Tip Information

As always, Puritan responds to market needs with high-quality products.  Puritan's readily recognized medical and industrial products are tipped with calcium-alginate, cotton, fabric (knitted polyester), foam, nylon flock, rayon or polyester materials.     Puritan only uses the finest material in order to provide the best, high-quality products in the market today.

 

Calcium alginate is an organic material derived from seaweed and is carded in Puritan's facility to assure conformance with medical device specifications.  Calgiswab® applicators are commonly used for specimen collection in pediatrics, E.N.T., asymptomatic GC, public health microbiology, ophthalmology, food pathology, and other areas where fine tips, flexible handles, or biodegradable fibers are desirable. Calcium alginate swabs contain no fatty acids that may be inhibitory to many  strains of gonorrhea. In addition, the alginate fibers are slowly dissolved by body fluids and  tissues, and any fibers that remain after testing will quickly be eliminated.   Puritan offers Calgiswab® swabs in a variety of tip sizes, handle materials and dimensions.  Click here to search for calcium alginate swabs.

 

Cotton tips of US pharmaceutical grade spun cotton fiber have been a standard for applicators used in everything for basic patient care to crime scene investigation. Very absorbent, soft, low cost and safe, they perform consistently and reliably.   Puritan purchases only the finest grade USP cotton in bales, and cards the fiber to our specifications to assure consistent quality regardless of your intended use, whether industrial or medical.  Click here to search for cotton swabs.

 

Fabric tipped applicators provide cleaning tools that introduce the least amount of contaminants to your process.  These tips, made from a woven polyester fabric, are commonly constructed without soluble adhesives to assure you maintain the cleanliness of process required for your critical environment.  Puritan sources fabric for these specialty products to our specification.  Click here to search for knitted polyester swabs. 

 

Medical grade polyurethane foam has been found to be an excellent tip material for diagnostics.  Foam is produced in a range of porosity's in sheet form.  Common configuration for use in tipped applicators is 100 ppi (pores per inch).  Puritan specifies thickness, width and porosity of the material purchased from a US manufacturer for incorporation in medical devices.  Other properties are specified as well, such as absorbancy (hydrophyllic being very absorbent and hydrophobic being not absorbent), open or closed cell, conductive or electrostatic dissipative, even colored.  For chemical resistance, polyethylene foam is chosen.  Your intended use dictates which characteristics will work best.  Click here to search for foam swabs.

 

Nylon flock swabs have brought tipped applicators to a new level.  State-of-the-art and highly acclaimed, these specialty devices bring superior collection and release characteristics to the lab.  Fine nylon bristles are uniformly arranged around the applicator handle, adhered reliably by Puritan's proprietary adhesive deposition process, assuring ultra-clean tips and reliable performance.  Specimen collection relies on the physical properties of this structure, not absorbency within the spun fiber, so the specimen is extracted completely and efficiently.  Puritan offers PurFlock® swabs in a range of sizes and styles to meet the specific needs of every diagnostician.  Click here to search for nylon flock swabs.

 

Much like cotton, rayon is predictably soft and absorbent and an economical choice for many applications where cotton would not be suitable.  Rayon is a synthetic spun fiber manufactured from wood pulp.  It is widely accepted for specimen collection.  While produced from natural material, the manufacturing process eliminates any components that may damage the specimen or interfere with specimen transport and/or processing.  The rayon spun fiber used in Puritan products is made to Puritan's specification to meet strict standards for specimen collection.  Puritan purchases only the finest grade spun rayon fiber in bales and cards the fiber to our specifications to assure consistent quality.  Cl

ick here to search for rayon swabs.

Polyester is a synthetic spun fiber made from a polymer.   Originally introduced into the realm of medical diagnostics by Dupont under the brand name Dacron®, it is now manufactured by others and no longer carries a brand name.  Polyester fiber has been tested and validated for use in specimen collection in microbiology, rapid test diagnostics and PCR analysis.  This material has excellent collection and release properties and, while somewhat more costly than cotton or rayon, is not absorbent and has superior release properties.  Puritan purchases U.S. polyester spun fiber produced to our specification of finish and other characteristics to assure reliable performance every time.  Puritan purchases only the finest grade spun polyester fiber in bales and cards the fiber to our specifications to assure consistent quality regardless of your intended use.   

Click here to search for polyester swabs.