, provides good surface aesthetics and is part of the company’s growing portfolio of products for the healthcare industry.
Surgical instrument trays from PST Corp. are molded from high-performance ULTEM® polyetherimide (PEI) resin from GE Advanced Materials. ULTEM resin gives the instrument trays the ability to handle multiple-cycle steam autoclave, dry heat, and chemical sterilization and provides outstanding strength and stiffness. The GE resin is also ISO 10993 compliant and offers processing ease in combination with excellent impact resistance and structural integrity.
Catheters used in the healthcare industry can take advantage of the good balance of properties offered by TufelTM high-consistency and LIM®/LSR liquid silicone elastomers from GE Advanced Materials. Tufel elastomers can be used for the extruded tubing of such devices, and both Tufel and LIM/LSR elastomers can be used for molded catheter terminations. The GE products offer a high degree of design flexibility and can be used to produce parts that are biologically compatible and non-thrombogenic. They also have a long storage life and radio-opaque capabilities.
GE Advanced Materials’ TufelTM high-consistency and LIM®/LSR liquid elastomers are used to mold wound drains and wound bulbs which help drain fluid accumulation from open wounds as they heal. The GE products can offer such applications a high level of elastic response to facilitate fluid removal, as well as the clarity required to visually monitor fluid volumes. Tufel and LIM/LSR elastomers can produce parts that are non-thrombogenic and offer outstanding design flexibility and radio-opaque capabilities.
Editorial enquiries
Marianne Schouten
GE Advanced Materials
Brigitta de Vries
Marketing Solutions NV