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The Quantification of Injectability by Mechanical Testing
Published on: May 13, 2020
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Development of devices for self-injection: using tribological analysis to optimize injection force.
Jakob Lange1, Leos Urbanek1, Stefan Burren1
1Ypsomed Delivery Systems, Ypsomed AG, Burgdorf, Switzerland.
Medical Devices (Auckland, N.Z.)
|June 9, 2016
Summary
Optimizing pen injectors for biopharmaceutical self-administration requires understanding friction. New tests and models show silicone lubricants significantly improve injection force efficiency, outperforming unlubricated or PTFE-only options.
Area of Science:
- Tribology
- Biopharmaceutical Delivery Devices
- Materials Science
Background:
- Pen injectors are crucial for biopharmaceutical self-administration.
- Injection force efficiency is vital and influenced by internal mechanism friction.
- Existing friction tests lack relevance for pen injector conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel test method for measuring pen injector friction.
- To analyze the tribological behavior of polymeric materials under simulated use conditions.
- To optimize pen injector design for improved force transmission and efficiency.
Main Methods:
- Development of a new test procedure using actual pen injector parts.
- Direct measurement of the coefficient of friction under simulated use conditions.
- Application of an analytical model to estimate overall injection system force efficiency.
Main Results:
- Unlubricated material combinations show unsatisfactory performance.
- Internal silicone-based lubricating additives enhance performance.
- External silicone-based lubricants yield the best results, with PTFE showing limited benefits.
Conclusions:
- A new test method accurately characterizes pen injector tribology.
- Silicone lubrication, particularly external, is key to optimizing injection force efficiency.
- Material selection and lubrication strategies are critical for effective biopharmaceutical delivery devices.
Keywords:
coefficient of frictioninjection force efficiencyinjection penlubricationmaterial selectiontestingMore Related Videos
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