5 Critical Adhesive Decisions That Make or Break Medical Device Development

The success of a wearable medical device often hinges on decisions made in the earliest stages of development. Among these, adhesive selection stands out as a critical factor that can determine your project’s timeline, budget, and ultimate success. Research shows that over 70% of medical device development delays stem from adhesive-related challenges discovered too late in the process.

Material Compatibility Considerations

Your device’s housing material directly impacts adhesive performance. Consider this ripple effect:

– Choosing a low surface energy plastic? Your adhesive options become limited

– Using flexible materials? Your adhesive must match that flexibility

– Working with sensitive electronics? Adhesive chemistry must prevent corrosion

The key is evaluating material compatibility before finalizing your device design. Early testing with multiple material combinations can prevent costly redesigns later.

Wear Time Requirements

The duration your device needs to stay adhered dramatically influences adhesive selection:

– Short-term wear (1-3 days) allows for simpler adhesive formulations

– Medium-term wear (3-7 days) requires balanced adhesion and breathability

– Long-term wear (7+ days) demands advanced moisture management and skin protection

Remember: Extended wear time isn’t just about stronger adhesion. It’s about maintaining consistent performance while protecting skin health.

Skin Sensitivity Factors

Medical adhesives must balance security with skin safety:

– Consider your target population’s skin types

– Account for movement and flexibility needs

– Factor in environmental conditions (moisture, temperature)

– Plan for atraumatic removal

Biocompatibility testing should begin early, as reformulations can add months to your timeline.

Regulatory Pathway Planning

Your adhesive choice impacts your regulatory strategy:

– Different adhesive classifications require different testing protocols

– Some adhesives have existing FDA master files, simplifying approval

– Novel adhesive formulations may require additional documentation

– Consider global regulations if planning international distribution

Early regulatory planning can save months in your approval timeline.

Cost Optimization Strategies

Smart adhesive decisions impact your bottom line:

– Material selection affects manufacturing efficiency

– Die design optimization reduces waste

– Roll format choices influence production speed

– Inventory management considerations

– Scale-up implications

Consider total cost of ownership, not just material costs.

Making the Right Choice

Each of these decisions interplays with the others, creating a complex web of considerations. The key to success? Making informed decisions early with expert guidance.

Visiting MD&M West? Stop by Booth [X] for a personalized assessment of your adhesive strategy. Our experts will help you navigate these critical decisions and optimize your development timeline.

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Stick-To-Skin Adhesives – A Key Disruptor in Modern Healthcare

Transdermal patch on arm

Wearable stick-to-skin medical devices give doctors the freedom to become time and location-independent. Healthcare providers can effortlessly gather vital patient information and take appropriate action from virtually anywhere. Plus, the patient doesn’t have to spend hours on a long commute. CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) is a good example, which allows doctors to remotely monitor diabetics.

However, the core component that is crucial to the effectiveness of such devices is a stick-to-skin adhesive. It ensures that the device stays attached to the patient’s body for the desired period without disrupting their usual routine. Let’s take a closer look at stick-to-skin adhesives and the importance of a reliable conversion partner.

On The Cusp Of A Growth Boom

Wearable technology; a once farfetched idea, is becoming a norm in modern medicine. It would be fair to conclude that it is rewriting the way healthcare is delivered. We are used to receiving medical attention within a typical clinical establishment; however, most patients face a medical situation at home, on travel, or at work. A moment’s delay in such a state could be catastrophic.

This has given an exponential boost to the demand for wearable tech for remote patient monitoring. According to an industrial analysis Mordor Intelligence, the wearable adhesive market, which was valued at $294.21 million in 2020, is on its way to more than doubling to $617.43 million by 2026. From medical devices and patient monitors to wound closure and sports tapes, this presents a sizeable growth opportunity in every market segment.

