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Extrusion

Extrusion

IAN BOLLAND SPOKE TO ANNA-MARIA BERTASA, GLOBAL MARKET MANAGER – HEALTHCARE, SOLVAY, ABOUT NAVIGATING THE PANDEMIC AND THE FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY IN THE MEDICAL PLASTICS SECTOR.

With a company that is exposed to so many different markets, it’s fair to say that Solvay has had something of an up-and-down period during the pandemic.

Many different parts of the economy in several countries suffered as the pandemic took hold and everyone’s habits had to change because of Covid-19.

Companies who develop materials, components and devices for the healthcare setting naturally experienced a spike in demand of certain products at the start of the pandemic, as Anna-Maria Bertasa explains. “At the beginning of the emergency there were lots of projects we had been working on at a very fast speed, like trying to help with the emergency. We provided transparent films for the production of face shields and other protective equipment, and we had to face an exponential surge of the demand for a product that is utilized in the production of ventilators, as a lot of customers had to produce, very quickly, a huge number of these devices.”

Solvay’s role in ventilation production involved supplying specific polymers, Radel PPSU and Udel PSU, to customers that expanded the production of their already approved devices so they could get to the front-line more urgently.

Though many would feel that the pandemic would mean a huge spike in demand for healthcare applications, Bertasa mentioned there was a significant decline of consumption in the orthopedic space, as non-lifethreatening procedures were postponed or canceled to tackle the health emergency, which is being slowly recovered.

After the first emergency wave, another significant trend that Solvay experienced was the 40-60% growth of the biopharma sector linked

Busting the myth

Going green and nuance surrounding “single-use”

I see huge potential for us to be a leader in the future as well in sustainability, helping in partnership with customers in the value chain to improve that aspect as well

to the production and development of vaccines and therapeutics for facing the pandemic challenges. The company currently supplies high performance materials that are used to produce single-use components for biopharmaceutical processing.

Reflecting on the years prior to the pandemic, Bertasa highlights the role and features that thermoplastics have had in medical devices, and the properties that make it stand-out from other materials.

“Since Solvay started supplying polymers into the healthcare market segment, we’ve seen high performance thermoplastics stepping forward from previous materials like metal and glass thanks to a combination of features that enables technology innovations in healthcare.

“Compared to metal, they are lightweight first of all, so an instrument can be much more light and easier to handle for helping the work of healthcare professionals. They have more flexibility in the design, while offering comparable strength and stiffness with metal. On top, they offer features like transparency and colorability that are not possible with metal.

“They still provide the safety that you need in terms of biocompatibility and sterilization. All in all we could actually see a lot of examples where certain devices have been innovated because of thermoplastics.

“Elasso Surgical Instruments developed a device for tonsil and adenoid removal. The device used to be made with metal, but that company was able to make a complete innovation step to include new features in the device thanks to thermoplastics. For instance, in the past the device was only cutting tissues now the device can also cauterize the tissues with an electrical connection that can burn the tissues at the same time. The blue color of one part of the device helps to quickly identify where the electrical connection is located. In addition, it’s lightweight for the doctor and the ergonomic shape of the device itself are additional features that enhance the overall user experience and satisfaction.”

While cost is also a factor, enabling more medical devices to be made cheaply, the properties of certain thermoplastics can also mean they are as robust as metal devices. Solvay highlighted an example with the Zillion Black surgical instruments in 2019 with the use of its Ixef PARA material.

With sustainability, recycling, and better practices all goals that companies are trying to strive for, plastics have probably been targeted for their singleuse devices. While the name might suggest this is an area that provides more waste for the planet, it is in fact more nuanced – especially when you factor in all the aspects that contribute to the overall sustainability assessment of a technology or a device: the type of device that is being used, transportation costs and the amount of energy that is used in the sterilization of reusable devices are all factors that have to be taken into account, on top of safety considerations about the infection control and flexibility of scheduling last-minute surgeries that are allowed by single-use instruments.

Bertasa explains that studies have been performed and results published show that specific examples of single-use surgical devices and single-use components of biopharma processing are more sustainable than their respective reusable equipment and sweeping statements about single-use devices can be unhelpful.

As an example, a study by Solvay with Medacta in 2016 indicated a lower carbon footprint for a surgical instrument kit for knee replacements compared to the reusable kits.

“What I can say is for instruments we did that example, and it’s been published and clearly demonstrates it’s not granted that reusable is more sustainable than single-use.

“Every time you have to deal with sterilization, every time you save cleaning procedures, sterilization, re-packaging and transportation between the surgery room and the sterilization unit you actually save a lot of energy and water.”

Sustainability, says Bertasa, is a key part of Solvay’s strategy in the healthcare segment going forward.

“In healthcare it’s probably a little bit behind compared to other segments we are exposed to like consumer goods or construction but definitely I see huge potential for us to be a leader in the future as well in sustainability, helping in partnership with customers in the value chain to improve that aspect as well.”

AFTER RESTRUCTURING ITS BUSINESS GUARDTECH CLEANROOMS EXPLAINS HOW IT IS SET UP SO ALL OF ITS CLIENTS’ CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT NEEDS ARE CATERED FOR.

