ElectriPlast: Conductive Plastic from CES 2007

The first innovation from CES 2007 that caught my eye is ElectriPlast from Integral Technologies. There is not too much information about this available. In short, it is an electrically conductive plastic resin. Today most electric conductive tools (eg electrosurgical instruments) are made of metal with an insulating covering. They have a limited lifespan and inevitably the insulator starts to break down risking electrical patient injuries. In addition, we are fairly limited in the physical characteristics, shapes, and durability of the metal core of the tool.

ElectriPlast provides (according to the manufacturer)

• Dramatic performance improvement.
• Design flexibility – molded resin, ability to miniaturize.
• Raw materials and manufacturing capacity readily available.
• Broad functionality and applicability.

Since this is a resin based material it can be cast or estruded and entire new shapes and configuration of tools could be produced.

Electriplast is a highly conductive recipe that can be molded into virtually any shape or dimension associated with the range of plastics, rubbers and polymers CES chose this technology with a 2007 Innovation honoree for enabling technologies. Now it’s just a matter of convincing manufacturers to look at the small medical tool market and not focus on its current #1 use- next generation cell-phone antenna.

Plus how many new products have their own blog?