CONVERTING NEWS
AND INSIGHTS

Towering redwoods. Majestic mountain peaks. Complex cloud formations. As we take moments to appreciate nature’s large displays of beauty, let us recognize the small engineering feats that allow us to live comfortably.

Attaching one substrate to another.

Would you ever put jelly on an open wound? What if I told you that jelly, or more specifically hydrogel (yes, jelly is technically a hydrogel), is one of the most common wound care solutions.  

What is the best way to monitor a wound? 

Can vaccines and other drug solutions be delivered without an intramuscular injection?

“Rip the bandage off quickly and get it over with!”

The injury healing process can be long and painful whether wounds are open or closed, shallow or deep. 

When you think of healthcare supplies, which comes to mind first: A stethoscope to hear a heartbeat? A syringe to give a needed shot? Perhaps even the "Ahhhhhh, open wide" tongue depressor!

Transdermal patches are a modern medical marvel. They provide a convenient way to deliver medicine to people consistently and efficiently with little disruption to their routines, and in a small package to boot! Depending on the patch, a person might be able to stick it on to start the week and leave it there for several days, which is far more convenient than starting the morning by popping a few pills.

Still, a lot goes into making sure the drug contained within the patch gets administered to the patient as prescribed. If the patch isn’t designed and constructed to medicate the patient properly via the skin, it’s a bust — if not dangerous. Let’s look at 6 factors that impact transdermal patch delivery systems.

Remember skinning your knee when you were a kid? As inexplicable as it was that you didn’t pull off that amazing move on your bicycle that you’d been practicing all day, it was nice to have something available to help you heal. If a standard bandage wasn’t up to the task, you may have relied on some gauze and wound dressing tape to do the trick.

In addition to being found in homes, medical professionals also count on it for much more severe concerns in doctors’ offices and hospitals worldwide. With wound dressings, you have the adhesive, backing, and gauze (if needed) that must all work together to protect and assist with the healing of injuries, surgical incisions, and more.

What are the advantages of using a transdermal patch?

If you’ve seen advertisements for a nicotine patch, then you’ve already gotten a glimpse of where adhesive patches and transdermal absorption fit within our modern world. That, however, is far from the only use these small-but-important medical items have.

The development of adhesive patches to medicate people is one of the most impressive medical advancements of our time. Over the years, it’s become clear that this method has numerous advantages. We wanted to look at five key benefits of adhesive patches and transdermal absorption and where the adhesive component fits in the process.

Some complex products require specific manufacturing processes to ensure their safety and reliable performance. What kind of performance? Well, in medical applications, particles in the air as well as the air’s moisture level can lead to bacteria growth that alters adhesion in a medical product applied directly to the skin.

Obviously, “bacteria” and “medical product” never go hand-in-hand. Combatting this possibility (and many others within numerous industries) requires the use of a cleanroom. Impurities of many types — dust/smoke, equipment, microorganisms, inadequate air quality, human error, and others — can cause defects in many products.

How “clean” does a cleanroom need to be? Classifications have been established using the ISO classification system ISO 14644-1 and are rated by the cleanliness level of the air inside the room. The most common ISO classes (ISO 7 and ISO 8) indicate the level of cleanliness of the room based on the quantity and size of particles per volume of air.

In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of ISO cleanroom certification, the industries most affected by cleanrooms, and the importance of your converting partner being certified.

Strouse, an industry leading adhesive tape converter and custom manufacturer is proud to announce its medical device establishment registration with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The registration builds on Strouse’s wide range of adhesive tape converting capabilities and allows for deeper penetration into medical device projects and the overall medical and healthcare market. 

WESTMINSTER, Maryland – Strouse, a leader in tight tolerance die cutting and converting pressure sensitive adhesives, has been recognized as a 3M Preferred Converter with 3M Medical Materials and Technologies. Strouse earned this recognition because of their leadership in the industry, expert team of product development and process engineers, state of the art equipment technology, and a robust quality management system and manufacturing process. This recognition provides Strouse with unique benefits that can be passed along to customers including access to 3M medical materials.

Did you know one of the first pieces of wearable technology dates back to the 1600’s? This hot tech gadget was the Abacus ring.

Wearable technology as an industry has since seen tremendous growth. From fitness devices that track workouts to health monitors that communicate with family members and doctors in real time, these devices provide us with instantaneous data that brings together technology and everyday life.

Today wearable technology is a $14 billion

MENLO PARK, Calif., February 25, 2014 -- Neodyne Biosciences, a medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative tissue repair devices to promote healing and minimize scar formation, today announced a partnership with Strouse to scale production of its embrace® Advanced Scar Therapy devices, which mechanically deliver a uniform compressive strain to offload tension from a newly formed scar.