5IVE WAYS

to meet the needs of a diverse medtech market

It’s about growth, it’s about opportunity and it’s about delivering the best possible service to all our different types of clients in the diverse range of industries we cover. Five distinct divisions all delivering a five-star service.”

Commercial director Mark Wheeler has seen a lot of change over the past few years in the cleanroom design & build sector.

Even during a devastating pandemic, his team and the business have found a way to grow and develop, and the industry has found a way to continue to thrive.

With that, Mr Wheeler and his firm, Guardtech Cleanrooms, have launched the Guardtech Group, which will now act as the umbrella company for five businesses, each contributing to an extensive portfolio of cleanroom-related products and services.

Guardtech Cleanrooms will now cater specifically for the modular cleanroom market, while CleanCube Mobile Cleanrooms will continue to provide portable solutions for businesses all over the world.

Isopod Rapid Cleanrooms will offer a quicker, more flexible and costeffective alternative – including the option for ‘flat-pack’ delivery and selfassembly installation.

There will be a new addition at some point in 2022, with Isoblok Pre-Fab Cleanrooms focusing on pre-configured ‘plug and play’ cleanroom units and pods constructed off-site. The company has acquired controlled environment design & build firm Cleanroom Solutions, which will continue to specialize in larger turnkey construction projects under the new Guardtech Group banner.

Wheeler said: “They’d been a ‘friendly competitor’ of ours for many years and we always respected their core values – culturally the two businesses really fit. The relationship started out as us working together, but the idea of an acquisition seemed to make sense as we’re so closely aligned – it strengthens both brands.”

Mr Wheeler explains how Guardtech has grown “organically” over the past 20 years – and in that time product development and innovation had become core tenets of the firm’s philosophy. “Those innovations have taken on a life of their own,” he adds, “developing in a way that they’ve become big enough to support their own divisions. We felt that this restructure was the clearest route to show our customers that there is a distinct outline in the way each element of the Group is run, yet with some central themes. These derive from our ‘GUARD Charter’ – the overall ethos of the Group – which focus our minds to Guide, Adapt, Understand, Respond and Deliver the best possible service for our clients.”

What does this mean for medtech? These developments are set to have a huge impact in how the Guardtech Group, and its subsidiary companies, will serve the medtech market over the coming years.

Guardtech Cleanrooms has served clients in the sector over the past 20 years, including the likes of Zimmer Biomet, SFM and Contamac.

them the best opportunity to serve their diverse client base more effectively than ever before.

“In terms of the medtech market specifically, this move gives us the platform to cater for any size client with any type of application,” he continues. “With CleanCube, our mobile cleanroom solution, units are being used by medical device manufacturers all over the world who didn’t have the space in their existing site to continue their operation – some are literally in car parks, offering users a cleanroom or laboratory on a site where they simply weren’t able to build something more substantial.

“Our Isopod Rapid Cleanrooms are being deployed by a number of R&D applications and companies looking for proof of concept, as well as smallscale manufacturing, testing and niche product batches.”

The acquisition of Cleanroom Solutions allows the Guardtech Group to expand its more complex turnkey construction projects for medtech companies, with the company’s previous clients including the likes of ApaTech, ClearLab, Leica, Lombard Medical, Oclaro Technology, Stanmore Implants and Sterimedix.

But the Group’s biggest and most fruitful area of business, in regard to medtech specifically, has been modular cleanroom construction, with a list of clients including UltraVision, NCC, NES, Wesley Coe and, recently, the likes of BioPharma Dynamics and GA Health in Ireland, where they worked with NSP Expert Lab Solutions.

Building for the future Despite the restructure, the key elements of a Guardtech project will always remain the same.

The medical device industry is growing at a rapid pace domestically and abroad, and we’re keen to apply our design philosophies to deliver a product that can be built by our own teams in the UK

“Across all the divisions, our approach is consistent,” says Mr Wheeler. “Client-focused problem-solving. With any of the business, we’re always looking to deliver all of the values that the GUARD charter embodies. This is the same for medtech as it is for any industry we might serve.

“We’re tackling different types of construction using the same quality standpoint and intellectual property. We wanted to compete with what was out there in the market without giving up the quality mark that’s a key component of our heritage modular builds.

“It was vital to us that Isopod and CleanCube enhanced the brand and did nothing to compromise it. The focus is on quality – we simply aren’t prepared to risk what we’ve established over 20 years of building quality cleanrooms.”

In the near future, Guardtech will turn some of its focus to developing its latest product group – Isoblok PreFab Cleanrooms.

Mr Wheeler says the guiding principle of this move is to provide a quality product for use in territories outside the UK which bear the same hallmarks of quality for those being used for applications in the British Isles.

“The medical device industry is growing at a rapid pace domestically and abroad, and we’re keen to apply our design philosophies to deliver a product that can be built by our own teams in the UK and shipped worldwide,” he adds. “The idea is to offer a high-quality product in territories where suppliers and providers are sparse – we can help improve the quality of applications in other territories, benefiting them and us. As part of this exercise, we recently donated a CleanCube mobile laboratory to the Ugandan Army (the Uganda People’s Defence Force) to help with the vaccine rollout there.”

With a pandemic that continues to cause chaos and many other tests and difficulties on the horizon, it won’t be plain sailing for the cleanroom industry and beyond, but the Guardtech Group feels it can deliver a five-star service, whatever new challenges come its way.

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