This year’s Medical Grade Polymers 2008 brings together an exciting program of medical device manufacturers laying out their demands from polymers, together with expert materials scientists from the polymer industry joining in that debate and showing the latest developments in this field.
The cost of medical testing and approval is not insignificant. It often leads to material selection from the established pool of medical graded polymers. However, medical device manufacturers who regularly specify materials in new applications are not always happy with the labels given to marketed polymers and this will be opened up for debate at the conference. There is no precise definition for the term ‘medical grade polymer’ and the nature of the application drives the specification of the testing criteria.
Stryker Orthopaedics, Cordis Corp., Winovia Plastics, US Endoscopy will be discussing the issues from the viewpoint of the designers and manufacturers of devices.
Experts on testing and approvals such as NAMSA and Ciba Corp. will highlight the legal and practical aspects of the approval process, with Granta Design illustrating the material selection process. Speakers from the viewpoint of polymer producers include Ticona, DSM Biomedical, Arkema, Topas Advanced Polymers, Teknor Apex (covering plasticiser issues), RTP Corp., Foster Corp. (on antimicrobials), Lyondell Basell, The Polymer Technology Group, Blue Star Silicones, Saint Gobain (on two-shot silicone-thermoplastic moulding) and E.I. DuPont Canada.
(Beschreibung nach Veranstalterangaben)