Outlook 2023: Sustainable TPEs to witness strong growth

There were some challenges and factors that had tremendous impact on the global economy in 2022, and this could create uncertainty in terms of rebound in 2023. This scenario, according to Vincent Liao, Sales Manager of Ever Polymer Co., Ltd, is based on the significant decline in the demand for TPEs in some industry sectors. “However, there was sustained growth in medical devices production in 2022, and this growth trend is expected to continue in 2023,” according to Mr. Liao. 

Mr. Vincent Liao, Sales Manager, Ever Polymer Co., Ltd (Everlon)

The target medical applications of TPE materials include Euro cap & stopper, syringes, IV sets, tubing, easy peel film for packaging to medical devices, and overmoulding to a wide range of engineering plastics for medical devices. Everlon medical grade materials, compounded within Cleanroom Class 100,000 and formulations, complied with USP Class VI certification. “All medical-grade formulations had been approved with high performance by global pharmaceutical market for years. TPE materials demand from the pharmaceutical market is expected to support the growth of Everlon’s production in response to anticipated increase in demand for medical parts in 2023 and beyond,” Mr. Liao explains. 

Every industry has been facing demand volatility and supply shortage in the past few years, Everlon has been able to overcome these obstacles, especially in meeting product customisation and higher customer’s demand, as well as global competition. To meet market demand and ensure stable supply of raw materials are key factors for Everlon to keep its reasonable market share, according to Mr. Liao.  For 2023, the company has planned on improving its operations by: shifting the high stock level to a safety stock level; maintaining supply chain resiliency through diversity, technology and long-term global strategic partners; and diversifying to high performance market, especially in pharmaceutical and packaging industries. 

TPE materials have been widely applied in most industries with mature performance for years, and Mr, Liao states: “Everlon has been developing TPE formulations for high performance applications, mainly focusing on medical parts, easy-peel for food and medical packaging industry. The TPE materials being developed for modern industry applications required a unique solution, environmentally-friendly, efficient, reliable design and control with stable supply.”

Everlon TM Series as material of choice has undergone formulations development where each material has been researched as to its pros and cons for medical devices. TM series based on TPE has more advantages, such as ease of manufacturing, recyclability and cost competitiveness on raw material, stable end-product and excellent physical properties for high performance requirements for the design of medical devices.

Everlon develops TPE materials with the widest selections of peelable property for packaging industry. The peelable film structures allow for a clean, easy peel whenever a package is opened. The applications are suitable for food container seals, easy-peel film, rigid cup, tub or tray. EverSeal & EverPeel offer tailored easy peel structure to match any applications. The advanced sealing layers are designed for producing high quality food and pharmaceutical packages. According to Mr. Liao, “Everlon owns formulations for making optimal easy peel film to seal onto various materials for containers, such as PP, PE, PS and PET, etc. The target performance is focused on sealability and easy to be peeled off properties from various types of plastic containers and films.”

Everlon aims to extend its formulations for the high-performance requirements of the medical and packaging industry in the following years.  The innovative approach covers broad considerations such as chemistry, physics, polymers science and regulations associated to each application for improving performance from TPE compounds. As Mr. Liao stressed, the company’s future targets lie in developing more efficient, highly safe and sustainable TPE solutions ideal for the medical and packaging industries.