Considerations For Designing A Winning Stick-To-Skin Product

While the patient benefits from the device itself, however, a reliable stick-to-skin adhesive is what enables the device to do its job. Let’s explore the factors that must be considered to ensure that the product meets the expected standards:

Material Considerations:
  1. Moisture Management: Stick-to-skin devices are designed to be compatible with the user’s daily lifestyle. That means it must stand up to sweat, bodily fluids, and external moisture. To counter this, adhesive materials employ the following two methods:
    1. Fluid absorption – The adhesive takes on the moisture and holds it away from the skin to prevent irritation.
    2. Moisture-vapor transmission – Tiny holes in the adhesive and carrier material allow moisture to evaporate.
    3. Getting the layer right: Designing an effective stick-to-skin product is a complicated endeavor. Several layers of materials must come together before a product starts to take shape. The designers and manufacturers must get this delicate balance just right for the product to function correctly. For example, if an adhesive used in the skin contact layer is breathable but the outer layer does not allow moisture-vapor transmission, the product won’t perform as intended.
  2. Regulatory Considerations: Bringing a medical-grade product to the market requires the manufactories to adhere to strict regulatory standards. Even a small oversight can cause significant losses – both monetary and in terms of time to the market. Here’s what to look out for.
    1. Relevant ISO Certification & Documentation: Your design, manufacturing, and supply partners must be ISO 13485 certified and compliant.
    2. Safety Tests: To ensure that the adhesives meet the required safety standards, your suppliers must be able to conduct tests such as primary skin irritation (PSI) testing, cytotoxicity screening, biocompatibility, and safety testing, and guinea pig sensitization
  3. The Right Converting Partners: Unquestionable credibility is the backbone of any enterprise that provides healthcare services and related products. This means your production and conversion partner must have extensive experience along with outstanding research and development capabilities. The Tape Lab checks all of these boxes. Let’s take a closer look:
    1. Unquestionable Credibility & Extensive Adhesive-Specific Experience: The Tape Lab brings to the table over 18 years of research & manufacturing experience in the stick-to-skin medical tech space. Some of the largest names in the industry such as Avery Dennison have entrusted us with developing adhesive solutions for their flagship continuous health monitor. We’re supremely confident we can meet and exceed your expectations as well.
    2. A Wide Range OF Stick-To-Skin Products: The Tape Lab currently offers 11 individual categories for stick-to-skin products and 6 categories for wearable medical products. Our range includes but is not limited to adhesive bras, boob tape, CBD adhesive patches, fashion tape, wearable device tape, and diagnostic tape. You can explore our full product range over here. No matter what you have in mind, you’ll find it under one roof with The Tape Lab.
    3. The Ability To Customize & Unrivaled Engineering Expertise: Do you have an idea for a unique stick-to-skin product? We can help you bring it to life. The Tape Lab excels in every facet of medical adhesive design and manufacturing. Our core competencies include designing the tapes, die-cutting the patches, layer lamination, customizing the liner releases, and full-service OEM assembly. This gives us the scale and production capacity that will empower you to bring your product to market quicker and cheaper than your competition.
    4. Strong Supplier Partnerships: What sets us apart is our rock solid supply chain. We enjoy strong relationships with leading material manufacturers in the medical adhesive space. Our partners include 3M, Avery Dennison, Berry Plastics, Adhesive Applications and Polymer Science. This ensures immediate material access and enables us to design and produce customized medical adhesive solutions far quicker and cheaper than most of our competitors.

Next Step – Book A Free Consultation

Looking for a full-service tape converter and adhesives specialist? Contact The Tape Lab today. Our experts will schedule an obligation-free call and explain how we can put our full suite of converting services to work for you.

Transdermal Topical Patches – Will They Redefine The Way Vitamins and Supplements are Delivered?

medical device adhesive

It certainly seems that way. It wasn’t long ago that transdermal patches were viewed as a novel way to cope with chronic smoking. However, as their acceptance increased over the years, they are now being utilized to deliver vitamins, supplements, as well as give consumers remedies for, pain relief, sleep, hangovers and recovery, relaxation- or any combination of all the above via a topical patch.

Let’s explore further and take a closer look at the considerations for manufacturing quality transdermal topical patches.

