Critical Components for Critical Times

With the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains have be turned upside-down as critical equipment manufacturers struggle to meet urgent needs across the globe.  Polystar’s porous plastic components can be used as particulate filters, barrier vents, shutoff filters, wicks and diffusers in many of the medical devices used to keep patients alive in life-and-death situations.  These include medical ventilator filters, in-line vents, capnography filters, shutoff filters, activated carbon respirator filters, CO2 insufflation device filters, patient monitoring equipment filters, pulmonary function test device filters, and spirometer filters.

At Polystar Technologies, we are committed to supporting these critical equipment manufacturers with quick turnaround, innovative ideas, best performance practices, and customer service.

A Background on Plastics - Remember Bakelite?

The first synthetic plastics commercially produced were made from phenol and formaldehyde. Over time, the development of urea and thiourea were used to produce foam cushions, melamine, and laminate furniture. Organic chemists, through the 20th century, invented techniques that allowed for plastics to be used for a specific purpose.

Today, most of the synthetic plastics are produced from oil or natural gas which are composed of hydrocarbons that vary in length and configuration.  This results in differing properties which, when added with oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, nitrogen, silicon, phosphorous, or sulfur to their hydrocarbon chains, create different plastics.  For example, Polyethylene (PE) contains only hydrogen and carbon, whereas tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) contains fluorine in place of the hydrogen atoms. 

This ability serves to create two categories of plastics, thermoplastics, which can be continually and repeatedly reshaped, or recycled, using heat and pressure; and thermosets, which cannot be reshaped once formed. Examples of thermosets would be polyurethane, epoxy, and such.  Thermoplastics make up approximately 85% of all plastics produced, with thermosets being the other 15%. 

So, when you are considering what thermoplastic would best serve your project needs, call on the specialists at Polystar-Technologies for help! 

References

American Plastics Council. PIPS Year-end Statistics for 2005. Production, Sales, and
Captive Use. Plastic Industry Producers’ Statistics Group.

Applications for Sintered Porous Plastics

Sintered porous plastic materials are now being used in ever-expanding marketplaces with applications that offer improved healthcare, medical knowledge, and in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.  Polystar Technologies' sintered, microporous thermoplastic media provides solutions to serve applications such as wicking, absorption & adsorption, acoustic dampening, silencing, muffling, and muting, filtration, barrier protection, diffusion, fluidization, venting, and aerating & sparging.

Made from thermoplastic polymers such as polyethylene or polypropylene, these sintered materials can be produced with pore size ranges of  5 to 350 micron and typical void volumes between 30 and 50 percent but, which can be produced up to 70%.  Sintered porous plastics are available in a varied of shapes and sizes, as well as with defined pore size distribution.  Combining this with the exceptional robustness, chemical resistance, and chemical compatibility, sintered porous plastics are resistant to many acids, bases, organic chemicals, and temperatures up to 230°F (110°C).

According to Mike Lien, President of Polystar Technologies, "We take great pride in the quality of our products and customers' satisfactions, which is why we closely engineer and control the pore size and void volume through the selection of polymers used and process controls."

Here at Polystar Technologies, we encourage you to partner with us to find the solution that best meets your requirements within your deadline. 

Sintering Porous Plastics 101

Sintering of porous plastics is a process whereby various porous materials are fused together, but not to the point where it liquefies, using specific controlled heat and/or pressure applications . The materials used may be most any thermoplastic polymers but polyethylene or polypropylene are more commonly used. 

Picture a barrel that you have filled with ping pong balls. Everywhere that the balls touch one another, they fuse together.  You remove them from the barrel and have, what appears to be, a solid barrel.  Actually, it is made up of thousands of tiny connecting pores or open spaces, which is called the void volume.  These connecting pores mean that the material is permeable to fluids and can be used as a filter, wick, vent, fluid delivery, or diffusion mechanism, depending on the need.

Producing defined pore sizes and void volume using thermoplastic polymers that cost less, have repeatable performance, are sterilizable,  exhibit excellent robustness, chemical and corrosion resistance,  and have dual filtration capabilities, means these sintered porous plastics may be widely used for a diverse range of applications.

Here at Polystar Technologies, we are dedicated to helping you create components to fit every size, shape, and function that will perform for your product needs.

Polystar Relocates Operations from Georgia to Minnesota

Polystar Technologies has relocated its headquarters from Peachtree, Georgia to Burnsville, Minnesota.  We continue to advance the science, engineering, performance, and customer service for porous plastics while maintaining a level of individually personalized service and attention to detail. Polystar Technologies does not simply provide you with product.  Our engineers collaborate with you, every step of the way, from your product concept to creating customized microporous plastics solutions to your venting, filtration, diffusion, absorption, and wicking needs.

Originally focused on the industrial, life sciences, lab services and lab instrumentation markets, Polystar Technologies now partners with a variety of industries and markets, from technology startups to major multinational corporations, around the globe.

Our goal is to help you create success.  So, whether we are in Georgia or Minnesota, Polystar Technologies continues to be dedicated to innovation, technological advancement, and continuous improvement.  We continue to provide full-design concepts that will deliver the optimum performance and exact requirement needs for your product.  Whether you're customizing an existing product or creating a new product, you deserve to team with the right filtration and flow control partner who will tailor to your precise needs.

From our new location in Burnsville, Minnesota, let us help you find solutions to your design problems.  Let us concentrate our innovation, technological experience, customer service, product quality, and performance on your design specifications, so that you can focus on what you do best. It's the Polystar Technologies difference!