Should Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Use Steel or Plastic Baskets?

Between meeting large production quotas, strict production tolerances, and upholding stringent sanitation standards, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies have their work cut out for them.

To overcome these challenges requires care, precision, and the right tools. One such tool for ensuring the safe and efficient production of pharmaceutical goods would be the baskets used to carry medicine containers, test tubes, and other parts through the various filling, cleaning, and sanitation processes.

The design and materials of these custom baskets and racks are critical for helping to ensure efficiency and productivity. If a test tube rack is made of weak materials, then it will degrade during the washing/sanitizing process. This increases risk of damaging the test tubes or bottles they hold, and reducing production throughput. However, it’s also important for these racks/baskets to be easy to handle and cost effective.

When it comes to manufacturing pharmaceuticals, companies in the industry frequently choose steel or plastic baskets, trays, and racks to hold their products. But, which is better: medical grade stainless steel or plastic?

Here’s a quick comparison of plastic VS stainless steel for medical baskets and trays:

Comparing Strength                              

In a lot of cases, the tensile strength of the material isn’t the most important factor for a pharmaceutical use basket or rack. The load weight for many of these use cases is fairly light. However, there are times where the strength of the material is still important.

In terms of raw tensile strength and impact resistance, medical grade stainless steel alloys consistently outperform plastic polymers in the vast majority of use conditions.

Temperature Tolerances

Many sanitization processes use extreme temperatures to clean glass test tubes and bottles. The combination of high temperatures and strong chemicals is often necessary to ensure the elimination of dangerous microbes.

However, as tough as these sanitation processes are on germs, they’re also tough on the baskets and trays used to carry test tubes and bottles.

With most steel alloys, the temperatures used in a standard sanitation process will almost never reach the operational limit of the steel. It’s far more common for the chemicals used in the process to be an issue than for the steel to melt or lose strength because of the temperature.

Handling of Parts                           

When handling mechanically brittle parts (such as glass tubes/bottles) that easily scratch or shatter from an impact, it’s important to minimize the risk of such impacts.

Here, polymers typically have the edge over harder materials like steel. Many polymers can have a softer surface that cushions an impact rather than redirecting force back into the object. This reduces the risk of cracking, scratching, or shattering of delicate parts.

Cost of Ownership Over Time

Overall, steel (especially stainless steel) makes for a stronger, longer-lasting material for pharmaceutical manufacturing baskets and racks than plastic does. 

Hebei Yuanlv is the China stainless steel medica basket factory, As the coronavirus outbreak (also known as COVID-19) continues to grow, businesses in all industries are starting to feel the pressure. New travel restrictions and “stay at home” orders are crippling numerous businesses, But we can start the online trade.

We provide the stainless steel Wire Mesh Sterilization Basket, Tray for Sterilization,Wire sterilization basket,etc.Through the processes of welding, profiling, bending, the mesh surface is smooth and tidy, and the meshes are uniform. The wire mesh basket and the surface can be polished, plastic and plastic sprayed, and various sizes can be customized according to the needs of the customers.

Our Stainless Steel Wire Mesh Baskets can be used in Medical disinfection, hospital, household, food,industry cleaning, etc.