Medical Devices

Without any doubt, the coronavirus pandemic has put us all in an exceptional situation. At Henkel, we are doing everything in our power to safeguard our employees, support our customers and suppliers, and reduce the spread of the virus. In addition to our global solidarity program, we’re also working closely with companies in the medical device sector to support their efforts.

• Adhesives used in assembly of PPE & Respiratory Devices
• ISO-10993 Biocompatibility Certifications
• Additional COVID-19 Updates

With an increase of in-home patient care, material regulations, and the need for safer, less invasive devices, Henkel’s range of high-quality adhesives and materials for medical devices facilitate reliable and effective design and manufacture for numerous applications. LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives are engineered to streamline operations and increase product reliability and safety.

When it comes to using adhesives in medical disposable device assemblies, Henkel offers a wide portfolio of medical device adhesives that meet ISO 10993 biocompatibility standards. Applications include, needles, syringes, catheters, tubes, connectors, and more.

In addition to offering highly reliable and cost-effective medical device adhesives, Henkel’s team of skilled engineers and adhesive specialists are on hand to help you find the best solutions to fit your needs.

Contact us to find out more about our adhesives for medical devices.

Medical Device Adhesives Solutions

Our medical device adhesive solutions meet the specific process requirements. LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives are tested to the industry’s most comprehensive ISO 10993 biocompatibility standards. Henkel employs strict manufacturing and quality controls to ensure continuity of compliance. 

Medical device manufacturers around the world depend on our diverse portfolio of high-quality adhesives and all of our acrylic and cyanoacrylate adhesives meet ISO 10993 standards.

Find out more about our medical device adhesive solutions below.

Cyanoacrylates for Medical Devices

Cyanoacrylate medical adhesives exhibit extremely high adhesion properties and are highly resistant to a wide range of chemicals and solvents. They are also known as instant adhesives and provide strong bonding to a variety of substrates, including elastomers. Recent developed grades offer high elongation of 30% for bended or flexed assemblies, and fluorescence for inspection. With easy to dispense characteristics, cyanoacrylate adhesives for medical use enables medical device manufacturers to speed up assembly processes while continuing to offer safe and reliable products.

Light Cure Adhesives for Medical Devices

Henkel’s light cure adhesives for medical devices offer a number of benefits such as their ability to cure quickly, as well as providing excellent strength and durability. Henkel offers a product portfolio that includes light cure acrylic adhesives for medical devices, light cure cyanoacrylate for medical devices light cure silicones for medical devices.

Henkel’s wide range of acrylic medical adhesives include UV and LED cure adhesives that are ideal for use in a wide range of medical applications including tube assemblies, connectors, and housing.

Epoxy Adhesives for Medical Devices

One of the biggest advantages of medical epoxy adhesives is their ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, including most sterilization techniques. This allows biocompatible medical epoxy adhesives to be used in both disposable and reusable medical devices. Epoxy medical adhesives also provide good adhesion to a variety of substrates such as metals, glass, plastics, and other surfaces. Henkel’s portfolio of medical epoxy adhesives are available in one- and two-part formulations, as heat curing or RT curing systems to meet different assembly requirements and are tested to ISO 10993 standards.

Polyurethane Adhesives for Medical Devices

Polyurethane adhesives are often used for structural bonding medical devices since they provide high strength and flexibility during use. This is because medical polyurethane resin offers excellent mechanical properties making it an ideal choice for many different medical device applications.

Additionally, polyurethane adhesive are used in medical devices in potting applications, as the polyurethanes offer the features desired for such applications, including low exotherm cure, low shrinkage, and excellent adhesion to a wide range of substrates.

Medical Device Applications

For disposable medical device assemblies, strong, reliable, sterilization resistant and biocompatible medical liquid adhesives are required for bonding and sealing non-equal materials in various joint geometries. Henkel offers an extensive portfolio of adhesive technologies that are suitable for  the substrates used in medical devices, such as plastics Polycarbonate, PVC, ABS, COC, PP, PE, PMMA, Polyurethane, or flexible materials like  silicones, TPEs and elastomers, as well as metals like stainless-steel.  To enable flexibility in part design and manufacturing processes, these adhesive technologies range from room temperature curing adhesives and heat curing technologies to  UV-bulb cure and LED light cure adhesives which help simplify manufacturing processes and reduce costs.

For years, Henkel has been developing and producing technologies and adhesives for the unlimited variety of medical devices, including:

• Needles and Syringes
• Catheters
• Tubes and Connectors
• Reservoirs and Enclosures
  
• Dialyzers and Blood Filtration Devices
  
• Respiratory, Prosthetics, Surgical Tools, Hearing Aids, and Endoscopes
  
• Imaging and Diagnostic Equipment
  
• Medical Wearable Devices
  
• Smart Medical Devices
  
• Patches and Sensors
  
• Skin-bonded devices or Transdermal plasters

Moreover, Henkel offers a complete line of dispensing, curing and process monitoring equipment designed specifically for use with our LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives.

