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Medical Equipment Will Use Bioplastic
Mirel to be used for injection-molded tray in pipette system
Doug Smock, Contributing Editor -- Design News, September 2, 2008
Labcon North America, a manufacturer of disposable laboratory supplies, will use Mirel biodegradable polymer for the production of its new Pagoda pipette reloading system.
Mirel will be used for the injection-molded tray that holds the pipettes in place. It is one of the first precision injection molding applications for the new biopolymers, which have mostly stirred interest among packaging OEMs to date. The tray requires heat and chemical resistance, dimensional stability and durability. Labcon, which says it may use the product across a number of its applications, offers more than 800 products globally and produces over 1 billion units per year.
"There has been growing concern within our industry that the disposal of traditional plastics is too wasteful. We can now offer customers the opportunity to lower their carbon footprint with our Pagoda line of products and many have indicated that they will switch to our new products made from renewable resources. Labcon previously supplied conventional plastic trays that were thrown away or reclaimed through Labcon's recycle program. Now we are planning to launch a composting program to complement this initiative," says Jim Happ, president of Labcon, which is based in Petaluma, CA.
Metabolix and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) are commercializing Mirel through a joint venture called Telles. The first commercial-scale Mirel production plant is being constructed adjacent to ADM's wet corn mill in Clinton, IA. The plant is designed to produce up to 110 mil lbs of Mirel annually. Mirel is made from plants and Metabolix recently demonstrated the viability of producing bioplastic in switchgrass.
Mirel will be sold at a significant premium over oil-based
plastics. Mirel will cost
$2/lb to $2.50/lb while injection-moldable high-density polyethylene, for
example, sells at around 80 cents/lb. Another competitor, polypropylene,
also sells around 80 cents/lb.
According to Metabolix, Mirel reduces the use of fossil energy by more than 95
percent and provides a 200-percent reduction in greenhouse gases compared to
the production of conventional petroleum-based plastics.
