What issues are driving development? What can we expect? In the following 3 minutes of reading time, you will gain an up-to-date insight into aspects that will help you to master future challenges in medical technology more successfully. The headlines: The future of plastics processing is the circular economy: how recyclates are also changing medical technology Frying fat for defibrillators? Still a dream of the future ... Not a dream of the future: bio-based long fiber thermoplastics (LFT) Revolutionary PEEK: color variety and thermal conductivity for advanced medical technology!

In plastics processing, compounding technology is the central process that specifically modifies the properties of base materials/polymers in order to meet specific application requirements. It is the harmonious, precisely coordinated interplay of chemistry and physics that plays a key role in this process. By combining chemical reactions with physical principles, innovative materials with tailor-made properties are created. This blog post is about what is important in this process and why everything ultimately revolves around the extruder and its screws.

For material developers, the art of compounding electrically conductive compounds consists of integrating various conductive fillers and reinforcing materials into a polymer matrix. For a compound that meets even the most detailed requirements for other structural properties - be it mechanical strength, stiffness or toughness, for example. And we do this consistently over the long term - batch after batch. Like all arts, this is not something that can be mastered "just like that". But a great deal can be achieved within several decades ...

All bespoke tailoring is based on precise measurements taken in advance. Only if the tailor knows the individual measurements/dimensions and wishes in advance can his art fully unfold. This applies to the tailoring of plastic compounds just as much as it does to fashion. Instead of twine and yarn, everything revolves around polymers, reinforcing materials and additives as well as compounding (including processing) to make semi-finished plastic products more efficient. At the very beginning, the most precise possible knowledge of the manufacturing process itself is required. After all, it is not just the material itself that makes the semi-finished product more efficient - the process is also decisive. The material "only" has to be optimally suited to the respective process. For the really good compounder, this means in short: first understand, then compound! And this is exactly what we have given free rein to our thoughts on ...

Thermally conductive compounds or thermally conductive plastics offer many application possibilities and promising future prospects. Simply due to the fact that they are able to combine good mechanical properties with thermal conductivity and design freedom - and this in a steadily growing number of applications. Interestingly, however, this has not yet sunk into everyone's heads. A fact that we would like to change with this article.

Since mid-January of this year, the call for a ban on perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) has been the talk of the town, and not just throughout the industry. And as befits our times, the news, questions, prophecies and prophecies of doom have been pouring in. Time for us to name the facts, to take stock of the situation and to illuminate future scenarios.

Lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel. Impressively stiff and unyielding - even when exposed to extreme heat/cold - and at the same time friendly to any mating partners in tribological applications. Already more than 50 years old and, thanks to tailor-made compounding, always in perfect shape for innovations in terms of performance. This characterizes the carbon fiber, or rather the carbon fibers - because, after all, there is more than one.