Healthcare Silicone: Wound Care

The delicate phase of bandage removal in wound recovery

Healthcare manufacturers use silicone-based ingredients and formulations to make skin-friendly, low-trauma adhesives for wound care products, such as bandages, dressings and surgical tapes. Silicones are especially effective for wound care products because they offer excellent biocompatibility, are hypoallergenic, breathable on moist wounds, waterproof and not conducive for bacterial growth. Wound care products are designed to accelerate healing while being easily removable, thus avoiding pain for patients and the exacerbation of existing wounds and ulcers.

Reinforcing investments for the healthcare market

Elkem Silicones has made significant investments in healthcare ingredients and formulations for several years and is developing its industrial property portfolio in adhesive gels for wound care. Our products have been granted the required biocompatibility certification (ISO 10993) and our manufacturing facility in Italy is equipped with ISO 8 clean rooms on an ISO 13485 site to achieve microbial safety levels in line with bio-burden specifications for contact with open wounds and sterilization.

We have a secured supply-chain scheme for the sourcing of raw materials and have manufacturing backup systems and facilities to ensure uninterrupted procurement. Beyond these technical assets, we work closely with our customers, often in long-term R&D partnerships, to design and produce customized products based on specific coating technologies and performance targets.

3 Generations of Healthcare silicones

Our investments in advanced technologies and industrial facilities to make wound care products have enabled us to design, develop and produce a wide range of gels or semi finished gel-coated products. Developed since 2009 and available since 2012, our Silbione™​ Generation 1 products offer specific skin adhesion performance features to meet different wound and scar care needs:

• HC2 2011 offers low viscosity and low tack (skin adhesion)
• HC2 2031 offers high viscosity and high tack

Our Silbione™ Generation 2 products (HC2 2022), developed since 2013 and launched in 2015 offer:

• Greater tack for better adhesion using a range of raw materials and optimized ratios
• Variable viscosity and cure kinetics customized for different coating processes and various substrates
• Improved device performances (lift, offset and bleed)
• Secure adhesion to skin (tack/residue compromise) and improved cohesion (shear resistance).

We are currently working on Silbione™ Generation 3 products to ensure even more secure adhesion, higher tack and higher shear. These products will be available in the near future.