Resin Toughens Up Sterilisation Container

When Ritter GmbH needed to design a sterilisation and transport container tough enough to withstand the alkalinity and high temperatures of updated chemical cleaning and sterilisation requirements, the manufacturer of labware and medical products turned to Sabic Innovative Plastics. The materials supplier didn’t miss a beat: Sabic developed a special grade of its workhorse Ultem polyetherimide resin to mould Ritter’s Polysteribox product.

The enhanced Ultem healthcare resin grade, which meets ISO 10993 certification criteria for biocompatibility, maintains its  performance properties and transparency after as many as 1000 cleaning cycles with chemicals at a pH of 12 or 13 and 1000 autoclaving cycles at temperatures up to 148°C.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s central federal institution responsible for disease control and prevention, has called for stricter requirements to ensure the cleanliness of reusable medical devices and equipment and enhance patient safety. Ritter had been using a different grade of Ultem resin for the Polysteribox container. The new Ultem resin grade has allowed the company to maintain the performance and quality of the container during repeated cleanings and meet the new safety guidelines.

The new material also allowed Ritter to raise the autoclave vacuum sterilisation temperature of its Polysteribox container to 134°C. Not only does the higher temperature appear to destroy such pathogens as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, according to a press release issued by Sabic, but it also shortens the total autoclave time to 20 minutes (compared with 30 minutes at the previous temperature of 121°C).

Tags: Ritter, Robert Koch Institute, Sabic, sterilisation container, Ultem