Expanding Coating Technology to Europe

Executives from Surface Solutions Group LLC, (SSG) of Chicago, Ill., announced that they have licensed the rights to The Adelhelm Group, Arbachtalstraße, Germany, to apply 10 of SSG's unique medical coatings to devices. This agreement makes available biomedical coatings to European users that, to date, were available only in the United States.

SSG is both a formulator and applicator of surface technologies exclusively to the medical industry. Their products include an array of biocompatible coatings designed to solve specific surface problems. Also, their PTFE formulations are 100% PFO–free, per US EPA 2015 regulations, as verified by third-party analytical laboratories. In addition, as the largest automated applicator of PTFE coatings in North America, their application technology is equally impressive. With multiple automated coating lines, SSG can process different coatings or colors on products – to micron-level tolerances. 

The Adelhelm Group is a highly regarded applicator of engineering coating in Europe, with multiple facilities in Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, plus affiliated facilities in Poland and Romania. Adelhelm presently offers coatings for medical applications based on PTFE, E-CTFE, ETFE, and PFA polymers. Now, the agreement with SSG enables Adelhelm to widen their scope of surface technologies that were never before available in Europe. These include:

• FluoroWire coatings… to reduce friction on guide wires, mandrels, and hypotubes
• ElectroBond coatings... for electrosurgical blades and instruments
• SlickSil coatings... to eliminate “tackiness” of silicone products
• VisiMark... marking technology for PTFE coated products, or PTFE, FEP, and PFA tubing
• FluoroMed AM... antimicrobial self-renewing surface protection for medical devices
• FluoroBond-N and N2... nano-thin PTFE and non-PTFE coating technology for low friction applications and low cure temperatures
• FluoroBond-R coatings... low friction surface for rubber products
• AquaGlide… a hydrophilic coating for stainless steel or polymer products
• PlastiGlide... low-friction coatings for plastics with low cure temperatures; gamma stable
• FluoroGlass coatings... to contain the shards of glass and prevent damage from accidents

This license agreement means that European producers of medical products can have access to these formulations. The formulations, with their comprehensive third-party data for cytotoxicity, FTIR and no PFOA, can assist in streamlining product certification and 510k submissions for their products.