1. Product Description: Transfusion kits are used for the transfer of blood from the kit to the body of a patient, where as, infusion sets are used for administering infusion solutions i.e. for the transfer of a solution like glucose to the body of a patient. The two sets of products should have extremely high quality standards and their production requires specially trained and highly skilled production personnel. Though the two types of kits have similar constructions, they differ in two areas. Due to the fact that the blood cells are rather big, the filter in the drip chamber of the transfusion system has a bigger pore diameter than the filter of an infusion kit. In addition, the drip chamber of a transfusion system has a larger volume than that of an infusion set. The two kits must meet the following requirements optimum product quality, absolute operational reliability, convenient handling and flexibility.
2. Market Potential: Ethiopia has a population of about 75 million (2006). If we assume that 0.5 percent of the population need infusion and transfusion services, the annual requirement of kits will be 375,000. All this requirement has been met through imports. Transfusion and infusion kits are among the essential items in the field of health care which the country has to be self-sufficient through domestic production. And the estimated annual requirement for the kits is more than sufficient to absorb the production of a medium size plant.
3. Source of Raw materials: The raw materials are PVC (Polyvinylchloride), PP (Polypropylene), ABS (acrylnitiril-butad-ienestyrene), Polystyrene, color pigments and ethylene material (sterilization). These raw materials will be imported.
4. Process and Technology: There are three main stages in the production of transfusion and infusion kits. These are injection moulding and extrusion section, preliminary assembly, final assembly, sterilization and quality control and packaging. Parts and components are produced by the process of injection moulding. Other parts such as flexible tubes made of PVC are made in a special extruder line. In the first stage of assemble operations, many parts of the kits are put together. The remaining parts are finally fitted to the main body of each kit. Autoclave sterilization with ethylene oxide is made for eight hours. Because ethylene oxide is inflammable, the sterilization equipment must be explosion-proof and installed in a separate room. The sterilized sets are stored under quarantine for airing to allow description of rest-quantities of ethylene oxide. Before being released for sale, the kits have to undergo quality tests to prove sterility and absence of any pyrogens. Required machinery include plastic granule feeders, injection moulding machines, moulds for different parts of drip chamber, flow regulator and luer connector, extruder line, cube cutting machines, blister packaging machine, autoclave with piping, pumps, valves, air compressor, cooling unit and sets of laboratory equipment.
5. Estimated Investment: For a plant which can produce about 500,000 kits per year, the estimated investment will be:-
Building/shade 1200m2 at Birr 2000/m2 = Birr 2,400,000
Machinery …………………………………….. = Birr 10,100,000
Working capital …………………………….. = Birr 1,000,000
Total = Birr 13,500,000
6. Benefits: Similar to other industries.
7. Location: Bahir Dar, Combolcha, Debre Birhan.