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Austrian medical device manufacturer is looking for materials / methods / automated process for bonding of plastic parts

Country of Origin: Austria
Reference Number: TRAT20191018001
Publication Date: 18 October 2019

Summary

An Austrian company active in the diagnostic healthcare business wants to reduce production time of their products. This should be done by improving the bonding step of the plastic housing parts. They are looking for alternatives to currently used silicone, new methods and/or an automated process. Partners from industry or academia are sought under commercial agreement with technical assistance, license agreement, technical cooperation or research cooperation.

Description

The Austrian company is developing and manufacturing diagnostic devices for healthcare professionals.



The housings of medical products have to fulfill many requirements. They have to be cleanable, chemically stable, biocompatible, optically high-grade and robust against mechanical impacts. Additionally they have to comply with the regulations of medical technologies especially concerning electrical and hygienic safety. 



For the different housings of the diagnostic devices, which the company is producing, various parts made of plastic have to be glued together. At the moment this bonding and sealing is mainly done by using moisture-curing 1K silicone. 



A big disadvantage of silicone is its long curing time (approx. 8 hours).

In the current production process of the company silicone is applied manually. In order to guarantee tightness of the final diagnostic device it is applied abundantly. The diagnostic devices have to be cleaned after the bonding step, which costs extra time.



The company is looking for ways to improve the process step of bonding the required plastic parts by applying other bonding materials or methods and/or by automation of this process. They are searching for partners from industry or academia that could offer a solution under a commercial agreement with technical assistance, license agreement, technical cooperation or research cooperation.

Expertise sought

New bonding materials/methods sought have to fulfill the following requirements:



 - applicable to plastic parts primarily made of PBT (polybutylene terephthalate), silicone or PVC (soft polyvinyl chloride) 

 - short curing times 

 - good bonding and sealing properties; filling gaps in such a way, that hygienic safety is guaranteed (sealing the gaps)

 - biocompatible

 - chemically stable

 - UV light stable

 - complying with the regulations of medical technologies especially concerning electrical safety

 - enabling the diagnostic devices to be cleanable, optically high-grade (e.g. not visible or colour adaptable according to the design requirement) and robust against mechanical impacts (contributing to elasticity)

 - facilitating an automated production process



An automation solution for the bonding/sealing process step has to:

 - be very flexible because it has to cope with the bonding of many different housings at low volumes

 - eliminate the cleaning step (by controlled application of the optimized amount of the bonding agent)

 - support robust process with high yield

Requested partner

The Austrian company is looking for developers and/or manufacturers offering suitable bonding materials / methods and/or automation solutions via a commercial agreement with technical assistance or license agreement.

The company is also open to a technical cooperation agreement for the testing and adaptation of existing solutions to meet the specific requirements. Another option is a research cooperation agreement for developing a new solution together with potential partners in the framework of a funded research programme.