Lactide polymers
Platimer™ lactide polymers is a new familiy of novel high performance biomedical PLA's.
Keywords are: high performance, mechanical properties, biocompatible degradation and stannous-free.
PLA -Poly(Lactic Acid) or also named Poly(Lactide)- is by far the most popular polymer in use nowadays for biodegradable medical devices and keeps growing in popularity. PLA is especially popular to utilize for load-bearing devices, such as bone plates, screws, pins and stents.
The ideal high performance PLA balances high molecular weight and crystallinity for high strength and stiffness with biocompatible degradability geared towards healing of the supported tissue. In the perfect world this would mean that the degradation rate of the PLA is tuneable while not affecting the mechanical properties. It is well accepted that the crystallinity of PLA has major influence on the biodegradation properties. High crystallinity is favorable for mechanical properties, but not really for biodegradation. Semi-crystalline, high molecular weight PLA's, available today, degrade very slowly often up to many years. For most tissue healing applications this is far too long. Although slow degradation could be fine in terms of biocompatibility, for the best tissue healing effect, any biomaterial should dismantle as quickly as possible once the tissue has healed. This is exactly the philosophy behind PolyVation's high performance Platimer™ PLA. Our PLA combines high performance in mechanical behavior with high performance in biocompatible degradation. The degradation rate is adjustable without cannibalizing mechanical properties.
Platimer™ is the platinum polymer amongst the PLA's. Working with Platimer™ will very much impress you. The polymer is made in nice free-flowing granulate, powder or a mixture thereof. Granule size can be geared towards your device forming process. Platimer™ PLA is packaged in 25 grams units in moisture protective barrier pouches. Other packing amounts can be arranged at request.
By default Platimer™ (Platimer 232) has an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of around 3.2 dL/g and fully degrades in about 24 months. Obviously, the exact degradation profile will, amongst other, depend on morphology, dimensions and the implantation site of the ultimate device.
Platimer 228 with an intrinsic viscosity of around 2.8 dL/g has shown to be a very interesting grade for 3D printing of scaffolds (by FDM). Also it outperforms commodity PLA's in cultured tissue engineering.
We can fully customize Platimer™ PLA's to your requirements.
Platimer™ is a registered trademark of PolyVation.