7-9 September 2010 | Polymer Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, N. Ireland
Following the successful Conference in September 2008, the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is organising the Second European Medical Polymers Conference, at Queen's University Belfast, in September 2010. In keeping with the Society's aims and objectives, the Conference will focus on many of the technical issues associated with the processing and performance of polymers used in the medical-device industry. The medical-device and healthcare industries worldwide are experiencing yearly growth, particularly in Europe, and the industry now uses an ever-increasing range of polymers, copolymers, and polymer blends. These polymer materials in their many different forms play a vital role in the design, functionality, and reliability of medical devices.

As well as having to comply with many rigorous regulatory protocols, the industry not only uses a wide range of different polymer materials but also many different manufacturing technologies, including mono and multilayer extrusions, mini and micro injection moulded and thermoformed components. Complex assembly operations, using different bonding and welding techniques, are also used extensively throughout the industry, as are a range of sterilisation methods. This Conference aims to address some of the technological challenges facing the industry today by including presentations by invited keynote speakers who are leading experts in these various disciplines.

The Conference
The Conference will be a three-day event including keynote speakers, technical presentation sessions, training seminars, and exhibitions. Throughout the Conference, delegates can also view the many pilot-plant processing and analysis facilities in the Polymer Processing and Medical Polymer Research Centres at the University. Delegate registration will be on Wednesday, Sept 8, from 10.30 am, with presentations by keynote speakers (following lunch) at 2.00 pm. A Conference dinner will be held on Wednesday night. Parallel technical sessions will be held on Thursday, Sept 9, from 9.00 am onwards. Training seminars will be held on Tuesday (Sept 7) afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Who Should Attend
The Conference is specifically targeted at process engineers, technical managers, and product design engineers in the medical-device industry, as well as processors already in the plastics-conversion industry wishing to find out more about supplying into the medical-device industry.

The continued success of many of these companies is generally due to the knowledge, expertise, and experience of the process engineering and design staff. However, all too often, engineers do not have the time nor the resources to carry out meaningful development programmes using new-generation materials and processes. Information regarding the processing and performance of some of these materials is often not readily available.
This Conference wishes to address some of these issues.
Visit the SPE website.

Call for Papers
Papers are invited on the following themes:

• Polymers for Medical-Device and Health-Care Applications
• Processing of Medical Polymers
• Materials in Medical-Device Packaging
• Assembly of Medical Devices and Health-Care Products
• Sterilisation and Antimicrobial Additives
• Biomedical Engineering and Biopolymers

Please send the paper title, speaker's name and affiliation, together with a 75-word abstract, by email, to Gerry McNally at g.mcnally@qub.ac.uk and Len Czuba at lczuba@aol.com by 20th Dec 2009.
Full paper to be submitted by 1st March 2010.