Webinar: Understanding Polymer Structure and Processing to Minimize Failures

^{On Thursday 8 June at 10:00 EDT, 15:00 UK time}

Hosted by Dr Richard Padbury, polymer technology consultant at Lucideon, the webinar will look at the beneficial properties of polymers in a range of medical device applications and how these can be best utilised.

To take full advantage of the beneficial properties of polymers, it is essential to understand the intimate connection between polymer structure and process conditions to minimise quality issues, product failure and underperformance. In this webinar, Richard will explore fascinating developments in polymer materials, how their tunability properties are being utilised and what to do when things go wrong.

This webinar will appeal to design engineers, mechanical engineers and polymer scientists in the medical devices sector, and anyone who works with polymers who needs to learn more about the intricacies of polymer behaviour.

With a PhD in Fiber and Polymer Science, Richard has lots of experience and case studies to draw on, from copolymers that are being developed with interesting properties to how polymers are being used in 3D printing.

To find out more and to register for the webinar visit Lucideon’s website.

Polymer Solutions from Lucideon

Lucideon provides consultancy, expert testing and analysis services to the medical devices industry to help solve complex challenges, inform product design and development and identify the root causes of failures.

Capabilities

Lucideon’s team of polymer experts and analytical specialists can solve any polymer related challenge. Examples include:

• Overcoming quality and performance issues associated with raw materials or manufacturing processes
• Reducing production delays and costs when access to third party materials is lost
• Aiding cost cutting and achieving timely development of new products through polymer consultancy, materials development and process optimisation.

Lucideon’s polymer consultancy services can be applied to:

• Any polymer material and manufacturing process - whether it's coating, blow moulding, injection moulding, extruding, melt spinning, 3D printing or more
• Any segment of the medical devices value chain from OEMs to value added, parts & components and packaging manufacturers
• Troubleshooting and solving issues related to undesirable or unknown material properties and manufacturing challenges
• Development of new polymer materials, from material selection to testing, characterization and scale-up

The polymer team at Lucideon understands that in order to maintain a competitive edge in the medical devices industry, it is essential to develop novel materials and processes for new products. Therefore, the company supports its own internal polymer material developments and manages public funded projects with collaborators from multiple organisations and industries. Examples include:

Healthcare:

• Antimicrobial polymers for woundcare
• Bioresorbable, drug eluting composites for stents
• Third gen scaffolds

With a comprehensive suite of analytical capabilities, Lucideon can provide:

• Polymer Characterization - characterising polymers by molecular weight, weight distributions, branching and more to help you understand and improve your products.
• Properties Evaluation - evaluating the properties of polymers to better understand material behaviour and predict performance.
• Surface Examination – examining the surface of materials to define how they interact with substrates and their surrounding environment.
• Contaminant Identification – Identifying contaminants to determine what they are, where they come from and how to prevent them.
• Raw Material Assay – understanding raw materials and how they behave in downstream processes.
• Cleanliness Validation – validating the cleanliness of your products and your cleaning procedures.
• Leachability / Toxicity Assessment - Testing for leachables and toxicity to reduce safety risks and contamination.
• Ongoing QA/QC Provision – Providing QA/QC - thermal, mechanical, rheological and optical properties of products – and developing new QA/QC procedures to make current processes even more robust, optimising yields and saving time and money.
• Shelf Life Prediction – Determining the shelf like of products, quickly and accurately.
• Ageing Determination - Advanced age determination to assess the performance of products under the influence of their intended environments. Age determination techniques allow life expectancy to be assessed and maintenance schedules and routine repairs to be developed.

To find out more about Lucideon’s polymer solutions visit www.lucideon.com/polymers.

Lucideon's programme of webinars can be found here.

Lucideon has recently published two white papers:  ‘Failure Analysis of Plastic Products’ and ‘Design Optimisation in Medical Devices: Materials Matter’.  You can download them for free at www.lucideon.com/polymer-white-papers.

Email: richard.padbury@lucideon.com