Foster Corp. recently announced that has won an exclusive North American healthcare market distribution deal for Lotte Advanced Materials’ Starex acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and Infino polycarbonate polymers.
The distribution deal – announced Sept. 29 and effective Nov. 1 – has Foster (Putnam, Conn.) providing sales, technical and order fulfillment support to customers from their regional stocking facilities in Nevada and Connecticut.
ABS and polycarbonate have a reputation in the medical device industry for their excellent toughness, dimensional stability and surface quality, including transparency, according to Foster. ABS polymers go into large equipment housings and single use instruments, such as scalpel handles. Polycarbonate is used in such items as trocars, breathing masks, and filter housings.
Lotte’s Starex ABS and Infino polycarbonate polymers meet performance requirements including USP Class VI compliance, ISO-10993 certification, and resistance to ethylene oxide (EtO), gamma and e-beam sterilization. Infino medical grade polycarbonates also withstand steam sterilization and have demonstrated 13% more resistance to bleach in a 24 hour period than competitive polycarbonates, according to Foster.
“The addition of Lotte’s ABS and polycarbonate medical grades expands our portfolio of performance and value solutions to healthcare customers,” Larry Johnson, EVP of Foster Corp., said in a news release.
“Lotte has selected us as an exclusive distributor due to our unique focus on medical customers from new product development through production. Accordingly, we intend to offer Starex ABS and Infino polycarbonate grades in 25 kg (55 lb.) through truckload quantities,” Johnson said.
(See the best minds in medtech live at DeviceTalks West, Dec. 11–12 in Orange County, Calif.)
