Plastics are widely used in modern manufacturing across a wide range of sectors, including healthcare and medical plastic components. Its light weight, versatile properties and hygienic, clean properties make it ideal for use in a number of key medical devices. Bespoke prototypes and large-scale full-production devices can be made using this process with great success.
Medical device plastic moulding has been proven to help reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases, improve pain management and lower medical expenses. As the technology behind producing medical plastic components advances further, this trend looks set to continue well into the future.
Why choose medical device plastic moulding
Among the many reasons why precision plastic moulding techniques align so closely with the medical device sector are the fact that it is easier to comply with exacting medical industry standards and regulations around safety and quality control. Engineering-grade plastics can be used to create units that fulfil FDA standards, prevent contamination and are easy to clean and maintain.
The finished devices offer excellent mechanical properties too, including high tensile strength, resistance to high temperatures and tolerances that can be favourably compared to metal alternatives. Plastic is highly compatible with imaging technologies, making diagnostics more straightforward. Medical plastic components can often be recycled more readily too, and can be made to precise specifications for detailed customisation and very high levels of accuracy. The technique of medical device plastic moulding is cost-effective too, with very little waste or defective products.
What devices can be produced from precision plastic moulding?
The uses for medical plastic components across the healthcare and medical sectors are multiple. In the laboratory, plastic injection moulding can produce a wealth of helpful items, such as test tubes, beakers, casings and enclosures, goggles and other forms of PPE. Plastic is often safer than glass, as it will not shatter when dropped and can withstand high temperatures (for example while being sterilised) and exposure to strong chemicals.
Other uses for plastic injection moulded medical components include surgical systems, components and instruments, both reusable and disposable. The materials used are strong and robust, easy to keep clean and sterile and can be formed into any shape or size to match precise specifications and meet exacting industry regulations. The process can also be used to create items such as diagnostic and patient monitoring equipment, medical packaging, single-use drug delivery systems, catheters, needles, filters and more. Such items are commonly ordered as bespoke single orders and in mass-produced quantities by dental surgeries, opticians, health centres, GP surgeries and hospitals.
In addition, precision plastic moulding medical devices leads to excellent accuracy rates, high quality control, cleanliness and biocompatibility for easier integration wholly or partially into the human body. Implanted devices including dental implants, artificial knee, hip and other joints, pacemakers and contraceptive devices can all benefit hugely for being made from an appropriate plastic, as opposed to metal, and fashioned using injection moulding techniques.
What are some of the materials chosen for medical plastic components?
Arguably the most important benefit of working with plastic in the medical device sector is its versatility, Different types of plastic have different properties; some are rigid and some flexible. Some are opaque and others transparent. You can recycle some forms and remould and reuse others many times over, making them ideal for the multifaceted medical device industry.
Among the more commonly found plastics in medical device manufacturing are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Polyethylene can come in high-density and low-density versions (HDPE and LDPE). HDPE is rigid and resistant to moisture, making it ideal for solid pharmaceutical applications, such as containers and sample pots. LDPE is translucent and flexible, used for ‘soft’ bottles and tubes that need to be squeezed to extract the contents and medical tubing.
Polypropylene is even more rigid and strong than HDPE and is often used for containers storing sterile and fluid drug products. Polystyrene is commonly used for packaging that protects and cushions delicate contents due to its excellent impact-absorbing properties and overall strength. PVC is transparent and flexible – very good for storing glucose and saline solutions, as well as to make blood bags, oxygen masks, tubing, mattress protectors and floor, wall and ceiling coverings.
