Materials: TPEs for Skin and Mouth Contact Safety and Comfort

From toothbrushes to teething rings, many manufacturers of dental and oral hygiene products are specifying materials that have been approved for food contact in order to also ensure that they are highly non-irritant for skin and oral applications. Kraiburg TPE, Buford, Ga., offers a complete portfolio TPEs with the relevant conformities and also provides the expertise for developing application-specific and customer-specific formulations. New compounds with excellent adhesion to nylons complement the offer, and will be commercially available this summer.

 “Based on our well-established customer focus and many years of experience in the market, we have continuously diversified our product mix, so that we are now offering several TPE series that comply with food safety regulations and can be specifically tailored to address special application requirements. These also include UL-listed formulations for components that come into contact with lithium-ion batteries, as required for electric toothbrushes,” says Kraiburg TPE’s Lars Goldmann, head of consumer sales.  

 

Kraiburg TPE’s Thermolast K compounds meet requirements of the FDA specified by Regulation (EU) 10/2011. The requirements for TPEs intended for sophisticated dental and oral hygiene products range from cost-effective processing combined with good flow characteristics through to resistance against specific ingredients in care products. Such compounds have good organoleptic properties and are non-irritant for skin and oral applications. In addition, they provide reliable adhesion to “hard” plastics for multicomponent applications, with pleasant touch characteristics and good grip.

In addition, the range of Thermolast K compounds with food contact approval that show excellent peel strength and adhesion to hard thermoplastics has been expanded to include polar plastics. New in the portfolio:

 ▪  FC/AD/PA series with reportedly outstanding tensile strength, elongation at break and wear resistance specially for multicomponent applications with nylons 6, 66 and 12.

 ▪  FC/AD1 series for composites with polyesters such as PET or PETG, PC, and ABS, as well as blends of these materials.

Typical applications of Kraiburg TPE’s compounds for the dental and oral hygiene market include manual and electric toothbrushes, interdental sticks and tongue cleaners, baby teething rings, soothers, teats for baby bottles, and also razors and electric shavers.