Capitalising on High-Growth Medical Opportunities

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Capitalising on High-Growth Medical Opportunities

Source: Husky Technologies

Today it’s important that companies deliver integrated systems as a total system solution which has singlesource responsibility and is specifically configured for an application as these solutions not only offer maximum part performance, but also precision and repeatability in high-cavitation manufacturing processes, bringing validated medical parts to the market at unimaginable speeds and volumes.

Medical injection moulding continues to enjoy strong growth as worldwide demand increases for medical devices, according to industry observers. New business opportunities are emerging globally as the industry expects the medical device sector to see compounded annual growth of greater than 10%.

The rising prevalence of chronic disease and the ageing population are the key market drivers. In addition, emerging economies with higher GDPs are seeing increasing expenditures for healthcare. Another major influence has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spurred the explosive growth of laboratory consumables for testing, vaccinations and other diagnostics. Among the growing business opportunities are

Today, it’s important that companies deliver integrated systems as a total system solution which has single-source responsibility and is specifically configured for an application.

pipette tips and blood collection tubes, utilising integrated manufacturing approaches which assure the highest levels of certainty, scalability and fastest time-to-market.

Identifying the High-Growth Opportunities

Processors and end users are poised to capitalise on potential growth applications. Selecting the right application means balancing the risk and opportunity. Making a risk / rewards evaluation is important in selecting business opportunities that present a reasonable risk and complexity level, combined with high volume for fast payback. Amidst the pandemic, the production of pipette tips, blood collection tubes and pre-filled syringes have emerged as high-growth tracts that are ripe for expanded penetration.

Pipette tips - which dispense medical fluids and liquids - are a high-volume application which are predicted to see a 9.7% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2025. Growth opportunities are fuelled by COVID-19, nationalisation and demand for quality parts. Pipette tip design has several critical quality criteria including dimensional tolerances, part filling (especially below 0.5 mm wall thickness), concentricity (run-off or run-out), inside and outside flash and insert split lines positioning.

Another promising application is blood collection tubes which have seen dramatic growth due to

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Lithium-ion Battery Fires How Can Polymers Help?

One of the key components of the battery is the polymer separators. Polymers are critical to safer lithium-ion batteries. Aromatic polyimides are emerging as promising separator materials. The ultimate solution is to develop intrinsically nonflammable electrolytes. Poly (ionic liquids), low molecular weight polyfluoropolyethers and perfluorinated polyethylene oxide have shown promise as intrinsically safe electrolytes for LIB.

Dr. S. Sivaram

Former Director, CSIR-NCL, Honorary Professor Emeritus and INSA Emeritus Scientist, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune

Cylindrical

18650 Round

Cathode Anode Separator Cell Case

Prismatic

Figure 1: Lithium-ion battery formats.

Electric scooters catching fire have captured headlines several times in newspapers and television in recent months. Between March and April 2022, as many as six events have been reported; some even leading to loss of life. This has led to heightened anxiety in the minds of consumers on the inherent safety of e-vehicles (EV). For the nascent Indian market, where electric mobility is just taking roots, apprehensions in the minds of consumers regarding the safety of EV is not desirable. These are not the first instances of reports of fire with EVs. There have been recurring instances of fire associated with mobile phones, laptops, automobiles, aircraft, marine vessels and grid energy storage systems since 2003. China reports as many as 30 fire instances per year of EVs. The US Federal Aviation Agency has reported as many as 250 fire incidents involving lithium-ion batteries (LIB) in air cargo or baggage since 2006. More than 20,000 occurrences of fire in consumer products have been reported in the US between 2012 and 2017. Although statistically rare, LIB fires are a source of concern because they are ubiquitous in modern societies and also because they pose fire hazards which are unique in their character.

Why are LIB inherently hazardous? How can we make them more rugged and fire-proof? Is there a role for polymers to enhance the operating safety of LIB? We will address some of these issues in the flowing paragraphs.