PLA as an alternative
for mass-produced medical products?

With over 80 years of experience in mold making, injection molding, automation and assembly, the Vasantha Group stands for tailor-made complete solutions from a single source. From planning and development to finished production systems, the group of companies supports customers from the medical, pharmaceutical, healthcare and packaging sectors at its sites in Germany, Austria, the USA and India.

Together with AFK Kunststoffverarbeitung from Attendorn (Germany), we developed a pioneering project for sustainable and efficient medical technology: the processing of the bioplastic PLA (polylactide), obtained from corn starch, into mass-produced medical products. It quickly became clear what potential could be tapped into with the bio-based polymer in terms of carbon footprint and sustainability, as around 70 percent of the carbon footprint of plastic articles is in Scope 3, i.e. the material itself. PLA is particularly impressive due to its positive CO2 footprint: during thermal disposal, only the CO2 that the corn plant previously bound during its growth is released - a clear advantage over fossil-based plastics. The substitution of fossil-based materials with bio-based materials - especially in the area of low-risk disposable products without temperature and moisture exposure - enables enormous savings. It can already be assumed that regulatory measures focusing on CO2 reduction will also find their way into medical technology in the near future.

With the 4-cavity mold from VTW, syringe plungers can be manufactured from PLA in a cycle time of around 8 seconds. The mold design is modular and can be scaled up to 36 or 72 cavities if required to enable economical large-scale production. Joaquin Marcos, Managing Director of AFK, emphasizes: "PLA offers great opportunities for low-risk disposable products in medical technology. Our aim is to use as few additives as possible and to manufacture the products cost-efficiently. At the same time, PLA is as mechanically stable as PS." Although the glass transition temperature of around 60 °C limits its use in thin-wall applications, PLA is ideally suited for many pharmaceutical packaging and standard medical products. Sven Kitzlinger, medical technology expert and application engineer at Arburg, adds: “With PLA syringe plungers, we achieve cycle times of between five and eight seconds - an excellent value for bio-based materials.”

We support our customers in the technical design and implementation of such sustainable solutions - from the initial idea to series production. This shows once again that innovative strength and environmental responsibility go hand in hand at VTW.