Teknor Apex TPVs to challenge rubber in medical parts

Pawtucket, Rhode Island – Teknor Apex has developed new medical-grade thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) elastomers for injection moulded products, the company announced 27 July.

The materials are said to yield O-rings, gaskets, and diaphragms with excellent long-term sealing performance. They are also claimed to cost less to process than thermoset rubber, and offer manufacturing advantages over standard TPVs and styrenic TPEs.

The Medalist MD-23100 compounds provide rubber-like elasticity, superior long-term compression set, and chemical resistance, said Teknor Apex.

“Unlike some standard TPVs, compounds in the new Medalist series are non-hygroscopic, rendering pre-drying unnecessary, and their lighter natural hue makes them easy to colour, it added.

Medalist MD-23100 Series compounds are also claimed to exhibit better high-temperature stability than styrenic TPEs.

The new TPVs are available with Shore A hardness levels from a soft 15 to a semi-hard 73 and with melt flow rates ranging as high as 24 g/10 minutes for moulding small, high-precision parts in complex, multi-cavity tools.

The compounds are suitable for over-moulding onto polypropylene, the company added.

Teknor Apex recommends the new compounds for sealing components used in devices for drug delivery, fluid transfer, dialysis, endoscopy, and other procedures, and in such equipment as feeding devices, and pumps.

The dynamic sealing properties of these TPVs “enable device manufacturers to obtain excellent long-term performance while avoiding the higher cost and greater complications associated with processing thermoset rubber,” said Ross van Royen, senior market manager for regulated products.

“At the same time, these new compounds provide processing advantages over a number of TPV and styrenic TPE candidates for seal applications,” he added.

Teknor Apex produces the compounds in ISO-13485 facilities in the US and Singapore. The materials comply with FDA requirements for food-grade ingredients, ISO 10993-5 standards for biocompatibility, and REACH SVHC directives.

They are, the company added free of DEHP and other phthalates, BPA, and latex. Standard grades are ADM-free.