PVC is a material widely used in medical machinery. It has many different characteristics and has an important influence on the development of medicine. PVC products for medical applications include: blood bags, hemodialysis tubes, breathing masks, oxygen tubes, urine bags, artificial ears and noses, etc.

Compared with glass and metal materials, the main features of plastics:

1. The cost is low, and it can be reused without disinfection, and is suitable for the production of disposable medical devices;

2. The processing is simple, and its plasticity can be processed into various useful structures, while metal and glass are difficult to manufacture into products with complex structures;

3. Tough, flexible, not as easy to break as glass;

4. It has good chemical inertness and biological safety.

These performance advantages make plastics have a wide range of applications in medical equipment, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), ABS, Polyurethane, polyamide, thermoplastic elastomer, polysulfone and polyether ether ketone, etc. Blending can improve the performance of plastics and make the best performance of different resins manifested, such as blending modification of polycarbonate/ABS, polypropylene/elastomer, etc.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

PVC is one of the largest plastic varieties in the world. PVC resin is white or light yellow powder. Pure PVC is atactic, hard and brittle, and is rarely used. According to different purposes, different additives can be added to make PVC plastic parts present different physical and mechanical properties. Adding an appropriate amount of plasticizer to the PVC resin can make a variety of hard, soft and transparent products.

Hard PVC does not contain or contains a small amount of plasticizer, has good tensile, flexural, compression and impact resistance, and can be used as a structural material alone. Soft PVC contains more plasticizers, its flexibility, elongation at break, and cold resistance increase, but its brittleness, hardness, and tensile strength decrease. The density of pure PVC is 1.4g/cm3, and the density of PVC plastic parts added with plasticizers and fillers is generally in the range of 1.15~2.00g/cm3.

According to market estimates, approximately 25% of medical plastic products are PVC. Mainly because of the low cost of the resin, wide application range, and easy processing. Medical PVC products include: hemodialysis tubing, breathing mask, oxygen tube, etc.