Bayer's Makrolon Rx2440 polycarbonate offers faster color recovery for healthcare setting

Apr 29 2014

Rapid resin-color recovery for healthcare environment

No one disputes that supply chains are fast today and the healthcare sector is no exception. To help handle the increasing number of patients visiting doctors or clinics, healthcare providers have decreased the lead time between sterilization and use in the clinic.

While the color-recovery of typical polycarbonates after radiation-sterilization has historically taken several days, the color recovery process is greatly slowed when devices are packaged in oxygen-free pouches.

“The challenge was to come up with a polycarbonate resin that would meet the high productivity requirements for both manufacturing and sterilization,” said Bruce Fine, Medical Market Segment Leader for North America. “Customers didn’t just need high flow, but also faster color recovery when irradiated in oxygen-free packaging.”

With this in mind, Bayer MaterialScience LLC has developed a clear, high-flow Makrolon® Rx2440 polycarbonate that offers a faster recovery time in color shift. The medical-grade polycarbonate may be sterilized with high-energy radiation (gamma or e-beam) and ETO, and is often used in applications requiring biocompatibility that meets ISO 10993-1 and USP Class VI.

Pierre Moulinié, Global Technology Lead for Polycarbonate Consumer and Medical Applications, Bayer MaterialScience LLC, will present “Radiation-sterilization of new medical resins in oxygen-free packaging” at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 30 during the Society of Plastics Engineers ANTEC conference held April 28-30 in Las Vegas. He will discuss the faster color-recovery and property retention of Makrolon Rx2440 polycarbonate when sterilized by radiation in oxygen-free packaging compared with other polycarbonate resins.

“With its outstanding combination of rigidity, toughness, high flow and unique and fast color-recovery after irradiation, Makrolon Rx2440 polycarbonate provides a solution for increasingly rapid medical supply chains,” Moulinié said.