Light but strong

Advanced composites feature in a diverse range of industries. Applications include thermoplastic driveshafts in the automotive and aerospace industries, cargo floor panels in aircraft and medical applications such as surgical tools and prosthetics.

 

Lately, Trelleborg has introduced its unique automated fiber placement (AFP) composite process into biotechnology and bioprocessing applications where it is proving to be invaluable.

 

“With the AFP process we are able to manufacture thermoplastic composite products with a variety of materials,” says Mike Urbanski, Strategic Account Manager for Trelleborg’s life science solutions. “Based on the application, Trelleborg can offer a wide range of polymers, using anything from common thermoplastics like polypropylene and polyethylene to high-performance polymers like polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyetherketoneketone (PEKK.) For the medical and biotech industries we mainly focus on polypropylene with fiber E-glass fiber reinforcement and PEEK with continuous carbon or glass fiber.”

 

Trelleborg’s advanced composites provide multiple benefits over traditional alternatives such as stainless steel and virgin thermoplastics, says Urbanski. “Compared to virgin thermoplastics, our advanced composites reduce the amount of material that’s needed for a component, and they are much lighter than, for example, the stainless steel components that they replace,” he says. “At the same time, their biomechanics are equally as good.”

 

One biotech application where the capabilities of advanced composites to withstand high internal pressure, be chemically resistant and to be made of non-reactive, biocompatible materials are advantageous, is in chromatography columns, Urbanski explains. A chromatography column is a device used in chromatography for the separation of chemical compounds consisting of a stationary solid phase, or packing in the column, which adsorbs and separates the compounds passing through it with the help of a liquid mobile phase. 

There are sustainability gains as well, he continues, since materials used can be fully recyclable and require significantly less material than columns made of other materials, due to the strength of composite materials. Simply exchanging a used column with a new, recyclable column eliminates the cleaning and sterilizing steps that normally occur with biopharmaceutical processing equipment after every batch. This results in less harm to the environment by limiting the harsh cleaning substances needed and lowering water usage. It also saves time, increasing yield.

 

Trelleborg partners with its customers to develop custom composite parts. It then manufactures and can even assemble these parts and other components into larger systems. “We can construct an entire chromatography system, providing our customers with a complete solution,” says Florance Veronelli, Sales Manager for Trelleborg’s life science solutions.

 

“Customers don’t need to assemble hardware anymore, as we can manufacture all the different components for biotech applications and do the assembly for them,” says Veronelli. “This ability to offer supplier consolidation reduces costs and risk in the supply chain and is quite unique in the industry, enabling our customers to focus on their core capabilities.”

 

Trelleborg’s global Biopharma Center of Excellence is in Northborough, Massachusetts in the US.

 

“The Biopharma Center of Excellence speaks the same language as our customers,” says Urbanski. “Here is where we aim to understand our customers’ needs and ensure product compliance in line with the strict regulations, requirements and demands for biocompatibility. Our quality management system supports all of our sites worldwide to ensure that customers receive the same quality, regardless of location, for one global customer experience.”