Products Finishing

OCT 2017

Products Finishing magazine is the No. 1 industrial finishing publication in the world. We keep our readers informed about the latest news and trends in plating, painting, powder coating, anodizing, electrocoating, parts cleaning, and pretreatment.

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PRODUCTS FINISHING — PFonline.com 19 Medical Coatings That Fight Back Infections acquired in hospitals kill thousands of people in the United States each year, and sticky colonies of bacteria known as biofilm that form on medical implants are one of the leading causes of these infections. Thrombosis, or blood clotting, is another potential danger associated with these implants. Now, a University of Georgia scientist is developing a new weapon in the fight against clotting and infections related to medical implant devices. Hitesh Handa, an assistant professor in UGA's College of Engineering, is working on a biocompatible polymer coating that not only prevents biofilm growth, but also attacks harmful bacteria by releasing nitric oxide, a naturally occurring gas with potent antimicrobial properties. Handa's work recently won him a four-year, $1.5 million research grant from the National Institutes for Health. "Current technologies fail to completely address the potentially harmful complications related to medical implants," he says. "Nitric oxide is the focus of this project, because it not only serves as an antimicrobial agent, it also can help prevent clotting on medical implants such as vascular catheters." When foreign material, including surgical tools and implants, enters the body, the immune system's initial reaction is to send proteins to that area in an attempt to contain the material. This process is known as protein adsorption (not to be confused with absorption). While protein adsorption can encourage tissue repair by serving as scaffolds for platelets and other cells, it can also produce unwanted events. Platelets and fibrin, a protein that creates a fibrous mesh to impede the flow of blood, can adhere to implants and induce thrombosis. Since nitric oxide donors are heat-sensitive, Handa says the challenges of the project include developing materials and methods for producing those materials that can withstand the manufacturing process. Information for this story was supplied by the University of Georgia. Visit uga.edu. Hitesh Handa (center), an assistant professor in the University of Georgia's College of Engineering, is designing biocompatible polymer coatings that attack harmful bacteria by releasing nitric oxide. If you chose the dirty one on the bottom, don't feel bad, because you probably haven't experienced the difference. Fact is, the clean, "straight-from-the-box" filter on the top will need to be changed much sooner than the dirty filter on the bottom. Even after heavy loading, this filter still has at least twice as much effective filtering life as the clean filter on the top. (By the way, these are actual photos without any fancy retouching.) Savvy sprayers know that you have to measure filter life by the number of parts sprayed—not by the square foot. That's where exclusive, patented Diamond Pocket TM Technology delivers a clear advantage. Independent tests in real-world production environments prove that outperforms competitors, allowing up to 500% more product to be finished between filter changes. Discover why hundreds have switched to and why you should too. ® Paint Pockets Paint ® Pockets ® Paint Pockets ® Paint Pockets ® Paint Pockets ® Paint Pockets A better way to calculate filter cost Get a FREE set of filters for your spray booth and prove it for yourself! Which filter would you change next? Clean Competitive Filter Dirty Paint Pockets TM Only Diamond Pocket Technology ® Paint Pockets delivers the time and money-saving performance of the TM patented C O M P A N Y Paint Pockets TM 877-768-7587 • www.paintpockets.com SIMPLIFYING ELECTROLESS NICKEL

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