Challenge: creating holistic solutions for vital issues
Raw materials used in medical and cosmetic products are a touchy subject – literally. On the one hand, users seek high performance and comfort that they can rely on, whether it comes to cosmetics or medical wearables.
On the other hand, consumers and legislators are increasingly pushing for more sustainable products, with emphasis on features such as biodegradability, reusability, and more natural ingredients. Equally, medical advances in smart patches and other wearables are raising expectations in more accurate monitoring that allows ever-more flexible lifestyles.
This all means a need for material innovations that enable holistic solutions for individuals and the environment. Our coatings and adhesives strive to bring just those solutions.
Status: a world of possibilities for our health and beauty
Wearable patches that monitor pulse and other vital functions open up a new world of convenience and medical possibilities. To gain widespread acceptance, however, these smart, everyday helpers need to be as small as possible, comfortable to wear, and easy to use. At the end of the day, materials should act as enablers for applications that really put patient centricity first, allowing individual users the flexibility to lead an ordinary life as far as possible.
That’s why our Baymedix® adhesives and foams as well as Platilon® thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) films help create patches (in which sensors are placed) that are significantly more comfortable than previous systems. Lightweight, breathable, and flexible, they are hardly noticeable on the skin and can be used for longer.
With our Baymedix® portfolio, we also offer the full range of skin-friendly and low-trauma breathable PU adhesives for wound care applications.
In the cosmetics industry, consumers value personal care with ever-more impressive performance, from long-lasting hold and heat conditioning properties in hair-care, to better resistance and anti-smudge makeup. Yet they also value more sustainable products that use more natural ingredients. This is all about beauty made responsible. Our Baycusan® range of liquid polyurethane-film formers is partially biodegradable (OECD 301 ready biodegradability test) – thereby reducing environmental impact – but still delivers the same strong performance as less sustainable alternatives. Sustainability isn’t just important when it comes to end of life; it’s also about the content we put into products at creation. That’s why our Baycusan® eco range, currently for the formulation of hair-care and foundation, offers more than 50 percent bio-based content (ISO 16128), bringing us one step closer to being in tune with nature.
Next: reshaping health and beauty
In health care, there will be a growing emphasis on more active lifestyles, which is why we seek to use our raw materials to help health-care manufacturers create smaller, lighter, more comfortable smart-patch solutions. The vision is to expand these smart patches to the sports and leisure sector to help individuals become more mobile than ever before. Equally, smart-patch solutions will be focusing on ever-more accurate and real-time monitoring for health-care professionals, ensuring a better exchange of data and working toward better management of chronic illness.
Meanwhile, cosmetics will see a continued push for more natural ingredients to help boost sustainability targets, whilst still striving for the high performance that consumers know and trust.
