Watson-Marlow Bredel launches chemically resistant, long life peristaltic pump tube for pharmaceutical, speciality chemical, and high throughput synthesis applications
Developed in conjunction with WL Gore, the new Chem-Sure tube is capable of handling a wide range of aggressive chemicals such as inorganic acids and organic solvents, and has over 50 times the lifetime of any other fluoroelastomer tube.
It has been developed to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical, speciality chemical and high throughput synthesis segments.
However, it has already also been used to solve many other 'difficult' fluid handling applications across a number of industries in extensive trials prior to its commercial launch.
The relationship between Watson-Marlow Bredel Pumps and Gore began in 1994 when Watson-Marlow approached the company with a request for the ultimate peristaltic tube element made of 'pumpable Teflon'.
Gore took up the challenge and in 1999 Watson Marlow launched Sta-Pure, developed by Gore, into the market place.
Unlike other tube elements formed by extrusion, Sta-Pure was produced as a composite of expanded PTFE and moulded silicone rubber.
It offered advantages of long life, high pressure capability, minimal spallation and excellent flow stability over time, making it ideally suited for a host of new micro filtration, food and pharmaceutical applications.
However, whilst Sta-Pure remains an optimal solution in many applications, it has limited chemical resistance.
Chem-Sure retains all of the advantages of Sta-Pure, but with added chemical resistance. Construction of the new tube is again in the form of a layered composite, which in the case of Chem-Sure is of expanded PTFE and high grade fluoroelastomer.
The real added value of Chem-Sure is that it makes available all of the well known benefits of peristaltic tube pumps; smooth flow, accuracy, zero fluid contamination, zero pump contamination, self priming, dry running and automatic check valve action, for a new range of chemically aggressive pumped products, with a new level of reliability and durability.
Chem-Sure is free from plasticisers and other processing aids that are often found in competitive products, and as such it is one of the cleanest tubes available.
Leachability tests using ethyl acetate yielded 132ppm of total extractables, less than 1% of other fluoroelastomer tubing.
In addition it is the only fluoroelastomer tube that has passed both the FDA Food Contact certification and USP Class VI tests for pharmaceutical applications.
The uniform flow capabilities of Chem-Sure are due, over time, to high restitution of the tube.
Whereas the flow rate of a silicone tube will decay by up to 10% over time, Chem-Sure's variation over its lifetime is typically less than 1%.
In addition, it is recommended that tubes have less than 10% volume swell for acceptable operation in peristaltic pumps, and whilst some fluoroelastomer tubing will swell by up to 300% when exposed to solvents such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and tetrahydrofuran, Chem-Sure experiences negligable swelling when used with these solvents.
Such flow uniformity is a critical factor in applications involving metering of flavourings and fragrances as well as in metering expensive chemicals and pharmaceutical formulations.
The Chem-Sure solution also provides chemical resistance in high pressure spray applications with a capability to run at pressures up to 4 bar.
Chem-Sure tube elements are available to fit Watson-Marlow Bredel 300, 400 500, 600 and 700 series pumps, providing flow rates of between 0.2ml/min to 1100 litre/hour.
Chem-Sure is a premium product featuring expensive raw materials and incurring high development costs, and as such it has a relatively high initial cost compared to other peristaltic pump tube elements.
However, across a range of applications it has already consistently been shown to be the most cost effective whole-life solution, whilst in many cases it is simply the only solution.
Because of this Chem-Sure is offered with a guarantee of customer satisfaction.
If, on the initial order, a customer is not completely satisfied with the performance-in-use of their Chem-Sure peristaltic tubes, they may be returned for a full refund of the purchase price.
