Find Out How Hydrophilic Coatings Enhance Medical Device Function

Medical professionals often prefer that surface friction be as minimal as possible in medical devices. This will help them to easily send them to their required destination as early as possible during emergencies.

Therefore, it is necessary that medical devices must be coated with hydrophilic coatings. Hydromer, Inc. has developed such coatings and can support the hospitals with their services. Medical professionals often use the term hydrophilic as a chemical term for water-loving.

Hydrophilic coatings are typically ionic and negatively charged, enhancing interactions with water. These interactions form hydrogel materials with very low friction coefficients.

This combination of chemical and physical properties results in materials that are wettable, lubricious, and ideal for specific biological applications.

What is lubricity?

There is also another term called lubricity, which is also often used while referring to hydrophilic coatings. Lubricity indicates how much frictional reduction there is. This can also mean how much the slipperiness is.

Different types of coating processes

Biocoat offers different coating options for the substrate. The following are a few methods available:

1) Dip coating

Dip coating typically involves five steps:

• Surface preparation/washing
• Submersion of the device within the coating liquid
• Withdrawal from the coating liquid
• Drying and/or curing of the coating by using either heat or UV
• Post-processing, if necessary.

2) Film coating

Coating film materials, such as breast implant funnels, enable the hydrophilic coating of various flat substrates.

3) Fill and drain coating

Fill and drain coating involves filling the substrate material with a coating solution and then draining it to start the curing process. This method is commonly used for coating the inner diameter (ID) of components.

What are contract coating services?

Certain hydrophilic coating suppliers, such as Hydromer are able to provide Contract Coating Services for coating application at their establishments.

This service ensures expert application for optimal safety, maneuverability, and patient comfort. It also saves device companies time, costs, and equipment investments needed for in-house coating.

What is a pinch test?

Pinch testing is the most popular test for determining a surface’s friction on medical equipment. In this test, a servo motor is used to pull the test article through the plates while a catheter, wire, or other surface is pinched between two plates with a given amount of force.

A mechanical analyzer is used to measure the force required to pull the device through.

How are Hydromer’s coatings cured?

Hydromer is a leading provider of hydrophilic coatings, offering top-tier performance for both thermal and ultraviolet curing technologies.

1) Thermal heat cure

In a thermal heat cure system, coated items are placed in an oven for uniform drying due to the non-directional heat source.

This method efficiently coats the inner diameters of substrates and allows for processing large quantities of materials in a single cycle.

2) Ultraviolet (UV) Cure

Here in this coating process, all the coated items will pass through a UV light chamber, which keeps on rotating during the process so that it can dry up uniformly. This is a relatively faster process than the above.