8 medical device industry supplier innovations you need to know

Covestro: A raw material for wound dressings and wearables

Covestro recently featured its Baymedix FD103 water-based polyurethane dispersion material at MD&M East as a raw material for wound dressings and long-term wearable medical devices such as continuous glucose monitors and heart monitors.

Baymedix FD103 may be used to make roll stock for medical foams, adhesives and films. Covestro suspends polyurethane particles in water until the mixture reaches a consistent form to make the raw material, according to Bentley Mah, senior technical sales specialist. Water-borne technology is better for the environment than using solvents, he added.

“Part of our proprietary technology is keeping it in that suspension so it doesn’t settle out,” Mah said. “That helps with the manufacturability.”

Foam made from Baymedix FD103 is thermoformable, allowing for design flexibility for wearables and dressings. Medtech manufacturers may also embed sensors or other electronics embedded within the foam, which provides temperature and damage insulation. The waterborne suspension allows thinness, flexibility and moisture management in the finished product.

“They are very, very breathable materials,” Mah said. “For wound care, having that fine balance of having a moist wound bed and having that breathability, it allows it to heal. This is well researched. With our materials, you can customize the breathability.”

Medical foams made from Baymedix FD103 pull exudate away from wounds and absorb the fluids so wounds can heal, Mah added. This is particularly important for advanced wound dressings, which are changed less frequently and are gentle on fragile skin. Covestro’s materials allow manufacturers to easily add antimicrobials and other healing agents, he said.

Covestro makes raw materials for a variety of industries, and adjusted its processes to meet the stringent standards of the medtech industry in formulating Baymedix FD103.

“We understood the design and quality and change management systems for the medical design industry,” Mah said. “It was kind of adapting off our own internal quality systems, at least for the medical side, to fit what the medical OEMs or the medical device manufacturers needed so they can simply plug in and say that this product can be used for medical applications.”

Covestro also provides technical support to manufacturers that want to combine one of the company’s films with one of its foams to ease manufacturing of wearables or wound dressings.

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