Compound meets surgical needs
A
RTP Company product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jun 2, 2008
The size limitations of the device and the high loads applied to it during surgery required a high strength-to-weight ratio.
To solve material incompatibility problems in a surgical head restraint used during brain surgery, Performance Plastics (PPL), used an RTP Company Peek-based compound as a titanium replacement which met all the complex requirements of the device.
Incompatibility problems can arise when head restraints are made from magnetic materials.
They can distort magnetic resonance (MR) brain scans.
Computer tomography (CT) images become unrecognizable when magnetic components are employed.
Titanium, although nonmagnetic, can produce undesirable heat and be cost prohibitive to manufacture.
The challenge was to find a viable alternative.
PPL worked with RTP company on converting the head restraint assembly to plastic.
The size limitations of the device and the high loads applied to it during surgery required a high strength-to-weight ratio.
In addition to meeting the mechanical criteria, sterilisation necessitated a chemically resistant material that could withstand high temperatures.
"A big hurdle with this application was that we needed a compound that was more highly modified than standard Victrex Peek grades because the head restraint system is composed of large parts with long flow lengths", said Ken Kelly, Engineering Manager at PPL.
RTP company customised an RTP 2200 polyetheretherketone (Peek) high-flow carbon fibre reinforced compound.
The material exhibits a tensile strength of 276MPa and flexural modulus of 37,233MPa, meeting the stiffness and creep resistance requirements critical for titanium replacement while optimising the fibre loadings for improved flow.
The compound handles the extreme temperatures and harsh conditions of autoclave and gamma radiation sterilisation.
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