bioplasticsMAGAZINE_1406

Application News
New cellulose
based exfoliator
Image: DTR Medical
PTT for healthcare
applications
DTR Medical (Swansea, UK), a leading manufacturer of
single-use surgical instruments, has specified Sorona ®
(partly biobased PTT Polytrimethylene terephthalate) for six
components in its new Cervical Rotating Biopsy Punch. This
grade is a 15 % glass filled grade of Sorona EP providing
high strength and stiffness. Further attributes of Sorona
useful in this application include resistance to gamma
sterilisation and excellent dimensional stability.
The Cervical Rotating Biopsy Punch is used to take a tissue
sample from the patient for cell analysis by microscopy.
The DuPont material, which is supplied with full regulatory
compliance for use in healthcare applications and is
produced according to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
standards, is used in the handle and trigger mechanism to
mould the rear hand left and right, front handle, connector
pin, rotational controller and the rotational controller
with chamfer. These parts are used to activate a spring,
driving the inner rod which, assisted by the Sorona inserts,
generates a clamping force to cut the tissue sample.
The Cervical Biopsy Punch with Rotation from DTR
Medical is designed for single-use, which eliminates
cross contamination that occur when re-using hard-toclean
instruments on patients undergoing cervical cancer
biopsies and saves considerable time and cost incurred by
sterilizing the equipment for re-use.
According to Andrew Davidson, Managing Director at DTR
Medical “The surface finish of the handle is fundamental for
instrument quality, replacing stainless steel and for good
grip in the clinical setting. The part must deliver durable
mechanical performance in use throughout the five year
shelf life and the benefit of renewably sourced material
is an added advantage for a single-use manufacturer.
We tested many polymers for these components, and the
DuPont material was superior.”
Glen Wells, General Manager at St Davids Assemblies
added “Sorona EP from DuPont combines the benefits of
renewability with processing and performance advantages.
The material can be processed similarly to PBT and PET,
offers very low shrinkage and warpage, enhanced surface
finish, and scratch resistance in finished parts.”
Sorona contains 20 % to 37 % renewable material made
with a renewably sourced propanediol (bio-PDO) made from
technical starch. MT
Celluloscrub XLS exfoliator from Lessonia
(Saint Thonan, France) is a 100 % renewable and
biodegradable white scrub that provides the same high
performance of polyethylene (PE) beads. Coming from
wood pulp, Celluloscrub is derivated from cellulose
acetate making it a real renewable and biodegradable
resource for the personal care industry. It answers to
the technical and economic needs of the manufacturers
of body washes, hand & feet scrubs and bar soaps.
After several months of works of development in
laboratories, it’s now clear that Celluloscrub is the
ultimate product that can easily replace polyethylene in
cosmetics. The formulators that worked with it confirm
that all its characteristics are similar in that of the PE.
Furthermore, Celluloscrub does not interfere with the
stability of the cosmetics which contain it.
Lessonia works according to the cosmetic GMP rules
(ISO 22716). The biodegradation of Celluloscrub is very
easy in a wide variety of environments including soils,
composts, and waste water treatment facilities. The
STURM-test according to EN9439/DIN54900-3 showed
biodegradation in aerobic environment of 50–87 % after
9 weeks. Even if not a packaging product, Lessonia
confirms that the polymer used to make Celluloscrub
meets the requirements of the well-known EN 13432
compostability standard.
The biodegradation of the polymer in waste water
treatment facilities, the environment where most of the
product will end up, has been measured according to
the standards ASTM D5210-92 and ISO 11734. These
methods evaluate the anaerobic biodegradability of
organic compounds in municipal sewage sludge. The
determination of anaerobic degradability is based on
the liberation of biogas using diluted digested sludge
as the inoculums. The study demonstrated that after
3 weeks 60–70 % of the initial polymer is degraded. MT
www.lessonia.com
www.dupont.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/14] Vol. 9 37