The VACUETTE® Sandwich coagulation tube made out of plastic, invented and developed by Greiner Bio-One has now been available for seven years. Since the product launch, several million tubes have been sold all over the world for successful use in coagulation diagnostic examinations – for standard as well as the particularly sensitive special coagulation diagnostics.
The Sandwich coagulation tube from Greiner Bio-One has proved itself not just in clinics but also in all out-patient areas. The development of the plastic coagulation tube with double-wall technology – on the outside PET (polyethylenterephthalate) that guarantees longer vacuum shelf-life and on the inside PP (polypropylene), which has an extremely low permeability to liquids – has successfully brought preanalytics in the haemostaseology field another step forward. Thanks to the Sandwich tube from Greiner Bio-One, test results in the field of coagulation diagnostics have become even more reliable, thus reducing the therapy risk and infection danger significantly. In comparison to glass, the breakage risk with plastic is very low. Today, the tube is the proven standard in modern coagulation analysis and diagnostics, and is compatible with all current analysers.
Fully developed technolgy, on the market for years
The VACUETTE® Sandwich coagulation tube has been subject to continual improvements and developments since the product launch in 1996. Amongst other things, the wall thickness has been modified, so that even under the most extreme pressure, the tube is as good as unbreakable, and therefore has an even longer shelf life. Various fill volumes between 0.9 and 3.15 ml are available, which means that requirements for paediatrics are also covered. All tubes can be obtained with either 3,2% (0.109M) or 3.8% (0.129M) citrate solution.
Greiner Bio-One – Inventor of the original blood collection tubes made out of plastic with safety cap
It took years of intensive research and development for Greiner Bio-One to test different plastics for evacuated blood collection and look for new manufacturing processes. The breakthrough finally came with PET. This material, which in non-permeable to air and guarantees a lasting vacuum, was used for the first VACUETTE® plastic tubes. Greiner Bio-One developed a completely new manufacturing technology for this, as no other standard production procedure could be applied.
The VACUETTE® Sandwich coaglation tube – a trendsetter in the field of coagulation diagnostics
Due to its special qualities, the plastic material PP is ideally suited to inhibiting surface activation of thrombocytes. For this reason, this material is far more suited than glass for coagulation examinations. The disadvantage of PP (polypropylene) is that the vacuum shelf life is limited. However, this disadvantage does not affect the VACUETTE® Sandwich tube due to the use of a second tube made out of PET. Thanks to the creativity of the product development department at Greiner Bio-One, it was made possible to combine the specil characteristics of both platsics and develop the perfect evacuted tube for coagulation diagnostics.