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USA:DuPont develops protective fabric for medicos |
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2004-9-10
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Operating rooms can be dangerous and uncomfortable for surgeons, what with bright lights, infectious fluids and cramped place to work with, distracting them during operations.
DuPont engineers have developed a new fabric, and are hoping to make life easier for surgeons and nurses, and help the company regain its leadership in the medical apparel business.
DuPont began operations at a $110 million facility outside Nashville, Tenn., to manufacture the new fabric, known as Suprel. The facility will employ 110 in a new building on the company''s existing campus in Old Hickory, which will now employ a total of 575.
Suprel, pioneered for disposable surgical gowns hopes to provide Dupont the much required leadership in the medical wear market place.
All began with revelation in the 1970s that found surgical gowns to be a significant source of postoperative infections. DuPont''s Sontara fabric, now known as Softesse, led the transition in the United States to disposable gowns. Four out of five gowns in this country are now disposable, said Lori Gettelfinger, marketing manager for medical fabrics at DuPont.
Today, Softesse commands 40 percent of the $600 million global market for disposable surgical gowns and patient drapes, Gettelfinger said. But in Europe, nearly half of gowns are not disposable. In the developing world, most gowns are not disposable.
In the U.S. market, DuPont is in third place today among the three major competitors in surgical gowns, behind Dallas-based Kimberly Clark and Illinois-based Cardinal Health, according to Medline Industries, the Chicago-based company that manufactures and distributes Softesse and Suprel products. The U.S. market is estimated at $375 million, Medline spokesman John Marks said.
Seeking to renew its medical apparel business, DuPont began market research on developing a new fabric more than five years ago, Gettelfinger said. The company saw the need for a more comfortable fabric with the greater protection necessary in the age of HIV.
"We saw the market needs and then put our scientists to work," Gettelfinger said.
Suprel is made from polymers in a solid form, which are melted and spun into continuous fibers. The fibers are laid down on a belt and combined into the fabric. Suprel is known as a nonwoven fabric because the fibers are not twisted into a yarn as part of the manufacturing process.
By having a large number of minuscule pores, Suprel is able to let sweat and body heat escape while keeping out blood-borne pathogens, Rudisill said.
DuPont is researching other uses for the composite technology, including furniture and auto fabric, Gettelfinger said. The new plant is designed to produce these composite fabrics.
Sold under the Aurora brand name by Chicago-based Medline Industries, the company began actively selling the branded gowns in June, said Frank Czajka, a senior product manager for Medline. It is promoting the gown in trade journals, at trade shows and through direct sales to hospital administrators, Czajka said.
Jeff Schneider, a general manager at DuPont competitor Kimberly-Clark Healthcare, said his company has tested DuPont''s claims and equipped its sales force with the results in an effort to retain its market leadership.
"We still feel we''re in a superior position in terms of overall performance," Schneider said. |
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