What Is A Transdermal Patch & Its Various Types

In essence, these are small stick-to-skin patches to administer carefully determined plant based botanicals and vitamin doses through the patient’s skin. Patients find them convenient, non-invasive, and pain-free. Moreover, the patches enable delivery in a controlled manner, therefore, eliminating sharp peaks and valleys in vitamin and supplement administration.

Transdermal topical patches usually have 5 core components i.e. backing, ingredients (vitamins and supplements), membrane, adhesive, and the liner. They can be broadly categorized into 5 groups:

The Importance Of Choosing The Right Adhesive Converter For Transdermal Patches

The adhesive plays a critical role in ensuring that the patch stays securely pasted to the user’s skin and delivers the vitamins and supplements as intended. Let’s take a closer look at the criteria the patch adhesive must meet:

  1. Seamless Skin Adherence & Removal: It should be strong enough that the patch stays put and securely adhereed to the user’s skin for the required period. However, the adhesive must be balanced enough that the user can easily remove it without any discomfort.
  2. No Residue: No one likes to scrape sticky residue off their skin. When the patch is removed, it must not leave any adhesive residue on the skin.
  3. Comfortable: The adhesive must not cause any irritation, rashes, or trigger sensitivity.
  4. Skin- Adhesive Compatibility: It should seamlessly blend the adhesive with the ingredients without causing any physical or chemical clashes.
  5. Permeation: It should not interfere with the way or the speed at which the vitamins or supplement is supposed to be transferred to the patient.

Why An Experienced Adhesive Converter Matters

Transdermal Topical patch manufacturing is a complicated process and an experienced converter can help you stay competitive by eliminating unnecessary costs and significantly shortening the time to market.

  1. End-To-End Patch Design & Development: A knowledgeable converter can help you with any phase of the design and manufacturing process. E.g. it can help you design the required delivery system patch. What you’ll get is a well-made transdermal topical patch perfectly sized and designed to function seamlessly with the intended area of the body.
  2. Selection Of The Correct Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive: A reliable adhesive converter will ensure that the patch stays pasted to the user for the intended period and can stand up to sweat, dirt, and daily activity without causing any discomfort or skin damage.
  3. Consistent Patch Quality: A seasoned convertor will ensure that patch is made to deliver a consistent dosage.
  4. Regulatory Compliance: You will never have to worry about any compliance issues if you work with a converter that is cGMP certified.
  5. Desired Patch Shape & Size: Transdermal Topical patches have various uses, which may require the patch to be of a certain shape or size. An experienced converter brings to the table with numerous die-cutting, slitting, and sheeting capabilities, therefore, giving you the freedom to design and manufacture the patch in any shape or size. Moreover, an expert converter will eliminate material waste and help further reduce your per unit cost.
  6. Continuous Access To Critical Patch Making Materials: Experienced convertors have ties to major suppliers and can help you source the premium materials to make quality patch products that stand out in the marketplace.

What Sets The Tape Lab apart

That is indeed a relevant question. Let’s see how The Tape Lab can help bring your transdermal topical patch products to the market quicker and cheaper.

  1. A Wide Range Of Transdermal Topical Patches: No matter what type of transdermal topical patch you have in mind, we can bring it to life. And we aren’t just limited to patches. The Tape Lab offers an extensive range of stick-to-skin products such as adhesive bras, boob tape, fashion tape, wearable device tape, and diagnostic tape. You can explore our full product range over here.
  2. Unquestionable Credibility & Extensive Adhesive-Specific Experience: The Tape Lab brings to the table over 18 years of research & manufacturing experience in the stick-to-skin medical tech space. Some of the largest names in the industry such as Avery Dennison have entrusted us with developing adhesive solutions for their products. We’re supremely confident we can meet and exceed your expectations as well.
  3. Strong Supplier Partnerships: What sets us apart is our rock solid supply chain. We enjoy strong relationships with leading material manufacturers in the medical adhesive space. Our partners include 3M, Avery Dennison, Berry Plastics, Adhesive Applications and Polymer Science. This ensures immediate material access and enables us to design and produce customized adhesive solutions a lot quicker and cheaper than most of our competitors.

