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PEEK Polymer | Medical Grade

Why PEEK polymer is ideal material for medical device?

PEEK(poly ether ether ketone) is confirmed biocompatibility material three decades ago.By the late 1990s, medical grade PEEK polymer had emerged as the leading high-performance thermoplastic candidate for replacing metal implant components, especially in orthopedics and trauma devices.Unfilled PEEK biomaterials can exhibit an elastic modulus ranging between 3 and 4 GPa, the modulus can be tailored to closely match cortical bone (18 GPa) or titanium alloy (110 GPa) by preparing carbon fiber-reinforced (CFR) composites with varying fiber length and orientation.Medical PEEK is increasingly used as biomaterials for the medical products.

Plus, for medical device parts,PEEK provides a great benefit: It saves weight,allows more design freedom and a greater functional integration, it also scores with X-ray transparency and elasticity which corresponds approximately to bone..

What is PEEK?

PEEK(Poly ether ether ketone) is the most well known and important member of the PAEK(Poly aryl ether ketone) group. This high-performance polymer material combines high-termperature resistance,good wear, and excellent mechanical properties. For instance, the glass transition temperature of PEEK is around 143 °C (289 °F) ,and melts around 343 °C (662 °F). The carbon fiber filled PEEK or glass fiber PEEK material have a useful operating temperature of up to 250 °C (482 °F).

PEEK material is the best comprehensive performance of special engineering plastics. PEEK shows excellent overall performance due to its large amount of benezene ring structure in its molecule. At present, medical grade PEEK material made by iPEEK® is widely used in high-end medical device.

PEEK Plastic Advantages

● High chemical resistance

● Biocompatibility ensures the human body accepts the part, and the part doesn’t break down over time

● Strength and stiffness similar to that of bone in its flexibility, much more so than steel or titanium

● Remarkably inert with no response to most solvents, lipids, blood or enzymes in the body

● Stable at high temperatures

● Can replace metals like stainless steel or titanium

● Can be sterilized via E-beam, steam, gamma, etc.

● Inherently good wear and abrasion resistance

● Naturally translucent when viewed using X-ray, CT, or MRI.

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What Kinds of Medical Grade PEEK Material You Have?

I. Unfilled PEEK

iPEEK® i551G is one of unfilled or natural PEEK.It is a high performance, high temperature, semi crystalline thermoplastic material manufactured by iPEEK®. Outstanding chemical resistance and a high operating temperature (up to 250℃/480F) round out PEEK profile.PEEK plastic has excellent dimensional stability combined with high creep stability, ensuring the suitability of PEEK for the most sophisticated machined parts.

Besides, the unfilled black PEEK or black PEEK is also available.

II. 30% Carbon fiber filled PEEK

iPEEK® i550CA30 is a 30% carbon filled PEEK material that is manufactured by iPEEK®. Its carbon fiber reinforcement supports the material a high level of rigidity. Carbon fiber reinforced PEEK demonstrates very high mechanical strength values.However,30% carbon fiber reinforced

PEEK(iPEEK® i550CA30,1.4±0.02g/cm3)presents lower density than 30% glass fiber filled PEEK(iPEEK® i550GL30,1.5±0.02g/cm3).Besides,carbon fiber composites tend to be less abrasive than glass fibers while simultaneously resulting in improved wear and friction properties. The addition of carbon fibers also ensures a significantly higher level of heat conductivity which is also beneficial for increasing part life in sliding applications. Carbon filled PEEK has also an excellent resistance to hydrolysis in boiling water and super heated steam.

III. CF/PEEK

CF/PEEK is obtained by thick gauge thermoforming of thin layers of previously impregnated fibres to form fully consolidated sheets, whose main difference to custom-made composite plates lies in the standardized orientation of the reinforcing fibres, standardized weight content of the polymer and standardized sheet thicknesses, thus allowing easy design and post-processing using identical or similar tools as commonly used when working with metallic light-weight materials like aluminium, titanium and steel.

IV. Customized PEEK

The customized size or shape or color of PEEK products is made by iPEEK® as your product designing requirement.

China's leading PEEK manufacturer