Huicong Plastics News: Materials supplier Solvay (headquartered in Brussels, Belgium) announced that it will launch two self-lubricating biocompatible Zeniva PEEK polymers next week for use in implantable medical devices. Both the new Zeniva ZA-500L and ZA-600LPEEK can provide customized melt indexes for injection molding, providing customers with more design freedom when developing a new generation of implantable devices.

Spinal fixation is one of the target applications for Solvay’s new PEEK polymer

Solvay will unveil the two products at the 2017 American Orthopaedic Association (AAOS) Annual Meeting to be held this year in California, USA.

“Zeniva PEEK continues to drive innovation in long-term implantable devices, including more complex, integrated designs,” said Dane Waund, global marketing manager for healthcare at Solvay’s Specialty Polymers business unit. “These two self-lubricating grades of Zeniva PEEK allow our customers to better leverage the advantages of injection molding to deliver differentiated, higher-performance new product concepts for the fast-growing implantable device market.”

Compared with implantable metals, these two materials have obvious advantages, including elastic modulus similar to that of bone density, which can reduce bone density by maintaining normal pressure around bone tissue. Zeniva PEEK also eliminates the risk of human allergies to heavy metals, and its radiolucent properties will not interfere with X-ray and CT scans.