The Metal Improvement Company (MIC), a subsidiary of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation has over 20 years of experience in parylene coatings manufacture. MIC opened a Galway site in 2011 that provides a coating service for the medical device, electronics, and aerospace markets.

MIC and CREST as part of the PDI Innovation Partnership funded by Enterprise Ireland carried out a research project to optimise the adhesion of parylene onto aluminium components used as heating elements for blood packs.

The aluminium components (supplied by a Dutch medical device company-Helvoet BV), require a device that allows blood to be taken from storage (+4°C) and rapidly heated to body temperature, thus ensuring best practice for patient care.

Previous work by MIC found that the traditional cleaning degreasing steps were not sufficient to prepare the aluminium surface for optimised parylene adhesion. The CREST Research Team investigated commercially available cleaning chemistries and adhesion promoters to maximise parylene adhesion. A cleaning/adhesion promoter system was delivered, through a controlled series of iterative steps. Adhesion and chemical resistance properties were achieved to the required standards.

The surface treatment enabled MIC to successfully coat the aluminium heating elements with full conformal coatings at a thickness of less than 4 microns. As a result of this work, new orders have been generated for the company with a new production line being installed with the assistance of CREST.