Next Step – Book A Free Consultation

Looking for a full-service tape converter and adhesives specialist? Contact The Tape Lab today. Our experts will schedule an obligation-free call and explain how we can put our full suite of converting services to work for you.

How Innovative Adhesive Solutions Are Transforming Continuous Health Monitoring & Wearable Medical Tech

Medical Wearables

We may not realize it, but the use of continuous health monitors is quite common – especially within the Global healthcare systems. As of 2020, over 23 million patients in the US alone utilized some form of continuous and remote health monitoring and this number is expected to hit 30 million by the year 2024.

Let’s dig a bit deeper and see how far the modern continuous monitoring tech has come and its impact on how we approach medical care. We will also shed light on how material converting and production partners are helping to bring continuous enhancements within the wearable med tech space.

What Exactly Is A Continuous Health Monitors (CHM)?

As the name implies, it is a medical device that monitors a patient continuously. The goal is to gather data on the patient’s primary health indicators and relay the information to concerned medical caregivers. In most cases, these are wearable devices that the patient can stick onto their body while carrying out their usual daily activities including working out or taking a shower.

Why It Matters?

While the technology may still be young; we’re already seeing its tremendous potential in simplifying healthcare. For starters, it can significantly reduce the time patients spend commuting to their doctor’s office or the hospital and then waiting there for the physician.

During a 2015 study, Harvard Medical School discovered patients on average spend 2 hours on a hospital visit. Continuous health monitors can minimize or almost eliminate these visits in many instances. For example, someone with a chronic heart issue can leverage it to share their data on vital health indicators and get instant feedback from their consultant rather than making the long commute.

Not only is it convenient but such devices may also help manage medical emergencies much better. The constant flow of primary health data enables doctors to take immediate action. Moreover, by minimizing patient visits, these gadgets can significantly improve the efficiency of medical facilities by reducing patient pressure.

The Role of Reliable Adhesive Solutions in Quality Wearable Devices to the Market

Depending on the patients’ needs, they may choose to wear such a device for up to 3 weeks. This means the device must be able to withstand the rigors of daily life without fail. A reliable adhesive solution ensures that the device stays securely attached to the patient’s body for the intended period. Let’s take a closer look at how advanced medical adhesive solutions add to the utility of these devices:

  • Makes It Suitable For An Active Lifestyle: Just because a patient needs to be continuously monitored shouldn’t mean that they cannot commit to normal daily activities such as school, runs, working out or a hike on the weekend. This, however, means that the device must deal with sweat, moisture, and an occasional bump. A reliable adhesive ensures that the device stays put and performs well under normal push and pull of the human body.
  • Ergonomics & Comfort: Let’s be honest. The idea of something continuously sticking to your body is not very appealing. That said, certain health conditions such as diabetes may require patients to wear glucose monitoring devices for weeks. A well-designed adhesive system guarantees that the patient can wear the device comfortably for extended periods without the risk of skin rashes or irritation.

The Importance Of A Reliable Converting & Production Partner

Unquestionable credibility is the backbone of any enterprise that provides healthcare services and related products. This means your production and converting partner must have extensive experience along with outstanding research and development capabilities.

The Tape Lab checks all of these boxes. Let’s take a closer look:

  • Trusted By Global Wearable Medical Tech Brands: The Tape Lab brings to the table over 18 years of research & manufacturing experience in the stick-to-skin medical tech space. Some of the largest names in the industry have entrusted us with developing adhesive solutions for their flagship continuous health monitor. We’re supremely confident we can meet and exceed your expectations as well.
  • Strong Supplier Partnerships: What sets us apart is our rock solid supply chain. We enjoy strong relationships with leading material manufacturers in the medical adhesive space. Our partners include 3M, Avery Dennison, Berry Global, and Dermamed. This ensures immediate material access and enables us to design and produce customized medical adhesive solutions far quicker and cheaper than most of our competitors.
  • Unrivaled Adhesive Engineering & Production Expertise: The Tape Lab excels in every facet of medical adhesive design and manufacturing. Our core competencies include designing the tapes, die-cutting the patches, layer lamination, customizing the liner releases, and full-service OEM packaging. We’re equally proficient in the design, manufacturing, and packaging of stick-to-skin wearables. Moreover, each tape component is manufactured in our ISO-8 certified clean rooms.

