Limitations in the use of glass and plastics in the healthcare environments have prompted GE Plastics to develop an alternative that meets today's patient needs.
The co-injection blow-molding process has been developed in-house and enables crystal-clear, virtually unbreakable Lexan HP polycarbonate resins to be integrated with traditional barrier materials.
"A number of healthcare packaging trends, including demand for enhanced clarity and greater emphasis on patient and caregiver safety, have highlighted the drawbacks in mono-layer solutions such as traditional glass and plastics," said John Davis, technical manager of Healthcare GE Plastics.
"To help our customers in the in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) and pharmaceutical industries address these limitations and meet changing market needs, we built on our extensive processing and materials technology resources to provide a broader approach to barrier packaging."
The result is a sandwich of two Lexan HP resin exterior layers and an interior barrier layer. Pharmaceutical and IVD packaging such as diagnostic vials, culture vials, and drug containers can benefit from the clarity, autoclave sterilisation capability, potential for advanced hemocompatibility and low protein binding1, and impact resistance of Lexan HP resins, combined with the gas and/or moisture barrier properties of conventional barrier plastics, such as amorphous nylon or cyclo-olefins.
Implementation of a co-injection blow-molding system occurs at GE Plastics" Polymer Processing Development Center (PPDC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was completed to assist in the development of materials and applications within the healthcare industry.
The healthcare packaging industry is demanding new materials solutions to address trends that include greater patient and provider safety through breakage resistance, error reduction with unit dose packaging, and more consistent sterility. Additional needs include adequate protection and maintenance of the drugs or body samples contained in the packages. Other trends are impacting conventional plastics: the move away from aseptic filling and towards terminal sterilization, increased autoclave temperatures, and demand for enhanced viewing of package contents.
Owens-Illinois HealthCare Packaging is one company using GE's Lexan HP resin to respond to these trends.
"The co-injection blow-molded plastic healthcare bottles offered by our company provide consistent application performance including clarity, impact resistance, and barrier," said Dawn Nowicki, life sciences category manager at O-I.