SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Valox* and Xylex* Resins Help GE Healthcare Nail Ever-Toughening Requirements for New Medical Equipment

BERGEN OP ZOOM, The Netherlands – February 14, 2011 – At MD&M West 2011,
SABIC Innovative Plastics announced that GE Healthcare, a global leader in medical technology, has selected Valox* resin for the housing and Xylex* resin for the storage bins of its new Optima XR220amx1 mobile x-ray machine to meet the increasing demands being placed on medical equipment. These high-performance resins helped GE Healthcare address toughening requirements for enhanced patient safety and outcomes, more-efficient care delivery and cost-effectiveness with this innovative device, which brings diagnostic radiology to the patient’s bedside. SABIC Innovative Plastics offers a broad and growing portfolio of healthcare materials that provide solutions to changing regulatory, design and performance requirements facing its customers in the medical equipment sector.

“Working with SABIC Innovative Plastics on this high-visibility project has been a great success for our customers – and ultimately their patients,” said Guillermo Sander, global marketing manager, Mobile DXR, GE Healthcare. “Using Valox and Xylex resins, we created a portable, easy-to-clean and attractive ‘radiographic room on wheels’. The wide portfolio of resins and extensive application development services provided by SABIC Innovative Plastics helped us optimize the design and improve the performance of this next-generation diagnostic device.”

“SABIC Innovative Plastics is increasingly focused on helping healthcare OEMs worldwide diversify their device offerings with more advanced material technologies,” said Tom O’Brien, global products marketing director, Healthcare, SABIC Innovative Plastics. “We’re proud of our more than 15 year close collaboration with GE Healthcare, which has targeted today’s most critical healthcare issues. For this new x-ray device, our materials provide light weight, chemical resistance, and durability.

Materials Target Top Healthcare Trends

GE Healthcare chose Valox V3900WX resin, a high-impact polyester/polycarbonate (PC) blend, to design for healthcare industry requirements for increased safety of patients and improved cost control. Valox resin provides the exceptional chemical resistance of polyester to withstand stronger disinfectants being adopted to combat hospital-borne infections. For portable equipment such as the GE Healthcare device, it offers the high impact resistance and dimensional stability of PC to withstand bumps and bangs during transport within the hospital. This flame-retardant (FR), ultraviolet (UV)-stabilized resin offers outstanding aesthetics and provides molded-in color as a cost-effective alternative to traditional painted metal. It also delivers enhanced processability needed for molding large, high-quality, precision parts.

Valox resin offers significantly greater design freedom than metal to create new ergonomic designs. Broad molded-in color capability allowed GE Healthcare to achieve a customized bright white color without the cost and environmental impact of secondary painting. Inherent color also avoids the problem of paint scratches and makes the parts easier to clean.

Valox V3900WX resin is an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) global grade (GG) with a UL746C F1 all-color rating. The GG designation provides enhanced flexibility for global customers by allowing programs to move from one region of the world to another without the cost and complexity of material re-qualification. Its FR package provides a UL 94 V0 rating down to 1.5 mm wall thickness and a 5VA rating down to 3.0 mm wall thickness.

The Xylex X7519HP resin is a transparent blend of PC and amorphous polyester. Compared to PC alone, the addition of polyester provides enhanced chemical resistance, supporting efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infections. Polyester also enhances the resin's stress crack resistance and permits lower processing temperatures. High impact resistance and glasslike transparency make Xylex resin ideal for storage containers. Like the Valox resin, this material features molded-in color.

The SABIC Innovative Plastics Healthcare Advantage

SABIC Innovative Plastics offers a proactive healthcare product policy that covers more than 50 medical-grade materials and provides regulatory listings and pre-assessed biocompatibility to save manufacturers time and expense when developing a new product. SABIC Innovative Plastics offers amongst the broadest ranges of amorphous and crystalline materials for the healthcare industry. Materials included under the
SABIC Innovative Plastics’ policy are covered by a United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Drug or Device Master File and are subject to formula lock and a stringent change management process. Complementing its portfolio and healthcare policy, the company delivers knowledge and expertise that underscore its ongoing commitment to the market. SABIC Innovative Plastics continues to invest in and expand its portfolio of high-performance products to meet the latest requirements and stay ahead of important regulatory, scientific and consumer trends.

For additional information on SABIC Innovative Plastics’ products for the healthcare sector, please go to www.sabic-ip.com. For technical product inquiries, please contact us at www.sabic-ip.com/prtechinquiry.

About SABIC Innovative Plastics
SABIC Innovative Plastics is a leading, global supplier of engineering thermoplastics with a 75-year history of breakthrough solutions that solve its customers’ most pressing challenges. Today, SABIC Innovative Plastics is a multi-billion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company continues to lead the plastics industry with customer collaboration and continued investments in new polymer technologies, global application development, process technologies, and environmentally responsible solutions that serve diverse markets such as automotive, electronics, building & construction, transportation, and healthcare. The company’s extensive product portfolio includes thermoplastic resins, coatings, specialty compounds, film, and sheet. SABIC Innovative Plastics (www.sabic-ip.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), one of the world’s top six petrochemicals manufacturers.

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* Trademarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP BV.
1 510(k) Pending at FDA. Not available for sale in the United States.

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This release was published on openPR.