Doyen solves dressing dilemma

First Water wanted to bring a new hydrogel dressing to production, but knew its handling during manufacture was going to be a problem with current market technology, so the company approached Cambridge-based Doyen Medipharm to help find a solution.

As hydrogel is a new dressing material it is more expensive than gauze dressings, but is said to have many benefits, including being able to absorb vast amounts of fluid from a wound and at the same time provide a moist environment to speed the healing process. First Water says it chose Doyen, as the packaging company was able to work closely with its staff to achieve a robust solution right from the outset of the project. Hydrogel can be very sticky and standard dressing fabrication machine technology would not meet First Water's requirements. Doyen developed the DMS system so that the hydrogel pads and the backing material are able to run continually at constant speed and tension, so the pad and backing meet perfectly and form the dressing with minimum material waste. Since purchasing the machine, Managing Director Cliff Andrews has been pleased with its performance. "The Doyen machine is extremely efficient," he said, "and we have found it invaluable in producing our high value, sophisticated island wound care products." An unexpected bonus for First Water was discovering that Doyen's brand qualities were well known; companies were more than happy giving their wound care manufacturing business to First Water knowing they would be produced on a Doyen machine. "Installing a Doyen machine has given First Water extra built-in credibility, as our prospects and customers know the name and the excellent quality of the Doyen range of machines," said Andrews. Flexibility was equally important, as First Water wanted to offer hydrogel dressings in many formats and sizes; the Doyen machine is able to produce surgical dressings in pad, strip and island format hydrogel dressings, large wound care pads, and almost anything in between. The company also has a Doyen packaging machine incorporated into the dressing system. The benefit, says Andrews, is that "products can be manufactured and packaged in one operation, on a fully validated system, ready to be dispatched to the market."