ANTIMICROBIAL MOULDINGS

Moulded components with materials developed with leading brands to provide antimicrobial properties.
These have been developed for a range of applications where antimicrobial properties are required. For example Hospital keypads and equipment / Healthcare products / gym products.

Materials that can be processed with antimicrobial properties include Silicone plastic and TPE.
Meadex has been supplying antimicrobial mouldings for over 7 years and have developed processes to cater for the full technical and testing service. This includes testing the final components for antimicrobial for a reliable and consistent results of the component / process.

MATERIALS:
SILICONE
RUBBER EPDM / NEOPRENE / VITON / NR
PLASTICS ( e.g Nylons / acetals / polyprop
Polyurethane

Antimicrobial Technology describes the collective knowledge, expertise and methods of using additives to create products that are permanently protected against microbes.

What does antimicrobial mean?
Antimicrobial is used to describe substances which demonstrate the ability to reduce the presence of microbes, such as bacteria and mould.

What types of antimicrobial are there?
Many substances can be described as antimicrobial; such as disinfectants, antibiotics and of course Antimicrobial Additives.

Why use antimicrobial materials:
Apart from the health industry, antimicrobial surfaces have been utilized for their ability to keep surfaces cleaned. Either the physical nature of the surface, or the chemical make up can be manipulated to create an environment which cannot be inhabited by microorganisms for a variety of different reasons.

How Antimicrobial Technology works
Introduced during the manufacturing process, our antimicrobial additives exert, by either chemical or mechanical means, a negative effect on any contaminating microbes causing them to die.

Basic outline:

Protein damage: Proteins are essential for the biological systems of life. Any damage to these components causes the failure of essential functions such as energy production.
Cell membrane damage: By disrupting the microbes membrane, its structural integrity is compromised, which can cause essential nutrients to leak out and catastrophic structural failure.
Oxidative damage: Antimicrobials can cause increased levels of reactive oxygen species, which result in damage to the internal systems of the microbe.
DNA interference: The genetic material of the bacteria is disrupted, ultimately stopping the bacteria from being able to replicate by blocking the copying of their genetic material.