The company supports OEMs and designers with Calibre polycarbonate resins, Calibre
Megarad polycarbonate resins, Emerge advanced resins and Magnum ABS resins.
Farris, "
Megarad total ionizing dose and single event effects test results of a radhard-by-design 0.25 micron ASIC [space applications]," in Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Radiation Effects Data Workshop, pp.
The GSI retractor is made with Calibre
MegaRad polycarbonate resins and Styron polystyrene resins offered by Dow Plastics, Midland, MI.
The older unit, used officially until 1986, was 1
Megarad (Mrad), equal to 10 kGy.
Made with Dow's Calibre
MegaRad polycarbonate resins and Styron polystyrene resins, the Spacekeeper Direct retractor is the main instrument involved in the "skin-bridging" technique identified by GSI.
The materials show good resistance to a wide range of solvents and can be repeatedly sterilized by autoclaving, EtO, and 10
megarad gamma radiation.
For those rubbers which predominantly crosslink during irradiation, a 100
megarad radiation dose about doubles or trebles the original S-100 value (ref.50).
Dow's Calibre
MegaRad 2081 clear polycarbonate resin for the hub component provides the rigidity and precision tolerances for securing the needle while preventing leakage of air or medication at the needle/hub interface.
Use of these standards resulted in sterilizing doses lower than the traditional 2.5
megarads. This allowed other polymers to be used without generating changes in color, brittleness, etc.
suggested that a dose of 1.5
megarads from a 200,000-rad/hour cobalt source was sufficient to kill most resistant spores when mixed with goat hair; 2
megarads was recommended to include a margin of safety (31).
The kiloGray is the same as an older measure,
megaRads. Long-term health effects of consuming irradiated food are unknown; irradiation reduces the antioxidant vitamins in vegetables.