SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Elkem Silicones USA Corp. is on a "full court press" into the long-term implant side of the health care market, said Mike Goglia, health care market manager.
That growth means additional products and an expanded support staff, Goglia said in an interview at the recent Healthcare Elastomer Conference in Schaumburg, Ill.
"We have a full product portfolio for that marketplace, for long term. That's LSR, adhesives, RTVs and HCR," he said. "We initially started with just LSR, and we continue to expand into that marketplace."
Elkem is starting out with services and sales support for the market segment, as well as helping customers getting products off the ground, Goglia said.
"We know it's 5-7 years before something goes commercial generally, but we've got a lot of irons in the fire," Goglia said. "We've always had lofty expansion plans, and they continue."
One step in that expansion is the new Silbione Med ADH 4200, a one-part, tin-free adhesive. Using tin as a catalyst isn't biocompatible in many applications, Goglia said. The new adhesive uses an undisclosed non-tin catalyst that gives the product a wider flexibility in the marketplace.
"We've seen in comparisons to the benchmarks that are out there that the adhesion is better," he said. "We've seen some really good adhesion to various substrates, whether that be metal or plastic, and at a faster cure speed, which can increase throughput for our end customers."
The new adhesive cures about 50 percent faster in most cases without heat or humidity, Goglia said, where many one-part adhesives require both in a moisture cure. The new adhesive doesn't require a moisture chamber to cure.
While Med ADH 4200 is made for long-term implant applications, Elkem also will launch a non-long-term implant version of the same product, he said. That version is the same product, but each batch does not have to be tested for biocompatibility for greater than 30 day implants.