Wanhua Chemical's Medical Grade TPU Wins the 2025 Ringier Technology Innovation Award in Plastics Industry

On March 19, at the 2025 Plastic Innovation Application and Processing Technology Summit and the Ringier Technology Innovation Awards Ceremony, Wanhua Chemical won the 2025 Plastic Industry - Ringier Technology Innovation Award with two materials: Wanamid® nylon 12 thermoplastic carbon plate material and medical-grade TPU product Wanthane® M series. This dual honor not only highlights Wanhua Chemical's hardcore strength in the plastics field but also brings more breakthroughs to the materials sector.

Medical-grade TPU product Wanthane® M series —— Empowering the Quality Upgrade of Medical Devices

Wanthane®M medical-grade TPU series, materials can cover a hardness range of 70A-82D, meeting different processing methods such as extrusion, blow molding, casting, and injection molding, while also providing supporting products like radiopaque and color. It has been widely used in medical devices such as infusion sets, central venous catheters, and dental orthopedic devices. Based on the original reactive extrusion technology, Wanhua Chemical integrates and consolidates various industrial technologies to achieve efficient polymerization of resins, resulting in medical-grade polyurethanes with low small molecule residues and batch stability, as well as excellent hydrolysis resistance and antioxidant properties, meeting the stringent requirements of medical-grade materials. This is of great significance for improving the quality and safety of medical devices, reducing costs, and promoting the development of the medical device industry.

Wanhua Chemical Medical Grade TPU Product Solutions

Hardness range: Shore A 70-Shore D 82

Product application: extruded catheters, injection molded parts, cast films, etc.

Hardness range: Shore A 75-Shore D 64

barium content: 20% / 40%

Complementary services: customized color formulation

Product application: extruded catheters, radiopaque accessories, etc.

TPU is widely used in the biomedical field due to its excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Its applications in the medical field have become diverse, with main products including artificial heart assist devices, artificial blood vessels, and artificial skin. Medical TPU has flexibility, wear resistance, high compatibility, does not deform, causes no allergic reactions, has good blood compatibility, and does not affect blood components, making it widely applied in the medical field.

01 artificial heart assist device

Artificial heart assist devices, due to their critical location, have very stringent requirements for performance and material. They must not damage blood cell components, not produce toxins or allergic reactions, not cause harmful immune responses, not release electrolytes, and not harm adjacent tissues. Clinical trials tell us that TPU has many performance advantages over natural rubber and silicone, such as blood compatibility and durability.

02 medical catheter

TPU, due to its mechanical stability, biocompatibility, and elasticity, is often used to prepare medical catheter tools such as infusion tubes and artificial catheters. An important component of the optical fiber gastroscope, the flexible gastroscope tube, has high performance requirements: sufficient elasticity and flexibility with no toxic side effects, consistent catheter diameter, no bending or deformation, and a smooth surface. The TPU-made gastroscope tube meets these requirements and medical standards.

TPU tracheal intubation is lightweight and flexible, convenient for clinical use, allows patients to move freely and comfortably, can prevent radiation damage to the human body, is beneficial for treatment and diagnosis, can replace metal tracheal intubation, and is one of the more advanced medical devices in the world.

03 medical film

Traditional PE and PVC films have the advantages of being waterproof and preventing liquid seepage. They are very popular in medical protection such as wound dressings and surgical procedures, but they have the drawback of not being able to promptly discharge sweat produced by human metabolism, leading to discomfort from heat, cold, and moisture. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new type of medical film to replace these products.

Spray coating of pressure-sensitive adhesives on the surface of polyurethane elastomer films to produce polyurethane elastomer medical films. Compared with traditional PE and PVC medical films, TPU medical films are lightweight, skin-friendly, highly elastic, have strong moisture permeability, and are 100% waterproof, which can effectively prevent film detachment during surgery. It inhibits the transfer of various bacteria during the surgical process. Such as orthopedic surgery, heart valve replacement, intravenous catheters, abdominal and thoracic intubation, cerebrospinal fluid shunt surgery, etc., it can significantly reduce the infection rate.

There is also a waterproof and antibacterial medical polyurethane elastomer, which when made into medical protective gloves, has good mechanical properties, water resistance, and breathability, and can resist the invasion of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

04 Medical Artificial Skin

Artificial skin can be made from TPU foam, as it has excellent breathability, can accelerate the growth of the epidermis, prevent the loss of moisture and inorganic salts at the injured site, and also avoid bacterial infection. Natural latex is often used to make medical gloves, but some users may have allergic reactions to latex. However, polyurethane elastomers can be made into medical gloves by adjusting the molecular structure, so polyurethane elastomers, as a new material for medical gloves, can replace the original medical gloves made from natural latex.

Compared to TPU based on MDI, gloves made of polyurethane elastomers have many advantages, such as not easily aging, not easily discoloring after a period of use like traditional latex gloves, not easily causing allergic reactions, and being closer to the skin.

05 other fields

Currently, TPU has already achieved some results in the Chinese medical field, such as the successful development of shape memory polyurethane elastomers, and body temperature shape memory polyurethane elastomers. Thermoplastic polyurethane film composite textiles can be used for the production of anti-allergy gloves and band-aids. Under mild reaction conditions, amphiphilic biodegradable medical polyurethane elastomers are prepared.

In addition, good results have also been achieved in prosthetics, cartilage, separation membranes, medical sutures, and family planning products.