about Plastination
Plastination was developed in Germany in 1977. It has then and now revolutionized the study of anatomy.
Since its beginning, it has been refined and improved by a diverse group of scientists in the fields of anatomy and education around the globe.
Plastinated products themselves can be seen all over the world: hospitals, colleges, and perhaps most popularly, travelling exhibits playing host to human specimens.
PRIME’s plastination process entails five steps, resulting in complete preservation of biological tissues:
01
Fixation:
This first step halts the decomposition process, thus preserving the specimen for custom prosection. Fixation can be achieved with all common fixatives, such as formaldehyde and Kaiserling solution, and is injected into a closed vascular system at high pressure in order to saturate the body’s tissues. Formalin is pumped through the body killing all decay-causing bacteria. The appropriate portions of skin, fat, and tissues are removed to demonstrate specific anatomical constituents.
02
Dehydration & Defatting:
During this step, the prosection is placed in a solvent bath of acetone. Under freezing conditions the acetone diffuses into the cells and replaces the water content. The acetone simultaneously acts as a defatting agent for lipid-rich tissues that are difficult to plastinate (e.g. adipose tissue, bone, etc.)
03
Forced Impregnation:
This step is central to the technology that gives “plastination” its name. The dehydrated prosection is sealed into a tank of reactive liquid polymer (e.g., silicone, epoxy resin, or polyester) which replaces the acetone from the previous step. A vacuum chamber is used to boil the acetone at a low temperature. As the acetone vaporizes, it forces the curable liquid polymer into the cells and impregnates them with a curable liquid plastic.
04
Positioning:
After forced impregnation of the liquid polymer, all anatomical structures and branching patterns of nerves and arteries are positioned and carefully aligned to enhance visible clarity.
05
Curing:
This final step hardens the newly plastinated prosection by using a curing agent such as gas, ultraviolet light, or heat depending on the polymer used in Step 3. At this point all anatomical positioning is now permanent however the plastinated prosection does retain flexibility.