Cyanoacrylate bonding medical devices

Although medical devices are a multibillion dollar industry, the overall volume of adhesives used is quite low. For example, the worldwide market for cyanoacrylates in bonding catheters is only a few hundred kilos. The transdermal patch market is about 1.6 billion, but adhesives only account for 2 million of this figure. 

Cyanoacrylates are quite widely used for the bonding of medical devices (especially small component parts, see Figure 9.5) as these adhesives show excellent adhesion to many of the plastics used in this industry. In this industry component parts are sterilised and, whilst cyanoacrylates will withstand gamma sterilisation and ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilisation processes, they would not generally be recommended for applications where the component assembly will be steam autoclaved. 

Many medical and dental devices are now being assembled with cyanoacrylates to eliminate costly molding procedures. Cyanoacrylates are also being employed to eliminate the toxic solvents commonly used to bond flexibil-ized PVC in tubing joints. 

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