GARDEN GROVE, CALIFORNIA (February 17, 2014) -- From March 3 to 6, Saint-Gobain Seals Group, a trusted manufacturing partner in the Life Sciences market for over 30 years, will be showcasing their wide range of sealing and polymer solutions at Pittcon 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. Pittcon is the world’s largest annual conference and exposition for laboratory science, an event known for its valuable learning experience that combines an extensive technical and educational experience with a hands-on look at all the latest products and technology solutions.
Exhibiting at Booth# 3713, the Seals Group will focus on presenting such product lines as OmniSeal® spring-energized seals, Rulon® fluoropolymer components and Meldin® injection molded materials, which address critical sealing, friction control, chemical compatibility, material compliance and weight reduction issues.
Don Munro, Market Manager – Life Sciences, said, “Our goal is to team our engineers with those of the system manufacturers to help them push the boundaries of their current product capabilities. We add value to the customer when we help them achieve their goals in areas such as long life, efficiency and compliance.”
These product lines have been used in a variety of applications; most recently, their OmniSeal® seals and Rulon® bearings were utilized in high-performance clinical chemical analyzer systems due to significantly maximizing equipment run time while minimizing maintenance costs. Maintenance intervals improved by 200% or more, resulting in the end user needing to only service the equipment one to two times per year in comparison to a typical six times per year with other systems.
Aside from contributing to the workflow and cost-efficient value of the analyzer systems, the Seals Group has also provided sustainable solutions such as surgical tools in the medical and dental fields. A leading global provider of healthcare products selected their OmniSeal® seals and Meldin® injection molded PEEK bearings for a groundbreaking powered stapling system. As the only full-powered, reusable, battery operated endoscopic stapler in the world, the simplified design allows for easier installation, features one-handed push-button operation and eliminates the need for manual firing force, which improves maneuverability as opposed to traditional endomechanical staplers. The Seals Group is a also a key supplier of Rulon® components in harmonic scalpel surgical tooling where ultrasonic technology is used to simultaneously cut and coagulate tissue as an alternative to metal scalpels and electro-surgical devices. Benefits of the harmonic scalpel include greater precision, fewer instrument changes, the ability to cut through thicker tissue with more efficiency and an improved field of view due to the reduced amount of smoke created by the system. Their Meldin® 7000 and Meldin® HT product lines are also suitable for gamma and e-beam sterilization.
In addition to the above product lines, the Seals Group’s product offering includes Fluoroloy® material, consisting of a family of proprietary materials that are composed primarily of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) based resins (similar to Rulon®), and developed to perform in the most diverse and extreme applications for various markets such as Life Sciences, Aerospace, Oil & Gas and Automotive. There are more than 100 standard Fluoroloy® and Rulon® grades available, several of which are FDA compliant and USP Class VI certified, making them well suited for medical and analytical equipment applications.
About Saint-Gobain Seals Group (www.seals.saint-gobain.com)
Saint-Gobain Seals Group is a business unit under Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics’ Engineered Components division; our parent company is one of the world’s top 100 industrial groups. With more than 50 years of manufacturing experience and an established global presence (with strategic sites in Garden Grove, California, USA; Kontich, Belgium; and Minhang, Shanghai, China), we offer a diverse range of innovative sealing and polymer solutions:
Other products include Fluoroloy® (high-performance custom-formulated compounds and alloys), cup seals, hydraulic seals, metal seals, v-packings, piston rings, Marathon® (valves and vacuum pump diaphragms), Transband® (PTFE creepage band), custom parts, polymer bearings and stock shapes.
The majority of seals and polymer components manufactured are custom designed and matched with the best materials to optimize their performance in various applications and markets and under the most extreme and critical conditions.