KiM – Interest group of Plastics Manufacturers in Medical Business
Objective
To focus the interests of the plastic manufacturers involved with respect to
- Polymer producers
- Pharmaceutical and medical industry
- Authorities and notified bodies
- Any further institutions
VDI, TecPart, MPPE, BVMed, SPECTARIS…
Organization
- KiM is a registered association acting under german laws
- Chairmen, Speakers: Manfred Riehl, André Stutz (Wild & Küpfer AG), Siegfried Schäfer (sfm medical devices GmbH)
- 19 participants, mainly plastics manufacturing companies
Regular meetings every six months
Legal form
Extracts from Article of Association:
- Association under §21 German Civil Code
- The chairman and the general assembly comprise the bodies of KiM
- Members include medical, diagnostics and pharmaceutical companies, institutes, test laboratories, consultancy firms and unions
- The association is a not-for-profit organisation with no economic goals of its own
Fields of activity
Round table to strengthen the position of the manufacturers in terms of the polymer industry concerning:
- Clearly defined raw material production processes
- Reliable, long-term raw material availability and recipe stability
- Guarantee of the minimum notice period of 3 years, necessary in healthcare Industry
- Standards for analytical practices of material testing
- Definition and grading of medical grades
- Selection of alternative materials during the sampling phase
- Internal technical cooperation – exchange of information regarding polymers/raw materials
- Internal platform for important and urgent information
- Inter-company projects within the scope of sponsored industrial collaborative research
Current Topics
- Definition of a ‘medical grade’ from manufacturer’s point of view
A milestone is set: the VDI Standard 2017 „Medical Grade Plastics“ was issued (July 2019), KiM participated intensively in the working group
(VDI is the association of german engineers, typically issuing technical standards for describing the state-of-the-art when none is available up to now)
- Colouring agents and their influence on the status of a raw material as a medical grade
Since 2019, KiM invites as members also Producers of colouring agents and medical compounds
- 2020 Membership in VDI working group „Validation“
Members
| company | location | country |
| BMP – Labor für medizinische Materialprüfung GmbH | Köln | Germany |
| forteq Nidau AG | Nidau | Switzerland |
| FSKZ e. V. | Würzburg | Germany |
| Global Partner Consulting | Landau in der Pfalz | Germany |
| Granula AG | Merenschwand | Switzerland |
| Schmalkalden University | Schmalkalden | Germany |
| Hoefer & Sohn GmbH | Fürth | Germany |
| MELITEK A/S | Alslev | Denmark |
| Oechsler AG | Ansbach | Germany |
| Röchling Medical Waldachtal AG | Waldachtal | Germany |
| RAUMEDIC AG | Helmbrechts | Germany |
| RKT Rodinger Kunststofftechnik GmbH | Roding | Germany |
| Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH | Frankfurt am Main | Germany |
| sfm medical devices GmbH | Wächtersbach | Germany |
| Treffert GmbH & Co. KG | Bingen | Germany |
| TU München | Garching | Germany |
| WEIDMANN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY AG | Rapperswil | Switzerland |
| Wild & Küpfer AG | Schmerikon | Switzerland |
| Wittenburg BV | Zeewolde | The Netherlands |
| Ypsomed AG | Burgdorf | Switzerland |
| Manfred Riehl | Weißenburg | Germany |
Members strategy
- Acquisition of new members from all over Europe
Actual members from the following countries:
The Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany