WITH allergy reactions to natural rubber (NR) grades for gloves, global producer of styrenic block copolymers or SBCs, Kraton Performance Polymers is pushing its Cariflex isoprene rubber (IR) to the medical industry, especially for surgical gloves. To meet the expected demand, the company has completed a multi-million dollar investment project on its facility in the US.
Kraton has converted a plant at its manufacturing site in Belpre for new solid IR capacity. This production capability replaces the capacity from the Pernis, Netherlands, facility that was closed in 2009. Kraton also completed an IR latex expansion at its plant in Brazil, which increased production by 30%. Additionally, the company anticipates a new capacity addition at its Japanese facility in about two years.
In a paper Kraton presented recently at the 13th International Latex Conference in the US, the company says that all of the gloves tested, including synthetic latex alternatives to NR, met the ASTM standard for surgical gloves and offered mechanical protection comparable to NR gloves. Those tested included NR, chloroprene latex (CRL), Ziegler-Natta isoprene rubber latex (ZNIR) and Cariflex IR.
Kraton says it evaluated mechanical properties of the gloves in tensile strength, modulus and puncture resistance, and concludes that surgical gloves made with Cariflex offered mechanical protection comparable to NR gloves. It also claims that surgical gloves made with Cariflex proved to be better than other synthetics in terms of comfort, and equal or even superior to NR gloves. (PRA)
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