Needles and Syringes

Medical device adhesives are universally used for bonding cannula to hubs in needle assemblies. It is essential that the cannula remains fixed and that this joint is well sealed to prevent fluids, such as blood or medicine, from leaking. Medical device manufacturers around the world have specified LOCTITE^® adhesives for more than four decades and in summary used in trillions of needles and syringes.

The three most commonly used adhesive chemistries for needle bonding and manufacturing are: Light Cure Acrylics (both UV cure and LED cure), Light Cure Cyanoacrylates, and One-Part Heat Cure Epoxies. Henkel has developed products in all three chemistries that are ISO 10993 tested, have high pull strengths and fast cure times, and are highly fluorescent for automated in-line inspection.

Catheters

LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives are designed for bonding typical catheter materials including PVC, polyurethane, polycarbonate, and stainless steel. These adhesives are used to assemble the most challenging applications such as balloon to multi-lumen tubing, strain relief or transition of balloon to tube, drug-eluting stents, and marker band bonding.

The three most commonly used adhesive chemistries for catheter assembly are: Light Cure Acrylics (UV and LED light cure) Cyanoacrylates, and Light Cure Silicones. 

Henkel has developed products in all three chemistries that are ISO 10993 tested, have high pull strengths combined with high or low flexibility, enable fast cure times, and are highly fluorescent for automated in-line inspection.

Tubes and Connectors

LOCTITE^® light cure adhesives offer the performance combination of fast cure, proper adhesion, high strength and adapted flexibility for the  manufacturing of tubes and connectors. Adhesives are used to assemble tubing to fittings, connectors, adaptors, IV sets, blood collection sets, drug infusion sets and feeding tubes. The three most commonly used adhesive chemistries for tube and connector assembly are: Light Cure Acrylics, Light Cure Cyanoacrylates, and Light Cure Silicones.

Henkel has developed products in all three chemistries that have been tested to ISO 10993 biocompatibility standards, have high pull strengths and fast cure times, and are highly fluorescent for automated in-line inspection.

Reservoirs and Enclosures

Whether you are producing large fluid storage reservoirs or small high-performance fluid monitoring devices, LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives provide structural bonds with superior gap filling and reliable sealing in combination with increased productivity. Common assembly applications for medical device adhesives are blood oxygenators, blood filters, heat exchangers, blood bowls, and blood pressure transducers. The two most commonly used adhesive chemistries for reservoir & enclosure assembly are: Light Cure Acrylics and Cyanoacrylates. 

Henkel has developed products in both chemistries that have been tested to ISO 10993 biocompatibility standards, have high pull strengths, fast cure times, and are highly fluorescent for automated in-line inspection.

Blood Filtration

Henkel has extensive experience and knowledge of centrifugal potting processes and capabilities to assist with these critical applications. Henkel’s dialyzer solution portfolio includes customized products for specific application needs such as low viscosity for optimal fiber bundle penetration, high adhesion to plastic housings, controlled exotherm for low shrinkage, as well as process optimization recommendations (centrifuge and trim times). Our medical device adhesive solutions are tested in accordance with the generally accepted global ISO test standard 10993.

Henkel’s complete offering for medical filtration applications such as oxygenators, dialyzers, and filters includes polyurethanes, light cure acrylics, and epoxies.

Respiratory, Prosthetics, Surgical Tools, and Endscopes

LOCTITE^® medical device adhesives offer reliable, fast curing assembly solutions for respiratory, prosthetics, surgical tools and instruments, endoscopes, and many other disposable and non-disposable devices. They enable high speed production, in-line control and the ability to assemble a range of materials including plastics that can be difficult to bond or weld. The most commonly used adhesive chemistries for these applications are: Light Cure Acrylics, Cyanoacrylates, Light Cure Cyanoacrylates, and Light Cure Silicones. 

Henkel has developed products in these chemistries that are ISO 10993 tested, clear, colorless, fast curing, and highly fluorescent for automated in-line inspection.

Imaging Equipment

Henkel has extensive experience working closely with medical imaging equipment manufacturers. Henkel’s broad portfolio of high-performance solutions aligns with the many challenges faced: thermal resistance, thermal management, dissimilar substrates, and robust strength requirements. Henkel technologies used for the assembly of key components of imaging equipment include the wide range of standards adhesives, including anaerobics, cyanoacrylates, light cure acrylics, epoxies, polyurethanes, silicones and two-part acrylics, the range of adhesives of electronic assemblies, as well as the range of biocompatible adhesives.

Training and Engineering Services

As your medical device adhesive consultant, we provide engineering and training services to help you find the right solutions for your requirements. Our skilled engineers and adhesive specialists have years of combined experience developing cost-efficient solutions for the medical market that improve product reliability and safety.

Consult with Henkel and gain access to:

• Customized training for your engineering and quality teams demonstrating how adhesives can optimize product design and processes
• On-site engineering assistance and consultation
• Process improvement tours
• Joint product development programs
• Contract lab services and testing

Schedule a consultation now with an adhesive specialist.

Further Resources

For more information about our LOCTITE^® Medical Device adhesive solutions, download PDF resources here.