Foster Builds Medical Plastics Innovation Center

Putnam, CT, USA – (February 7, 2011) – Foster Corporation announces the opening of its Medical Plastics Innovation Center. The center provides comprehensive development services of advanced polymer formulations used in leading edge medical devices. It offers polymer compounding, molding and extrusion process evaluation, and material property testing.

Foster’s Medical Plastics Innovation Center is located within the company’s Putnam, CT headquarters facility and includes a wide range of equipment for comprehensive support of medical device development programs. At the center of the facility is twin screw extrusion for blending and compounding new medical polymer formulations, a core competency of Foster. The center also includes downstream equipment for processing evaluation, including injection molding and extrusion. The injection molding equipment is also suitable for producing test samples for mechanical or environmental testing. The center is equipped with an environmental oven for stability testing of polymers.

Foster has been at the forefront of producing custom biomedical polymers for over 20 years, and is recognized as a leader in radiopaque compounds, custom polymer blends, and custom colored polymers for minimally invasive devices. The center supports new developments in these materials for devices that push the envelope in size reduction and increased performance. Nanocomposite reinforced polymers and melt filtered materials are increasingly required to achieve the new standards of size and performance. The center also supports the increasing demand for infection control materials with anti-microbial additives, as well as tailored polymers for long term implants.

“As the market for medical devices evolves, materials of construction become more critical,” said Larry Acquarulo, CEO of Foster Corporation. “For example, within the last 20 years the outside diameter of a typical angiographic catheter has decreased by 70% while the working pressures have increased well over 100%. This was made possible by improvements in polymer technologies. Our Medical Plastics Innovation Center was created to provide comprehensive development and evaluation of next generation materials for our customers, from sample production to process and property evaluation.”

Foster Corporation supplies custom biomedical polymers for the medical device industry, including custom compounds for minimally invasive devices, polymers blends for implants, and drug/polymer blends for combination products. For more information, please visit http://www.fostercomp.com/.