Materials Insights: Advanced Flexible Materials Get Smart

Brianna Sporbert, director of Sourcebook Engineering for Lee, Mass.-based precision converter of flexible materials for Boyd Technologies Inc., discussed materials science with MPO for the March issue. Here is her extended interview.

Ranica Arrowsmith: What about medical device-related materials science is exciting you today?
Brianna Sporbert: Smart materials are a very interesting new sector of the advanced flexible materials industry, and poses many new challenges, but also opportunities to advance the point-of-care and home care markets. To me, this is a crucial area of medicine that must continue to thrive and develop. Smart materials have the ability to increase global health by providing access to medical care in the developing world, and increase the ease of preventative care in the developed world. With our company’s ongoing development of Sourcebook, a material sourcing platform, we have had the opportunity to work closely with many of these new novel materials as they are added to the database and incorporate into our customers’ products. The more these materials are tested and used the more applications we seem to be finding for them, which makes for an exciting future for smart materials.

Arrowsmith: What challenges in R&D, testing, sterilization, packaging, etc. do the different materials you work with pose?
Sporbert: One of the major challenges faced in the advanced flexible materials industry is transferring R&D work to a product that is designed for commercial scale up. Products that are created on a benchtop scale do not necessarily translate into a commercially producible product because of the manufacturing processes associated with flexible materials. This can pose numerous problems that alter the original manufacturing plan or create a need to source new material. Through our material sourcing platform, Sourcebook™, and the services offered by the Sourcebook™ engineering team we have sought to provide in expertise in material selection and design for manufacturing. The R&D teams of our customers are extremely focused on developing a product that fulfills the project specifications, and our focus is to then provide a solution that is both functional and manufacturable.

Arrowsmith: What advancements in recent years have occurred in materials science in the medical device industry? What do you see coming down the pipeline?
Sporbert: In recent years manufacturers have been working hard to develop cost efficient, high performing tapes and composites. Several years ago there was a movement in industry towards using silicone adhesives, but because of the high material costs its demand has diminished. This has given manufacturers of other medical grade adhesives the opportunity to develop low trauma adhesives at a more feasible price that has the same functionality as silicone adhesives. This has resulted in an impressive new generation of adhesives that can be used for medical devices and advanced wound care applications.

As the industry moves forward I foresee that manufacturers will begin to integrate the functions of the other material components of the product into the adhesive material. We have already seen the beginnings of multi-functional adhesives that are in development. These materials have particulates that act as an antibacterial substance as well as materials that actually aid in the healing of the wound.

Arrowsmith: Are there any new categories of devices that have posed interesting or exciting materials challenges for you? How about old devices that are being updated?
Sporbert: Wearables are an exciting new product type that has seen a large amount of development work in the last several years. This provides both interesting and challenging design requirements because of the demanding needs of the product. The device must be flexible, durable, and light weight, while also performing the actions of traditionally rigid medical instruments. This requires that the materials in the wearable technologies market perform many roles and thus have complex compositions and structure.

Arrowsmith: What is your view on 3D printed materials and their effect on the industry (if you have any experience/insight into this area).
Sporbert: 3D printed materials align well with the advanced flexible materials industry because often these materials and components are used in single use products. The advancements that have been seen in additive manufacturing make the use of 3D parts much more economically and dimensionally feasible. This provides our customers with additional access to single use technology and increases their ability to develop more innovative products.