Once oxygen has been exposed to the RF energy field inside a vacuum chamber, it is broken down into monatomic oxygen that will then readily combine with organic hydrocarbons. The outcome is a combination of water vapor, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide that is removed in the vacuum steam.

It is important to take into account that non-organic impurities like salts cannot be removed from a substrate by plasma cleaning. Plasma, however, can remove the binders of the salt which can then be washed away with DI water or another suitable solvent.

Matt

Director, Sales & Marketing

How do you know for sure that your parts are being treated evenly?

Many companies that use batch plasma as part of their process have no accurate and repeatable means of determining if the surface treatment is effective. This is why having a contact angle analysis tool is so important in ensuring that every batch meets the required criteria when going through a quality check.

Using an automatic tool like the VCA Optima™ XE eases that process by allowing users to measure, record and log angles quickly. Its SPC software gives users the option to save all data and images and export them onto a spreadsheet. This makes the process of analysis/comparison easier to track and chart over time for the purpose of quality control. In addition, the XE’s AutoFAST feature eliminates the risk of user error as it accurately measures contact angle repeatedly which is also important in determining the effectiveness of your plasma reactor.

Matt

Director, Sales & Marketing

Long time no see! I have to say it’s been a whirlwind of a year and we’re just barely two months in. Anyways, AST Products made its annual venture out west to Anaheim, CA for the MD&M West tradeshow. Our exhibit scenery changed a bit this year as we relocated to a new area on the floor. New booth? Not a problem. The traffic was similar to last year’s and we received a lot of visitors working on a bunch of new projects. Lots of faces – some old, some new. All in all, I’d say the future is looking bright for a lot of folks! I’m already looking forward to next year’s show to hear about how things are coming along for everyone.

In unrelated news, I promise we will have NEW blogs coming soon.

P.S. Check out a mini photo diary of an unseasonably cold and rainy(!) SoCal after the jump.

Matt

Director, Sales & Marketing

Some biomedical applications include:

• Creating chemically active functional groups to improve interfacial adhesion for printing, bonding and interconnection of two parts. Common applications include pretreatment for catheters, syringe components, dialysis pump parts and plastic films for blood and drug bags.

• Tailoring surface energies such as hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces on polymers to enhance performance of the devices. Surfaces can also be specifically engineered to modify protein absorption and improve blood compatibility.

• Activating polymeric implant material surface to be biocompatible. Improving bonding of antithrombogenic and antimicrobial coatings increases device biocompatibility.

• Crosslinking within the material to increase hardness and chemical resistance.

The plasma process offers flexibility, effectiveness, repeatability, safety and environmental friendliness when compared to other methods.

Matt

Product Manager

• LubriLAST™ is a simple, patented water-based hydrophilic coating technology that overcomes many of the physical and processing limitations of current hydrophilic coatings. It produces a superior interpenetrating network type of lubricious coating that is slippery when wet.

• LubriLAST™ coatings are lubricious, aqueous, durable, biocompatible and flexible.

• LubriLAST™ coatings have been approved by the FDA and are in use worldwide.

• LubriLAST™ coatings can be applied to virtually any medical device with applications in the fields of urology, cardiology, neurology and diagnostics.

• LubriLAST™ can also be modified to exhibit other value-enhancing properties such as antimicrobial and haemocompatibility characteristics, or reduced protein and cell adhesion.

Questions? Open a discussion on our forum and I will be happy to answer!

Matt

Product Manager

As you can probably tell, our “One a Day” Challenge for the entire month of August was a pretty tall task so we decided use the month of September to take a breather to allow our new and current readers a chance to watch the collection.

Anyways, Matt is off to La Jolla, CA to attend the Contact Lens Manufacturers Association’s (CLMA) Annual Meeting and Exposition. It’s the CLMA’s 50th Golden Anniversary Celebration which is a pretty significant milestone. For those of you not familiar with the CLMA, its mission is to increase awareness and utilization of custom manufactured contact lenses. For those of you who are aware and will be in attendance, be sure to seek Matt out and say hi!

Finally, next week we will be introducing the latest addition to our website that we hope will continue to build our online community. Be sure to follow up as you’re not going to want to miss out!
 

Chanel

Marketing Assistant