Medical Grade silicone LSRs: High precision fluid management for medical valves

Fluid management plays a key role in medical devices such as tubing, catheters and valves. These products are often made of silicones because of their inherent characteristics: biocompatibility, chemical inertness, purity, high-performance physical properties and stability across a wide range of environmental conditions.

For infusion therapy silicones are widely used in a variety of valves. Some types of these silicone valves include duckbill valves, umbrella valves, and flapper valves. Another key usage for silicone is the usage in one-way valves which are commonly referred to as needle-free valves or needleless connections. These silicone one-way valve designs prevent the reverse flow of blood from a patient when administering medications. They also are easily sterilizable via multiple methods and greatly reduce the frequency with which caregivers are stuck with needles accidentally. Silicones play a large role in making these needle-free one-way valves safe and cost effective by being injection moldable, which suits large scale production and automation.

Our Medical Grade LSR offering include :

Silbione™ 4300 Series LSR

• Designed to be injection molded for high volume manufacturing
• High-performance physical properties across a wide spectrum of durometers (1ShA – 70ShA)
• Excellent mold release properties
• Little percentage change of physical properties after post-curing
• High resiliency
• Low compression set

Silbione™ 4700 Series Self-Bleeding LSR

• Designed to be injection molded for high volume manufacturing
• Creates a lubricious surface on the molded part after vulcanization
• Built into the bulk LSR formulation, the self-bleeding lubricity eliminates the need for a secondary coating process to reduce friction coefficient
• High-slip surface can help with secondary assembly processes
• Long bleed life promotes longevity of the molded part and can help prevent slit healing over time or during sterilization
• Delayed bleed feature enables easy and efficient parts molding without fouling, thus improving productivity
• Can be customized in a range of durometers and load levels to help manufacturers achieve their exact performance requirements

Typical applications for the Silbione™ 4300 & 4700 Series LSR include:

• Needleless or needle-free access valves
• Check, duckbill, one-way, luer-activated, hemostasis and introducer types
• Other fluid management systems
• Diaphragms, O-rings, stoppers, plungers, seals, balloons

All Silbione™ materials are designed to meet the biocompatibility, quality and lot-to-lot consistency standards for medical applications. The Silbione™ LSR 4300 & 4700 Series are manufactured in a clean environment, applying the 14949 guidelines of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for medical devices. They are also tested for biocompatibility in accordance with ISO 10993/USP testing principles.

Medical Grade Liquid Silicone Rubbers for Healthcare applications

Discover our range of Medical- and Implant-grade LSR

More about this topic

At Elkem Silicones, we are dedicated people located around the globe, committed to your success. Whether you are looking for a product recommendation, for customized silicone solutions, or for regulatory support, we have the people in place when and where you want them.