In recent years, continuous CF/PEEK composite material has frequently appeared in medical equipment exhibitions, and they have also begun to show up in medical equipment companies. What are the unique advantages of this composite material  attract the attention of the medical device industry?

1What is CF/PEEK ?

Continuous CF/PEEK composite material refers to a kind of composite material combined by the continuous carbon fiber CF as the reinforcement and the special engineering plastics PEEK as the matrix. These two are formed by high temperature and high pressure molding process, and immerse the resin into the carbon fiber.

2Properties of CF/PEEK

Compared with conventional continuous CF reinforced epoxy resin-based composites, PEEK has a wider range of clinical applications and better performance. As a typical thermosetting resin matrix, epoxy resin has the characteristics of greater brittleness and relatively lower temperature resistance than PEEK. At the same time, epoxy resin has worse hydrolysis resistance than PEEK. The elongation of epoxy resin is between 5-7%, and the elongation of PEEK resin can reach over 20%. The high flexibility of PEEK material makes up for the defects of epoxy resin. Good flexibility means that the material is destined to have good fatigue resistance, good interlayer bonding and not easy to crack. Therefore, continuous CF reinforced epoxy resin composite materials are widely used in medical operating tables, fixed frames, bed bodies and other materials, while are not suitable for manufacturing orthopedic surgical instruments.

The pure PEEK resin material has a long-term temperature resistance above 260°C. The continuous CF/PEEK composite material greatly improves the temperature resistance of PEEK. Related research shows that the temperature e continuous CF/PEEK composite material can withstand is close to the melting point of PEEK(334 ℃). High temperature resistance and low hydrolysis characteristics make the products made of CF-PEEK material can withstand repeated high temperature, high pressure, humidity and heat sterilization.

Compared with traditional aluminum alloy and stainless steel, the density of aluminum alloy is 2.8g/cm³ while the density of stainless steel is 7.3g/cm³, and the density of continuous CF/PEEK composite material is 1.5-1.6g/cm³, which is light but  in good strength. The test results show that some of the performance of CF-PEEK has exceeded that of stainless steel. At the same time, continuous carbon fiber reinforced PEEK has good X-ray transparency, making clinical operations safer and more intuitive. The carbon fiber reinforced material does not have a sense of coldness as metal in the touch, and the doctor feels more comfortable to hold it during surgery.

Compared with traditional carbon fiber powder modified PEEKCF30 material,  high strength and modulus properties of CF-PEEK endow the composite material with deformation resistance. The mechanical strength and the modulus are increased by at least 3 times to make it has better dimensional stability and deformation resistance.

Comparison between continuous CF/PEEK composite, carbon fiber powder reinforced PEEK and aluminum alloy

Junhua ChinaPEEK focuses on the application, development and production of  plates, rods, tubes, sheets and finished parts of PEEK, PPSU, CF-PEEK and other high performance medical polymer. The company has a complete industrial chain of PEEK raw material resin polymerization, modified granulation, continuous extrusion of plates, rods, tubes and sheets, composite prepreg tapes and plates producing, and finished parts processing. While selling materials, we can provide a complete technical processing plan for free, including tooling design, process parameters, tool grades, etc. At the same time, our company has imported three-axis, four-axis, five-axis and other high-precision CNC processing equipment, and can provide OEM services. Currently, we have established Shanghai Chaoju, Jiangsu Chaoju, Junhua Medical Technology Co., Ltd., Junhang Composite Materials Co., Ltd., and Shandong Junhao High Performance Polymer Co., Ltd.