High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene plastics are two of the most versatile low surface energy (LSE) polyolefin thermoplastics used for the medical industry today. Not only do they resist chemicals, corrosion and impacts, more importantly, they don’t harbor dangerous bacteria or pathogens. These plastics are easily formed into medical durable goods like medical waste bins, organ donor transport coolers, sharps containers, medical cases, spine boards, suction units on ambulances, hospital linen carts and cabinetry, mop and cleaning buckets, floor cleaning machines, medical containers and more. If it wasn’t for LSE polyolefin and other types of plastics, many of the life saving devices we have today wouldn’t exist.

One important aspect to medical durable goods is product identification which requires specific safety, warning and instructional labeling durable enough to withstand biohazards, and the cleaning methods removing them over the course of the products life use. As an example, other types of plastics can only endure 40-50 autoclave cycles, steam sterilization from 121°-148°C (250°-300°F) at 15psi, while LSE polyolefin plastics can handle significantly more without any degradation.

Years ago, medical durable goods were mostly made of high surface energy metals, composites and plastics that attracted adhesion from standard adhesive based labeling options.

Unfortunately, those same adhesive based options that worked back in those days cannot adhere to the LSE polyolefins of today in the same way leading to failures in the field.

Claims made by labeling supplier alleging that their adhesive based labeling options can permanently adhere to LSE polyolefin plastics just simply isn’t true in medical environments where autoclaving, sterilization and cleaning methods are torturous and brutal. Data sheets are available to download on most “durable labels” that claim LSE polyolefin permanency but, digging a little deeper show that “performance” testing of labels is conducted on aluminum or stainless-steel panels, not actual LSE polyolefin plastics.

If you only remember one thing remember this! High surface energy substrates like stainless steel and aluminum attract adhesion while low surface energy polyolefins reject it!

Industrial designers and engineers of durable medical products should be confident that choosing LSE polyolefin plastics for the manufacture of their products shouldn’t be hindered by sub-durable labels that cannot permanently adhere or bond over the life of the medical products. Nor should they be hindered by labeling failures that lead to potential harm or litigious risk.

The only viable solution is to use a 100% compatible Polyfuze label tailored to permanently meld Brand names, logos, and safety / warning information directly into LSE polyolefin plastics until their end of life use.

How permanent are Polyfuze labels? So permanent that they’re backed by our lifetime guarantee, our pledge to you.

And when end of life comes and it’s time to recycle, there’s no labels to remove that only becomes waste on the ground or landfill because Polyfuze labels are 100% recyclable, just like the LSE polyolefin plastics they’re seamlessly fused to.