Parker Hannifin Seeks More Medical Plastics Innovation

Parker Hannifin Corp. recently announced the formal opening of its Polymer Innovation Center at its Parflex Division in Ravenna, OH. The center, among other things, will create and test out new materials and products, with a focus on medical polymers through its collaboration with the University of Akron and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.Such research could come none too soon. Many medtech industry experts have complained that the industry is lacking in innovation when it comes to materials, especially plastics.The medical device industry has been pretty much using the same plastics and polymers for decades: workhorse materials including polyurethanes; polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE (marketed in other fields as Teflon by Dupont); and polyethylene terephthalate (sometimes marketed as Dacron) have been medtech mainstays.Parker Hannifin's new Polymer Innovation Center is a 24,000-square-foot facility within Parflex headquarters that will create 34 high-technology and engineering jobs in a facility already employing more than 300 people, according to a news release from October. Parker is spending $15 million on the center, and Ohio's Third Frontier Research and Development Center Program is spending $2.3 million."We are also fortunate in our location, literally in the heart of Ohio's Polymer Valley--Portage, Summit, Mahoning, Stark, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties --where nearly half of the state's polymer industries are located, and with an abundance of academic resources and a workforce dedicated to the industry," Mark Gagnon, general manger of the Parflex Division, said in a news release.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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