Medical Device Link.

RIGID PACKAGING

Punctures in XT acrylic-based polymers from Cyro Industries show up as opaque white areas.

For companies looking for a material with good thermoforming characteristics for making highly rigid containers, Cyro Industries (Rockaway, NJ) offers its XT polymer acrylic-based multipolymer compounds. The material has been employed in a wide range of medical packaging applications, including packaging prefilled narcotic syringes, says Anderson Costa, applications development supervisor, polymer technical department.

More rigid than PETG or PVC, XT polymers are suitable for packaging heavy devices and for organizer tray kits in which product stability is required, says Costa. “Because of their high melt strength, XT polymer compounds lend themselves to trays with deep draws and applications in which minimum-wall-thickness requirements may be hard to achieve with other plastics. This is also evident with shallow draws in which you get a better wall-thickness distribution,” says Costa.

Return to Story: Forming Rigid Barriers

The material’s strength and rigidity create opportunities for down gauging, leading to cost and source waste reduction. The transparent material maintains it properties under ethylene oxide (EtO) and gamma sterilization methods. “XT polymers offer excellent denesting characteristics,” allowing packages to avoid silicon coatings, he says.

XT polymers also address tamper evidence. Punctures or cuts are quickly revealed in the transparent blue-tinted material, since zones of damage turn to an opaque white.