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Medical Tape & Materials
As an expert in the Medical Tape & Materials converting market, The Tape Lab team will help design and manufacture innovative solutions that will best meet your application requirements.
About Medical Tape & Materials
Whether you need skin-friendly materials or aggressive adhesives used in the actual construction of your device, we can help. The Tape Lab has developed a cost-effective, reliable product that is easily applied by both clinicians and patients. Secondly, each product has met FDA regulations for direct skin contact. Medical tape & materials are biocompatible tapes and flexible materials that usually meet BIOCOMP 10993 specifications. They are most commonly used in medical devices, wearables, wound care and wound closure, and consumer healthcare products.
The Tape Lab offers a wide range of medical grade adhesives, films, nonwovens and wovens, foams, hydrogels, hydrocolloids, silicones and liners. Presently, they are used in the production of medical devices, medical wearables, sensors, ostomy, and draping. The medical adhesives are also used in diagnostic lidding, microfluidics, transdermal patches and wound care or wound closure applications.
Medical Tape & Materials Application
Wearable Device Tapes
Wearable device tapes are conformable adhesive tapes that can hold devices securely for short term or long-term wear. They can be removed from the skin gently without causing skin trauma. Wearable device tapes are typically double-coated tapes with differential adhesives. Specifically, one coating to stick to the device material, and the other to stick to the skin. The Tape Lab customized solutions make a robust bond to the device and a strong bond to the skin.
Cover Tape / Overlay Tape & Shower Patches
The need for Cover Tapes (overlay tapes) in the wearables market space is growing exponentially every day. Over the next 5 years, the use of wearable devices is growing by billions of units. So, protecting the device from moisture and dirt is needed. Cover Tapes / Overlay tapes are used as waterproof “covers” that are applied over the top of a stick-to-skin wearable device. Altogether, this method protects the device from getting wet or dirty during every day use.
Diagnostic Tape
Diagnostic tape is typically designed for use in diagnostic medical devices such as test strips and lab-on-a-chip. Selecting the correct diagnostic film or tape has long played a critical role in monitoring blood glucose. Additionally, these monitors are increasingly being designed for the detection and prevention of many more medical conditions.
Food Grade Adhesive/ FDA Direct/ Indirect Contact Approved Tapes
Food Grade adhesive tapes and materials meet the FDA Safety Regulations for direct or indirect food contact. Likewise, these adhesive tapes as indirect food additives comply Title 21 CFR Parts 174 -178. They come in contact with food as part of packaging or processing equipment, but are not intended to be added directly to food. Overall, these FDA products are safe and effective while eliminating concerns over contamination and cleanup. Food grade tape materials are commonly used in the manufacturing, processing, sorting, treating, preparing, and holding food. They're also used in packaging or transporting food and pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products.
Medical Device Adhesive
Our trained staff has designed and developed hundreds of adhesive backed medical devices both for stick-to-skin applications. Products for dynamic monitors, devices, and clinical related apparatuses are used in hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics worldwide. Moreover, Medical Device Adhesives describe tapes that are approved for skin contact under Biocompatibility 10993. The FDA defines biocompatibility as “the ability of a device material to perform with an appropriate host response in a specific situation”.
Wound Care Dressing/Wound Care Tapes
Wound care dressings are typically transparent film dressings with a hypoallergenic, latex-free adhesive. They gently and securely adhere to skin with adhesive perimeters that are designed for protecting skin and wound sites. Further, the adhesive perimeter allows customization of shape and size to fit any wound site. Typically medical professionals refer to many wound care dressings as Tegaderm™. Transparent Film Dressings consist of a thin polyurethane film backing. Chiefly, Tegaderm™ dressings are breathable, sterile, transparent and waterproof, and provide a barrier to external contaminants.
Frequently Asked Questions
In short, medical tapes are used for a wide variety of applications usually associated with adhesives that stick to the human skin. These applications can range from holding a wearable device in place (such as a constant glucose monitor, CGM), holding IVs on the skin before, during or after a medical procedure, and wound closures.
Medical tape has many strengths of adhesive. Further, there are silicone tapes that one can apply gently and remove gently. These are good for infants, the elderly and for people with sensitive skin. There are also rubber and acrylic tapes that get a quick stick bond to the skin and have a very strong holding power, or sheer, and can stay on the skin for 14+ days.
Typically medical tapes are rubber, acrylic or silicone based tapes that offer a variety of adhesion levels depending on the application needs.