Technology

Precision Polyurethane Manufacture (PPM) is a proprietary polymer synthesis and product fabrication technology designed to address the deficiencies of traditional polyurethane production processes. The PPM technology also allows for the design of innovative new devices which cannot be realised with conventional TPU materials and fabrication technologies. PPM has been developed in part under an academic collaboration funded by a UK government; all IP relating to the PPM and Cadisc™ technologies is wholly owned by Ranier.

PPM technology represents a novel approach to the manufacture of medical grade polyurethanes and medical devices which conveys a number of intrinsic benefits:

1. desirable product attributes and characteristics which are unattainable by conventional means of material synthesis and processing
2. ability to integrate product manufacture and polymer synthesis for greater process and quality control
3. capability to manufacture highly durable, graduated modulus, motion-preserving, compliant medical devices and components
4. highly consistent physical properties
5. consistent biocompatibility
6. specific bio-activity
7. lower cost

Key to the success of PPM technology is a continuous polyurethane synthesis process, which controls more accurately and more reproducibly than traditional batch processes the three fundamental physical variables in polyurethane synthesis. These variables dictate the molecular properties, and thus physical and biological properties, of the polymer. Control of these three variables enables the PPM process to produce both medical grade polyurethanes of highly consistent physical and molecular properties and also high quality, motion-preserving medical devices and componentry with unique and valuable clinical attributes.