AttenuFlex is our proprietary, conformal, Non-toxic, recyclable material, which is used as a lead sheet replacement in Radiation Oncology centres around the world. AttenuFlex is intended as an on the shelf option for clinicians, where a bespoke piece is unavailable. AttenuFlex is used on the patient's skin to attenuate the radiation scatter of x-ray and electron beams on the healthy tissue. The aperture is the only place that radiation can pass through onto the cancerous tissue. Ranging in several sizes, from 10cm x 10cm, 12cm x 12cm, and 15cm x 15cm sheets, and various apertures available, as well as the ability for castellations, the AttenuFlex product, is a superior alternative to lead sheeting.
Background
The AttenuFlex Product today has come a long way since it was started in 2018. The product started it's life known as Flexishield. Flexishield was created to solve one problem, and that was, to provide a non-Toxic product that could be conformed onto a patient’s skin, unlike what was currently being used on Patient’s in Oncology centres across the world. Fast forward 12 months and a renaming of the product came to light. AttenuFlex was born.
The name AttenuFlex stems from flexible attenuating material and is now the base of many of our products. This lead sheet replacement took 6 months of developing the proprietary compound and tested at Radiation Oncology centres which carried Superficial radiation equipment. This was to confirm the attenuating properties and correct densities to be a suitable replacement for lead sheets. The product underwent revisions to create a product, clinics would prefer.
The problem.
This all started from a simple goal, which was to have a lead equivalent material that was non-toxic, as well as suitable with thickness variations, for both orthovoltage and superficial treatment. Lead sheeting has been the go-to product for clinicians, yet it is non-conformable, toxic to patients and clinicians, and is hand-cut, which is not consistently accurate. The original process for producing AttenuFlex involved most aspects of being hand made. This had some drawbacks as it was a much more time-consuming process and opened the possibility for differentiation per product. This was seen for a process improvement to be put into place.
The Solution.
A semi-automated process was put into place which allows us to process with more accuracy and at greater volume.
The Solution was to use Tungsten Carbide, which has equivalent performance without the health and safety risks. The initial product has gone under many revisions of prototypes to achieve a level of density and conformability which would make it a suitable replacement for lead sheets. The initial product had the density we were after, however, had some slight cracking on some shields when being conformed. With slight improvements to the compound, a more conformable shield was then produced. The Shield only becomes conformable at roughly 60°C using a heated bed which allows the product to be conformed and when handled, will not lose its shape.
With continual advancements in our production process, the demand for a highly accurate cutting procedure was necessitated to achieve higher aperture accuracy. Water jet cutting was introduced to the manufacturing process, opening the door to unrivalled accuracy as well as custom apertures and castellations. The introduction of the waterjet cutting has greatly improved the results we can achieve with all apertures to within ±0.1mm, and with the ongoing stress testing, we can be confident in the longevity of our product before needing to be replaced.
Summary.
In conclusion, the AttenuFlex product we have today combines cutting edge technology, with characteristics making it non-toxic, conformal, as well as having the ability for custom apertures and castellations.
If you have any questions or would like to have a chat about how AttenuFlex can benefit your centre, please get in contact with us to discuss the suitability as well as alternate options and pricing.
