Icma develops line for medical PVC

The Biomedical is an extremely technical field where machines manufacturers are continuously asked to design new process, in order to deliver technologies responding to current and anticipated regulations that, in the medical field, are becoming more and more severe.
With this in mind Icma San Giorgio, an Italian leading producers of co-rotating twin screw extruders and compounding plants, has designed and manufactured an innovative line for Medical Grade PVC compound equipped with a co-rotating twin screw extruder model MCM 140. This line is the result of several months of research and test in Icma’s laboratory given the complexity of the recipes to be compounded.

The project was commissioned by an R&D Corporation after approval by the Italian National Research Council (CNR), and was oriented to produce a “Medical Grade” PVC compound without DEHP but with a substantial chemical inertia. The resulting compounds will be then used to manufacture blood bags and other medical devices, with functional features the most important of which is the reduction to almost nil of the release and migration of plastic extracts. To achieve such result the co-rotating technology has been selected as the best option available in the market and Icma as the right company to get the project done also thanks to its well equipped laboratory and experienced technical staff. In fact the use of a co-rotating extruder offers great advantages compared to the conventional PVC process done by a counter-rotating twin-screw extruders.

The main advantage is the possibility to eliminate the Pre-Mixing process, since the co-rotating extruder allows a highly efficient and superior mixing directly in to the extruder barrel. In addition, the high homogeneity of the single components, achieved with a proper extruder and screw configuration, becomes critical for the characteristics of the final compound, with particular regard to the medical field, where assurance of physical, chemical and pharmaceutical properties are very critical in order to guarantee no harms for the patients.