GE Plastics’ innovative materials and application developments for Medical Device Manufacturers on Display at Medica Düsseldorf

BERGEN OP ZOOM, THE NETHERLANDS — September 18, 2006 — GE Plastics will be showcasing some of their innovative materials and technologies for medical devices at Medica in Düsseldorf, Germany from Nov. 15-18 In hall 10, booth A56. GE Plastics will feature its new engineering thermoplastic material solutions demonstrating improved hemocompatibility¹ for use in blood contact applications and devices requiring low protein binding, such as those found in several diagnostic or biopharmaceutical applications. ESTECH’s single-use ClearView MV™ Atrial Depressor utilizes GE’s advanced hemocompatible Lexan* to help achieve excellent device reliability and biocompatibility² in minimally invasive mitral valve repair and replacement procedures. GE will also highlight other customers’ innovative devices, including MEGADYNE Electrosurgical E-Z Pen™, GE Healthcare’s Aisys® Carestation® anesthesia delivery system and several others.

“GE Plastics has continued building capabilities to help our customers turn their innovative designs into application successes,” says Clare Frissora, market director, Healthcare for GE Plastics. She adds, “GE Plastics has committed support to the industry by investing in new technical capabilities, materials technologies and dedicated healthcare teams for healthcare specific support for our customers worldwide. New materials and technical capabilities are designed to respond to the evolving trends and needs of the healthcare industry. We look to GE Plastics’ introductions over the past 2 years to demonstrate this commitment, including examples such as our higher flow and release autoclavable Lexan HPX resins, the higher heat autoclavable Lexan 4504 resin, GE’s lipid resistant Lexan HPS7 resin, and our Noryl* HNA resins for situations where greater exposure to certain chemicals and higher heat autoclave temperatures are being considered.”

E-Z Pen electrosurgical pencil

GE Plastics’ Noryl and Ultem* resin grades were chosen by MEGADYNE Medical Products for their 12-use E-Z Pen electrosurgical pencil. Lightweight and ergonomically designed with both 10- and 15-foot, kink-resistant cords for easier, more comfortable handling, E-Z Pen pencils are the only product on the market offering patented E-Z Clean® non-stick tips that allow surgeons to make cleaner cuts. The versatility and variety of GE’s portfolio of materials for medical device applications, combined with GE value-added services such as color-matching, enabled MEGADYNE to meet the specific requirements of this application.

Equally as important as its materials, GE provided several services to enable resin selection, color- matching, and process optimization. According to Darcy Greep, E-Z Pen project engineer at MEGADYNE, “GE helped our molder to overcome some process issues very rapidly. And their ColorXpress* color match service was awesome. GE’s response time to critical deadlines was fantastic and their ability to precisely match to our color was excellent.”

Aisys Carestation anesthesia delivery system

The state-of-the-art Aisys Carestation anesthesia delivery system from GE Healthcare is a demonstration of sophisticated technology in a versatile device. It is the first GE anesthesia solution to integrate electronic gas and agent control as well as delivery with advanced ventilation, vital signs monitoring, and an Advanced Breathing System (ABS™). However, its success in the healthcare marketplace also rides on such practical factors as cost-effectiveness and durability. To achieve these goals, GE Healthcare sought a materials supplier that could efficiently meet diverse application requirements ranging from chemical resistance for work surfaces, light weight for drawer doors, and transparency for the gas scavenger system. GE Plastics was able to supply multiple materials from its diverse product portfolio to meet these needs while providing value-added services such as material selection and application development support.

“Patient safety and accuracy are paramount with anesthesia delivery, but hospitals also have to consider cost, maintenance, and durability when they invest in a delivery system,” said Pedro Torres, strategic sourcing leader, GE Healthcare. “By working with one resin supplier on multiple components of this system, we aimed to achieve savings in cycle time and cost. The key was finding a vendor to meet the wide range of performance needs – and GE Plastics, with its extensive product portfolio, facilitated the identification and selection of materials for different component requirements. But GE Plastics wasn’t an automatic shoe-in just because they are a GE business. They had to prove themselves just like any other supplier.”

GE’s Materials Help Provide a Competitive Advantage

With its broad and deep global R&D, design and manufacturing capabilities, GE Plastics excel in helping healthcare device designers and OEMs gain a competitive edge by providing materials solutions that differentiate their products. GE facilitates speed to market and efficient application development by helping customers as they work through the many stages of product design, application development, and manufacturing set-up.

Included in the trends impacting the healthcare industry are an aging population; short hospital stays driving towards the need for advanced in-home-care; disposable devices requiring a high level of material performance; the ongoing challenge to balance total system cost challenges; and the increasing importance of aesthetics, light weight, and ergonomics. These trends are demanding new designs and technology must evolve to support them. Rather than react to these trends, GE maintains dedicated healthcare teams to track global advances and anticipate responses needed to serve emerging application and regulatory needs.

GE Plastics is demonstrating the capabilities of resins vs. the traditional use of metals, enabling the trend toward lighter weight material options, yet allowing high precision and performance.

Another key trend involves the healthcare industry’s demand for higher-performing materials to meet the growing use of autoclave sterilization. GE’s biocompatible Lexan resin grades, Lexan HPX4 and Lexan HPX8R PC resins help meet this demand along with improved flow and release capabilities. These grades join GE’s range of materials for use with autoclave sterilization, including other selections from Lexan PC resins, as well as Ultem polyetherimide resins, Noryl PPO* blend resins, and LNP*’s Colorcomp*, Thermocomp*, and Lubricomp* compounds. The need for improved flow is met with the new Lexan HP1HF resin grade with a 35 MFI (melt flow index).

Reader enquiries

GE Plastics
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Helen Vandebovenkamp
helen.vandebovenkamp@ge.com

Tel: +31 164 29 20 97
Fax: +31 164 29 10 66
Netherlands

+31 164 29 20 97

helen.vandebovenkamp@​ge.com

www.geplastics.com