WACKER is a technology leader in the chemical and semiconductor industries and a worldwide innovation partner to customers in many key global sectors. With 15,900 employees, WACKER generated sales of € 4.3 billion in 2008. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, WACKER has 27 production sites worldwide and a global network of over 100 sales offices. With five operating divisions, WACKER provides imaginative and innovative solutions, technical expertise and a comprehensive service support network spanning five continents.
While each of WACKER's five operating divisions is focused on particular products, technologies, industries and applications, it is the WACKER SILICONES Division which provides silicone elastomers which are ideal for use in the complex and highly sensitive field of medical technology and healthcare.
WACKER SILICONES is a leading supplier of complete silicone-based solutions that comprise products, services and conceptual approaches. As a provider of solutions, the business division helps customers press ahead with innovations, exploit global markets fully, and optimize business processes to reduce overall costs and boost productivity. Silicones are the basis for products offering highly diverse properties for virtually unlimited fields of application, having special emphasis in silicone elastomers for use in the demanding applications found in medical technology and healthcare.
WACKER SILICONES: For Medical and Healthcare Applications. Thanks to their versatile properties, silicone elastomers are used extensively in medical devices and medical engineering. Silicones do not contain organic plasticizers and are UV resistant, thermally stable and resistant to chemicals and mechanical stress. Furthermore, silicone elastomers easily fulfill the medical and healthcare industry's growing purity and hygiene requirements. Newly developed hyperpure silicone elastomers, such as WACKER's SILPURAN® elastomer grades are particularly well-suited as result of their specialty tailored properties and purity.
SILPURAN® elastomer grades feature ultra-high purity, have properties specifically targeting the medical and healthcare sectors needs, are engineered to ISO 9001 quality standards and are tested for biocompatibility compliance to ISO 10993 and USP – Class VI standards. The SILPURAN® range of silicone elastomers encompasses solid silicone rubbers (HTV), liquid silicone rubber grades (LSR) that cure at high temperatures, and silicones that cure at room temperature (RTV). In production, the required purity is achieved through a special filtration process which prevents solid contaminants from entering into the material. Additionally, all solid SILPURAN® silicone elastomers are visually inspected and antistatically packaged in a clean room environment, while similar measures are taken for liquid and room-temperature-curing grades as well. As a result, the products are pure and clean when they leave our plant and reach our customers' clean rooms.
Like most silicone rubbers, SILPURAN® solid silicone elastomer rubbers can be easily processed by extrusion, as well as by semi-automatic or automatic injection molding and by compression and transfer molding. LSR grades, on the other hand are two part materials that cure by fully-automatic injection molding.
There are many diverse fields of applications which grades of SILPURAN® silicone elastomers are used in healthcare and medical devices. Some examples are seals for disposable syringes and dialysis equipment, medical tubing, catheters, and hoses and profiles. Also found in bellows for breathing apparatus, membranes, needle-free valves, and handles for instruments and in wound care dressings.
The SILPURAN® product line offers these relevant properties for outstanding performance and reliability:
- Excellent heat resistance
- Modest change of physical properties as temperature changes
- Excellent permeability
- Good resistance to radiation – e.g. gamma-rays, x-rays and UV
- Wide Durometer of hardness range
- High level of transparency; pigmentable in virtually any color\
- Flexibility
- May be sterilized with steam, gamma and electron-beam radiation or ethylene oxide
- Very low order of toxicity
SILPURAN® silicone elastomers, customized solutions and comprehensive service and technical advisory support from WACKER SILICONES will help improve the performance of your products every step of the way – from concept and development through production and to market.
WACKER POLYMERS is the global leader for high-quality binders and polymer additives. Products such as dispersible polymer powders, dispersions, solid resins, powder binders and surface coating resins from WACKER POLYMERS are used in the construction, automotive, paper and adhesives industries, as well as by manufacturers of printing inks and industrial coatings.
WACKER POLYSILICON has been producing hyperpure silicon for the semiconductor and photovoltaics industries for over 50 years. As one of the largest global manufacturers of polycrystalline silicon, WACKER POLYSILICON supplies leading wafer and solar-cell manufacturers.
WACKER FINE CHEMICALS is an expert in organic synthesis, silanes and biotechnology, supplying innovative biotech products and catalog chemicals for life-science and consumer-care customers worldwide. Its product portfolio includes cyclodextrins and cysteine, organic intermediates and acetyl acetone. A key specialty is the contract manufacturing of pharmaceutical proteins via microbial systems.
SILTRONIC is one of the world's leading producers of hyperpure silicon wafers, supplying many major chip manufacturers. Silicon wafers form the basis of state-of-the-art micro and nano-electronics, for example, in computers, telecommunications, motor vehicles, medical technology, consumer electronics and control systems.