Helping Medical Device Manufacturers Choose the Right Adhesive

    Adhesives play an important role in the manufacture of medical devices. These days, they’re also used to attach them directly onto skin. With an enormous variety of adhesives to choose from, 3M say that its customers sometimes find adhesive selection difficult, but it aims to overcome this with a new online tool: “Find My Adhesives.”

    The tool asks product-specific questions and makes recommendations based on the answers it receives. The questionnaire allows medical device designers to state whether the adhesive is intended for sticking directly onto skin, whether it will hold components together, or they require an adhesive as an overlay. Users can select the materials they are planning to use, and answer questions about thepatient age-group, activity level, and the part of the body where the device will be worn. Using its database, the Find My Adhesives tool will then suggest adhesives that would match the device’s profile.

    3M says that since launching the tool in January, it has experienced a marked increase in website traffic, allowing the company to connect with prospective customers during the medical device design process. It also notes that the market for wearable medical devices is growing and believes that wearable medical devices help patients to manage their medical conditions more effectively.