Milliken’s collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s NATPET to enable the medical device maker AlShifa to produce syringes from UltraClear polypropylene random copolymers made for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Milliken & Co. has worked with Saudi Arabia’s National Petrochemical Industrial Co. (NATPET) to produce the first specialty medical grades of polypropylene random copolymer in Middle East and Africa, this grade enabled Al Shifa the local Saudi converter to produce successfully the ultra-clear medical syringes and compete at global level.

NATPET has introduced in 2017 its most successful medical grades Teldene® R40MLT-MG and Teldene® R25MLT-MG. The key success factor of those grades is Milliken’s state-of-the art Millad® NX® 8000 clarifier that enables high levels of transparency in random copolymer resin. Both grades contain anti-static agent that allows easy processing and handling of the Syringes. These non-visbroken grades are produced using Spheripol® technology and Milliken’s latest clarifying technology to ensure excellent optical, morphological and overall physical properties.

AlShifa Medical Syringe Manufacturing Co., the largest syringe producer in Saudi Arabia, acquired tremendous benefits in terms of energy and cycle time savings during the injection molding process that aid its overall productivity.

The resin’s high flowability renders it particularly suitable for thin-walled injection molding applications such as the high quality, disposable syringes that AlShifa produces in a Class 100,000 clean-room controlled environment.

NATPET — which announced its’ commercial production in 2010 and produces 400,000 metric tons per year propylene/polypropylene at Yanbu Industrial City, on Saudi Arabia’s west coast — offering its R40MLT-MG and R25MLT-MG grades of morphologically uniform resins that have an intrinsically organoleptic-neutral (odorless) character.

Through this solid business relationship, Milliken is proud to be helping Saudi Arabia’s local plastics converting industry to compete on global level.