• INEOS Styrolution’s Styrolux^® 4G60 is the material of choice for drip chamber development
• Schoettli’s high-performance tooling solutions ensure the highest reliability combined with greatest output, savings on material and high ease-of-use maintenance

INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, and Schoettli AG, the leader for high-performance medical injection moulding tools, joined forces to develop specialized material and tailored tooling solutions to deliver an optimized manufacturing solution for the reliable and efficient production of drip chamber components.

Drip chambers are very demanding for the materials used – and for the tools deployed to manufacture them. For example, the material is expected to provide very good transparency, softness and bonding properties. Demands for the injection moulding tools and hot runner system include equal filling of the parts to achieve the required wall thickness, high performance demoulding capabilities, high transparency of the moulded parts combined with the highest reliability and performance for high cavitation injection moulding tools to allow for growth and to address manufacturers of multiple sizes.

The collaboration  between INEOS Styrolution and Schoettli AG not only ensures that healthcare solutions providers work with leading materials and world-class injection moulding tools, but also that both are tested to work together for optimized results and highest product safety at the lowest risk.

Traditional materials for drip chamber production include PVC, Polypropylene and various compounds. They all face the challenge that some of the required product properties seem to contradict each other and optimising one property may have a negative impact on another one. INEOS Styrolution and Schoettli AG successfully addressed that challenge. While good bonding properties, for example, make parts stick to tools typically leading to impacts on the geometry, Schoettli’s injection moulding tools minimize the effect with respective demoulding capabilities and ensure the required reliability of stable wall thickness.

Also, the good flowability of INEOS Styrolution’s Styrolux 4G 60 combined with the Schöttli hot runner technology for single and dual side gating contributed significantly to successfully built high cavitation tools for a safe and reliable manufacturing of drip chambers.

“I am excited to be able to present our customers a complete solution that they can put a lot of trust into,” says Bernd Elbert, Business Development Manager Healthcare & Packaging at INEOS Styrolution. “Our Styrolux 4G60 copolymer offers an excellent combination of high transparency, brilliance and impact resistance making it the material of choice for drip chamber development.”

Dominik Sinzinger, Head of Medical Sales EMEA at Schoettli concludes: “Jointly, we have developed a top quality solution and continuously improving the existing. I expect it to be an excellent solution for leading healthcare solution providers. Thanks to our unique hot runner technology we have a direct gated solution available for a reliable and efficient manufacturing of drip chambers being designed to reduce the use of materials in the manufacturing process – and all components being designed with the objective to allow for a long lifetime and very low maintenance producing the highest quality at the lowest cost per part.”

About Schoettli AG

SCHÖTTLI, a Husky Company is a globally acting injection mould manufacturer focused on medical applications. Our manufacturing plants are based in Europe (Diessenhofen/CH) and North America (San Dimas, California). Together with our Service Center in China this allows us to bring together our global capabilities which enables us to provide excellent and strategic customer support.

Competent contacts on all sites are readily available to receive your requests (product development, prototype design, mould building, application technology and service) and co-ordinate them internally. As a result of the close interaction between plants and the experiences of our international specialists, we supply within the shortest possible time the best-possible mould solution for your lowest part cost.