Next Step – Book A Free Consultation

Looking for a full-service tape converter and adhesives specialist? Contact The Tape Lab today. Our experts will schedule an obligation-free call and explain how we can put our full suite of converting services to work for you.

References

  1. https://blog.prevounce.com/27-remote-patient-monitoring-statistics-every-practice-should-know#:~:text=Consumer%2FPatient%20Statistics&text=A%20survey%20conducted%20by%20Insider,services%20and%20tools%20in%202020
  2. https://aabme.asme.org/posts/innovations-in-continuous-health-monitoring

The importance of converter experience and service excellence

Industrial Customized Adhesive Products

When searching for a tape converter, the most important factor to consider is obviously whether a company has the converting capabilities you need. Do they have the right equipment, sufficient capacity and personnel to get the job done? But in truth, any converter worth their salt will generally have the same overall capabilities, outside of specialty needs. So, the real difference between converter companies lies in their experience, the quality of customer support they can provide and their relationships with the material suppliers whose products they convert for your application. These factors provide real value to customers and should be considered thoughtfully as you make your decision.

The value of experience

Whether you’re looking to create products for the healthcare industry, industrial markets or fashion and entertainment industry, you can’t discount the value of an experienced tape converter partner. A company that has true expertise in materials science will be able to create efficiencies and control costs from prototype concepting all the way through commercial production. A staff of true engineering professionals will be able to help you identify solutions with product design, selecting the appropriate materials and anticipating problems before they impact project timelines. This will reduce the overall cost of product development and help increase speed to market.

When a converter not only understands your product needs, but also the industries you’re targeting, they can offer advice on design and materials decisions so you can create products that truly make an impact in the market. But that level of understanding only comes from experience.

Experience can be a hard thing to qualify, but there are signs that a converter has the experience and expertise you need to create quality products with speed and efficiency. Here are some things to look for when searching for an experienced tape converter:

Relationships with suppliers – Do they have strong partnerships with leading materials suppliers so they can help you source materials at scale and ensure they will be able to deliver those materials on time and in sufficient quantities?

Understanding of process from prototype to scale – Can they help with the entire product development cycle or are they only equipped to execute finished designs?

Quality certifications for your target industries – Do they have the proper qualifications to ensure you are meeting all regulatory requirements?

Support can be critical

Every manufacturer in the market today relies on a host of vendors — from software providers to marketing agencies — to help run their business. But when you encounter a problem in your product development process, you don’t need just another vendor. You need a true partner. The level of custom support a converter provides can be critical for keeping project timelines on track and helping you work through major issues.

When evaluating potential partners, consider this: When you pick up the phone to make a call, do you have direct access to engineering professionals who can help you solve problems on the spot? Or will you be talking to customer service reps who simply manage calls, and you’ll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable to get back to you? When speed is a necessity, you can’t sit around waiting for answers. In these instances, the level of support a company provides has a real and immediate impact on your ability to deliver the project on time and achieve product performance goals. Be sure to ask any potential partner about their full service, end to end engineering and support services and how they will be able to nurture your project from start to finish.

The right tape converter is out there

When looking for a tape converter that can meet your needs, it’s important to go beyond the specific services they offer. By also considering a company’s experience and support, you can eliminate a lot of headaches and streamline product development. Asking the right questions and not settling for just another vendor will allow you to stay within budget, speed time to market and ultimately achieve your product goals.

Looking for a true converting partner you can count on? Contact The Tape Lab to see how our experienced team can help bring your ideas to life.