DSM Dyneema, producer of the world’s strongest fiber, today announced that it has started building a production line for Dyneema® Purity, a high performance fiber for use in medical applications, such as strong orthopedic sutures and other surgical implants. The production line will be located at DSM Dyneema’s site in Heerlen, the Netherlands, and will serve the global medical device industry. The new line will come on stream in early 2005.

Christophe Dardel, Director of DSM Dyneema, explains why this investment decision was made: “Immediately after the successful launch of Dyneema® Purity earlier this year, demand from the medical device industry rose strongly, in particular in the United States. In the coming period Dyneema® Purity will also be launched in other markets. Moreover, we will see Dyneema® Purity appear in multiple other biomedical applications, currently under development”.

Since Dyneema® Purity is used in medical applications, specific requirements are to be met in its production. To meet these requirements, DSM Dyneema has developed a special version of its proprietary spinning process.