Plastics & Rubber World - July/August 2019 - 22

plastics ireland

solutions provider

a tour of the applied Polymer technologies HQ at the athlone Institute of technology
reveals how the facility continues to support the Irish polymer industry

APT has an extensive range of classrooms and lab facilities

Micro-moulding has played a
significant role in recent research

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pplied Polymer Technologies (APT)
is part of Enterprise Ireland's Technology Gateway Network. Located
on the campus of the Athlone Institute
of Technology (AIT), it is a cornerstone of
AIT's Materials Research Institute.
In practise, this presents APT as a
solutions provider for both multinational
companies and SMEs using polymer in a
variety of fields, including medical, pharmaceutical, composite and recycling. Essentially, companies come to APT with a
polymer-related issue and the team works
to deliver an appropriate solution.
Michael Hopkins, R&D engineer for advanced moulding technologies at APT, outlines the sector breakdown. "I'd say medtech, pharma, life science, that's roughly
80% of what we do here. The remainder is
automotive, recycling and aerospace."
With this range of coverage it would
seem there's a lot to talk about, but that
otherwise buoyant balloon is quickly deflated. "There is a lot of really interesting
and cutting edge work going on here, but
most of it is covered by non-disclosure
agreements."
Instead of looking at specific cases, we
circle back around to look at whether APT
can help companies to develop and implement product advances that their own
teams don't have time to work on.
Dr. Noel Gately, APT manager: "In many
cases, it can be difficult for companies to
innovate. Instead, they reiterate, based
on previous designs and materials. They
don't have the necessary design freedom.

Young engineers go into the company but
they are moulded into what the company wants, instead of giving them [design]
freedom."
It's a classic 'product of your environment' situation which can be traced back
to the highly-regulated nature of various
industries, including medtech and pharma; processes have been validated, protocols are in place, and to introduce new
ways of doing things costs both time and
money.
"The regulatory environment in the
medical device industry can hamper material innovation. R&D teams often have
strict timelines to get from concept to
market and that means using the same
materials, the same technologies," says
Gately.
That same regulatory environment stifles new developments to such a degree
that both Gately and Hopkins agree that
the wider market could be missing out on
key advances that would potentially improve a patient's quality of life.
"[Companies] don't have the timeframe
to innovate. You have to remember, getting from the start to the finish of a project
already takes years," says Hopkins.
Where companies might not have the
motivation to conduct polymer-related
R&D, this is APT's specialty. With some
hesitation, Hopkins puts forward an example now being readied for market
launch.
"Teleflex is a large US-based multinational producer of medical devices. The

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Plastics & Rubber World - July/August 2019

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