NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2005--
Award-Winning Skin Staplers, Syringes and Plastic Resin Grades on Display in GE Booth at MD&M East
GE Advanced Materials will discuss its recent investments in technology and expertise and showcase its latest innovations for medical device manufacturers at the MD&M East Exposition and Conference, running here from June 13-15 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The company will demonstrate the success of recent healthcare initiatives, showcasing such innovative examples as the INSORB(R)|20 subcuticular surgical stapler and the benefits of specialized materials technology specifically designed for the healthcare industry, including the new grades of Lexan(a) resin. (NOTE TO EDITORS: There is a pipe symbol in the text between INSORB(R) and 20. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.)
"GE's plastics and silicones can help turn innovative designs into customer successes," said Clare Frissora, market director, Healthcare for GE Advanced Materials' Plastics business. "We've made a commitment to the industry by investing in new facilities, technical capabilities, and materials technologies to support healthcare customers worldwide, as demonstrated through a 20 percent increase in our product portfolio for the healthcare industry."
In the past year, GE's new biocompatible products have been developed to offer better resistance to lipids, enhanced flow and release properties, improved sterilization capabilities, and excellent overall materials performance. The company also expanded its Garrett, Ind. facility to offer customization of high consistency and liquid silicone elastomers, including formulating, mixing, compounding, and blending capabilities, to customers serving the healthcare industry.
"We've also tripled the size of our global teams dedicated to the healthcare industry to offer specialized expertise to our customers," said Eric Luftig, Healthcare marketing manager, GE Advanced Materials, Silicones. "Today, we have more dedicated resources, better talent, and are better positioned than any other materials supplier in the industry to anticipate industry trends and meet customer challenges."
Collaboration Provides a Competitive Advantage
With its broad and deep global R&D, design, and manufacturing capabilities, GE Advanced Materials excels in helping healthcare device designers and OEMs gain a competitive edge with materials solutions that differentiate their products. By working with customers through the many stages of product design, application development, and prototyping, GE can help companies bring their products to market faster and with greater efficiencies. For example, GE worked with Incisive Surgical, Inc. over an 18-month period as the company perfected its INSORB|20 subcuticular skin stapler - a completely new offering. Other success stories include IRI's auto-disabling syringe and Airplus(R) Invisigel orthopaedic insoles from Implus Footcare. (NOTE TO EDITORS: There is a pipe symbol in the text between INSORB and 20. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.)
Technologies Anticipate Healthcare Trends
Included in the trends impacting the healthcare industry is an aging population; short hospitals stays with need for advanced in-home-care; disposable devices that require a high level of material performance balanced with lower-price device challenges; and the increasing importance of device aesthetics and light weight. These trends are influencing the number of new designs entering the marketplace and emphasize the need for aesthetics and light weight, and the need to respond to the evolution of technology in devices supporting these segments. Rather than react to these trends, GE maintains dedicated healthcare teams to track global advances and respond to emerging applications and regulatory needs.
GE is enabling the trend toward thin-wall design for lighter weight with materials such as its tough and virtually unbreakable Lexan resin, which was selected by Rigid FX Orthopedics, Inc., for its ClearView(TM) Wrist Fixator. To help deliver excellent clarity, impact strength, and durability, Bioject(R) selected Lexan resin and, for a balance of impact resistance and other mechanical properties, GE's Cycoloy(a) resin, for its Biojector(R) 2000 needle-free drug delivery injection devices. The Lexan resin healthcare portfolio has been further extended through the launch of the high-performance Lexan HPX resin series here at MD&M East.
New Materials Available for Manufactures
Another key trend involves the healthcare industry's demand for higher performing materials to meet the growing use of autoclave sterilization. GE's new biocompatible Lexan HPX4 and HPX8R resins help meet this demand. Similarly, the need for improved flow is met with new Lexan HP1HF resin. Other materials such as Ultem(a) 1000E resin and LSR 2070 silicone - used in PST's surgical instrument trays and mats - support sterilization by autoclave, steam, dry heat, and chemicals while maintaining strength, appearance, and dimensional stability. And GE's LNP(a) Colorcomp(s) compounds and LIM 6040 silicones allow dental scalers manufactured by Hu Friedy to be autoclaved for over 1000 cycles.
When manufacturers face the tough challenges posed by exposure to blood and fluids, GE offers comprehensive materials knowledge and experience. The chemical resistance to blood provided by Ultem 1000 resin, along with its high tensile strength, met the requirements of WaisMed's Medical Bone Injection Gun.
For companies looking to balance productivity with compliance, GE Advanced Materials, Silicones offers a new family of low-volatile, single-component extrusion grades in the new Tufel(a) I Series with Addisil(a) Catalyst Technology. This new technology delivers peroxide-free, fast-curing systems with a great balance of properties for use in a variety of tubing applications in the healthcare space.
The growing global importance of medical electronics is another key growth area for GE Advanced Materials. The company is already leading the charge here with a soon-to-be announced family of high-performance silicone products for a broad range of electronics applications to help designers assemble, protect, and enhance their devices.
(R) INSORB|20 is a registered trademark of Incisive Surgical, Inc. (NOTE TO EDITORS: There is a pipe symbol in the text between INSORB and 20. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.)
(R) Airplus is a registered trademark of Implus Footcare, LLC.
(TM) ClearView is a trademark of Rigid fx Orthopedics Corp.
(R) Bioject and Biojector are registered trademarks of Bioject.
(a) Lexan, Cycoloy, Ultem, LNP, Colorcomp, Tufel, and Addisil are trademarks of General Electric Company.
Contacts
The Americas
Christopher Tessier
GE Advanced Materials, Pittsfield, Mass.
Tel: +1-413-448-6926
E-Mail: [email protected]
or
Europe
Helen Vandebovenkamp
GE Advanced Materials, Bergen op Zoom,
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 164 29 2097
E-Mail: [email protected]
or
Robert Scheib
GE Bayer Silicones, Leverkusen, Germany
Tel: +49 2143040532
E-mail: [email protected]
or
Asia
Cecilia Siu
GE Advanced Materials, Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 6288 1088 327
E-Mail: [email protected]
or
Junko Tsuda
GE Toshiba Silicones, Tokyo, Japan
Tel: +81 3 5772 5345
E-Mail: [email protected]
or
Agency Contacts
The Americas
Jim Allison
AH&M Marketing Communications, Pittsfield, Mass.
Tel: +1-413-448-2260, Ext. 25
E-Mail: [email protected]
or
Europe
Folke Markus
Marketing Solutions, Bergen op Zoom,
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 164 317 038
Email: [email protected]
or
China
Jefferson Hou
Weber Shandwick, Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 6322 6024
Email: [email protected]
or
Japan
Mitsu Sugino
Tokyo PR Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Tel: +81 3 3256 5691
E-mail: [email protected]